How to Shape Eyebrows and Keep Them Looking Fab

When it comes to eyebrows, it seems that we all want what we can’t have. Those of us with fine hair want lush brows, while the naturally bushy among us want a style that is easier to manage. If you have been craving a brow upgrade, we have got just what you need. Here is how to shape eyebrows according to your face shape and eyes, and everything you’ll ever need to know about the art of eyebrows.

Know thy self

Enough with the brow envy! Forget about copying your BFF’s arch or achieving Cara Delevingne’s power brows. The perfect eyebrow most definitely isn’t “one size fits all”. While one style might look amazing on a model, it could look awful on you. The sooner you accept the hard facts of it, the sooner you can get the look you’ve been craving.

Your eyebrows don’t exist and work alone. You need to take everything into consideration. From your hairstyle to your skin tone to your willingness to do some daily primping, it all matters when it comes to eyebrow shape and style.

One of the most important things to take into consideration is your face shape. A round face shape will look better with a completely different type of eyebrow than a square face shape. If you aren’t sure of your face shape, start there. Once you figure that out, it’ll be easy to find the perfect brow shape for you.

Measure it out

Finding your face shape isn’t as tricky as you might think. Here’s a quick and easy guide for what to look for:

Square face: Straight sides of the face, strong jawline, nearly as wide as it is long.

Oblong face: Similar to a square-shaped face but longer than it is wide. Forehead, cheeks and jawline are all about the same width. Chin slightly more rounded than a square-shaped face.

Oval face: Similar to an oblong face but with a softer chin and more of a curve at the side.

Heart-shaped face: Forehead is the widest part of the face, chin is pointed, has a widow’s peak (or is called a triangle face without a widow’s peak).

Round face: Curves at the sides of face, rounded chin, wide cheekbones.

Eyebrows for every type

Square face: Bold, statement brows are perfect for square faces. Since square-faced ladies have such strong jawlines, a strong eyebrow perfectly balances out a heavy jaw. Anything too thin will just draw attention to the jaw, so focus on maintaining balance.

Oblong face: If your face is long, don’t go for anything with too much of an arch. Having straight, flat brows will make your face look wider. Don’t worry too much about making them unnaturally flat, but do aim to create width to counterbalance the length of your face.

Oval face: Congrats, oval facer! You can get away with just about anything. Generally speaking, pencil thin looks and unibrows don’t suit anyone, but beyond that, the world is your oyster. You can make life easier by working with your natural brow shape.

Find your arch and accentuate it. It will always be an uphill battle to try to get brows that are totally different from your natural shape, so try to just perfect and groom the natural curvature and length of your brows.

Heart-shaped face: Since your forehead and brow area is already the widest part of your face, you don’t want anything too fussy. Bold brows will make your chin look a little too dainty. Keep it simple. Work with your natural shape and just do basic plucking to maintain some definition.

Round face: Got a round face? Go for bold brows! Create a dramatic, high arch to add length to your face. Sharp, clean lines are the perfect balance for a rounded cheek and chin. Aim to get your arches as high as possible while still looking natural (read: no tent-shaped brows!).

The eyes have it

The perfect brows aren’t just determined by your face shape. It’s also important to pay attention to your eyes, particularly if they are close-set or wide-set. Just like adding a sharp brow to a round face, close-set eyes look best with wide brows. When it comes to creating a flattering look, it’s all about balance.

Close-set eyes: Forget about the old beauty trick of ending your brows at the corner of your nose. If your eyes are close together, extend your brow. Go for a long, wide arch and let your brows sit over the entire brow bone.

Not sure if you have close-set eyes? Get an approximate measurement of the width of one of your eyes. Now measure the distance between your two eyes. If the gap between your eyes is less than the width of one eye, your eyes are close-set.

Wide-set eyes: Want to know if you have wide-set eyes? The same rules apply. Measure the width of one of your eyes then measure the distance between your eyes. If the gap between your eyes is more than the width of one eye, your eyes are wide-set.

Got that gap? According to Smashbox: “Women with wide-set eyes really need to become grooming experts, not plucking experts.” In other words, keep most of the hair that you’ve got and work with it rather than tossing it.

Grooming 101

Step one: Ready to actually tackle your brows? Assuming you don’t have close-set or wide-set eyes, go for the old pencil trick. Grab a pencil and hold it vertically against the side of your nostril. And make sure you are really holding it in front of the side of your nostril, not your nose.

If you just set the pencil down next to your nose, your brows will end up way too far apart. So, aim for the outside edge of your breathing holes. Draw a line where the pencil falls (eyeliner is an easy way to make your marks).

