Shaping your eyebrows can enhance your eyes beautifully. The natural drooping of our eyelids as we age can be counterbalanced by creating more of an arc. This alone can give the illusion of an instant face-lift. The right shape can easily take 10 years off your face.
how to map out your brows
Eyebrows come in many different shapes; only one will be right for your face. Start the eyebrow shaping process by determining the correct design for your face and features.
You can do this in the comfort of your own home without any irreversible results. In order to find your natural brow shape and thickness, it is recommended that you let your brows grow out for a month – for most of us this is very hard to do, so aim to Map your brows when you feel you need to groom them.
Tools: You will need a thin eyeliner pencil to start.
- Hold the pencil against the side of your nose, vertically, so its tip rests on your forehead. This is the spot where your eyebrow should start. As a guideline, make a small mark with the pencil there on your skin. This will help guide you as to where you need to remove, grow or fill in hair.
- Next, turn the pencil at an angle, holding it against the nostril, so that it crosses over the center of your eye. Notice where the pencil now intersects the eyebrow, this is where the peak of your arch should start.
- Make another mark on your skin as a guide here.
- Finally, hold the pencil diagonally from your nostril until it meets the edge of the outer eye. Where the end of the pencil now meets the eyebrow is your eyebrow’s ending point or tail. Make another mark on your skin here.
Using these three marks on both eyes provides you a general guideline on how the shape of your eyebrow should be, based on the shape of your face. If you cannot see a shape because of hair covering the marked areas, try using a white coloured eye pencil to mask the hair so you can better determine the shape you prefer.
Alternatively, you can also use eyebrow stencils, if you are unsure about creating your eyebrow shape.
Remember – Embrace the natural shape of your eyebrows and don’t try to change them completely. You are born with the correct eyebrow shape for your face so let that be your overall guide.
Next week I will discuss some of the major issues women have with eyebrows and how to fix them.
How happy are you with your eyebrows?
Kelly is 40+Style’s contributing makeup and beauty expert writer. She is a professional makeup artist currently residing in Singapore.
Sylvia is 40+style’s editor-in-chief and has been helping women find their unique style since 2011. An alumni of the School of Color and Design, she is devoted to empowering women of any age to look and feel their best. Read more about Sylvia and 40+style on this page.
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Catching up here! My eyebrows seem to go straight across, with no shape at all. What can I do? Also, can you suggest a product that will keep them in place as I often find the hairs have got all messed up (usually after I have had my photo taken!).
Elaine, some people get eyebrows tattooed on (though I would worry that they’d go green), some get hair transplantation to fill in their eyebrows (though you’d have ‘eyebrows’ that would grow like the hair on your head, i.e., they’d need to be trimmed often), some get ‘eyebrow extensions’ professionally applied (like some get eyelashes professionally applied, i.e., with glue), some just keep using eyebrow pencil.
Thanks Sarah. I’ve seen some tattooed brows that weren’t bad but it seems a little scary to me, especially if they turned green! I think I’ll stick with the pencil and use the technique suggested in the post for now. It would be nice if there were long lasting brow products so we wouldn’t have to touch up during the day or maybe something that would last for several days before needing to be reapplied.
My eyebrows are disappearing as they turn mousey grey and thin. I’m using eyebrow products recommended by an in-store makeup professional with some success. Do you have any additional tips?
Hi Elaine, Kelly has written another article which will be published next week, where she tackles some of the issues with eyebrows and how to fix them.
Excellent!
Too. much. work.
LOL!
Good tips! Thanks!
OXOX
Dawn Lucy
fashionshouldbefun.blogspot.com
I personally think that having very arched eyebrows (more than in the picture above) actually ages faces, because older women getting facelifts often end up with lifted and arched eyebrows, so an older woman + high arched eyebrows says “facelift” to me, not “youthful”; whereas if you look at young current fashion models, the fashion is now for much lower, flatter eyebrows.
Sarah
I thinks it’s all about finding the right balance. I agree with you that too high is probably not a good look either.
My eyebrows are quite crooked. My left is higher than my right. I try to use shaping to correct them but they are different enough that it never quite comes out right. Sigh.
Hi Rita A.,
This is a common problem amongst women. Mine is the opposite of yours, my left side lacks in height.
Solution:
When you are shaping to correct, 1. hold a pencil or brush across your eyebrows (horizontally) and 2. lightly mark where the height of your Right brow should be.
This will give you a guideline as to how to build your eyebrow height so that they are level.
Good luck!
Thanks for the idea. I just think penciling in looks so fake, though. I had a make-up person for Bobbi Brown try that once and it doesn’t fool anyone, IMO. You can tell what is hair and what is drawn on. I will pluck the other side a little lower even though I’ve heard you aren’t supposed to (why, I have no idea). I think it shows up worse in photos…one of the reasons I stay behind the lense!
Thanks for the great tips.