Step two: Once you have established where your brows should start, pluck the area in between your marks. Don’t get overzealous! Be patient and pluck one eyebrow at a time. It’s way too easy for things to get out of hand when you are yanking out chunks of full hair.

Step three: After you have tamed your potential uniron, focus on pulling out any stray hairs under your brows. Again, take it slow. For the time being, just grab hairs that have obviously gone astray.

Step four: Grab that pencil again so you can establish your arch. Hold the end of the pencil at the edge of your nostril. The pencil should be over your eye with the end of it resting on your brow. That spot the pencil is sitting on is where your arch should be. Mark the position, then, one hair at a time, pull a few hairs from underneath your arch.

Step five: Take your pencil one last time and hold the base of it at the corner of your eye. When you hold the pencil at an angle, you should be able to feel where you brow bone ends. Let the pencil rest at the corner of your eye and the edge of your brow bone. Mark the spot where the top of the pencil hits your brow. Pluck anything outside of that line.

Step six: Use an eyebrow pencil to fill in the gaps. Again, slow and steady wins the race. Don’t just draw long lines. Draw lines that look like short, thin hairs. If that’s a little too tedious for you, use a brow shadow. Powdered formulas are pretty much foolproof and totally eliminate the possibility of ending up with obvious lines.

Grooming DOs and DON’Ts

DO: Give your tweezers a break. Daily tweezing isn’t necessary for 99% of women. Most brow experts actually recommend that you only groom once every three weeks. Of course, some of us will need to tweeze more often than others, but, for the most part, less is more.

This is especially true if your brows are thin. As a bonus, plucking all of your brows at the same time will put them all on the same growth cycle, so you aren’t dealing with hairs growing at different rates.

DON’T: Use a magnifying mirror. It’s just going to make you crazy. It totally throws off your perspective and can quickly lead to over plucking. As a general rule, if you can’t see it, leave it alone. Stick with a normal mirror and decent lighting.

DO: Go one hair at a time. You already know that you shouldn’t pluck more than one hair at once and that’s also true for trimming. If you have longer hairs that look out of place, deal with them one at a time. If you just cut them all at once, you’ll end up with a choppy look, or worse, bald spots.

DON’T: Get too close with your arch. If you aren’t sure of the exact spot where your arch should fall, go a little bit further away from your nose. Having an arch that is too close to your nose will create a furrowed look and too-short brows.

DO: Get a pencil or powder that’s a shade lighter than your hair. Far too many women make the mistake of going with dark shades. Anything darker than your natural hair color is going to overwhelm your face. Keep it light and natural-looking.

DON’T: Use cheap tweezers. A lot of affordable tweezers have lifetime warranties, so it’s well worth the investment. When you use a good quality set of tweezers, plucking is less painful. Not only will it ensure a clean finish, good tweezers also reduce yours odds of harming your follicles and ending up with swollen brows.

DO: Hold on! Pulling your skin taut will make the process of plucking so much easier. Hold your skin between your thumb and index finger so that the tweezers are only pulling the hair and not your skin. This will also make it much easier to see what you’re doing.

DON’T: Pull in the wrong direction. Always yank hairs in the direction of their growth. This is another important trick to keeping plucking pain-free.

DO: If you need a little more help, use some numbing gel on your brows. If you’re sensitive, don’t just suffer through it. Grab some kids’ teething gel or toothache cream to keep the area numb.

DON’T: Pluck during your period. You are more sensitive during your period, so avoid doing anything unnecessarily painful then. Change your normal plucking schedule to a different time of month, and you’ll find it much easier.

DO: Match up all of your hairs. If you change your hair color, you should change your brow color too. Any decent waxing place will be able to do this. It’s a little bit trickier than coloring your hair though, so don’t do it at home. You can end up causing serious eye irritation or just winding up with a terrible look, so leave it to the professionals.

DON’T: Ignore the tops of your brows. The old beauty rule that you shouldn’t touch the hairs above your brows is just outdated. If you have some hairs that are obviously out of place, get them out of there! This is especially true for fine, light color haired. If your foundation tends to sit on those excess hairs, wax or tweeze them away.

DO: Keep it clean! It’s really important to wash your tweezers. Whether you stick them in a messy makeup bag when you’re done or store them in your bathroom cabinet, they aren’t immune to bacteria.

Give your tweezers a quick wash after every use, then sanitize them before you go get started again. The easiest way to keep them clean is with rubbing alcohol. Just submerge the tip (shot glasses are perfect for this) and let it sit for a few minutes.

DON’T: Obsess over trends. Focus on you and what is flattering for your face. Your natural brow shape really is the most flattering for your face, so don’t fight it! Work with what you’ve got and focus on enhancing rather than changing.

Now that you have all the tips and tricks you needed, get to work, and make yourself some gorgeous brows.