When applying make-up most people focus on the eyes or lips, and sometimes forget to give attention to the eyebrows. Your brows can open up your eyes and face, and can also make you appear younger, so be sure to give them as much attention as you would your eyes and lips.
Before you begin to shape or clean your brows, trim them a bit. Sometimes the hair is long and gives off the illusion that you have too many brow hairs that need to be removed. Take a brow brush (or even a clean mascara wand), and brush the hair up and trim. Then brush the hairs down and trim. You may find that to be sufficient for a clean look. If not, out come the tweezers. Before you begin to tweeze, take a pencil (or any thin brush handle) and line it up against your nose – the brows should begin from that point (if your brows go past that point, then tweeze the excess hairs from the center of your eyebrows).
Now that you know where your eyebrows should start, you now have to figure out where the arch should be. The highest point of your arch should be directly above the outside of your iris (the colored part of your eye). Last, you will determine where your eyebrows should end. To determine the length, take the pencil, place it against the side of your nose and turn it sideways (almost forming a wide “V” on your face), making sure the tip lands just where your eye ends. That should be the point where your eyebrow will end. If your eyebrow ends before that point you may draw in extra hair with an eyebrow pencil that matches your eyebrow hair. Otherwise tweeze away any excess hair.
Now that you know where the brows should start, peak, and end, you can begin to tweeze. The best time to tweeze is right after a shower when your pores are open, and removing the hair will be less painful. Tweeze one hair at a time and go in the direction of hair growth so as not to damage the hair follicle. You may want to alternate from brow to brow so you can tweeze the eyebrows evenly. Here’s a great trick to avoid over-tweezing: color in all excess hairs with white eyeliner, and tweeze only those hairs, so you don’t go too far up into the brow.
Sharona Silva is a makeup artist, specializing in airbrush makeup, who works in the New York City area. Sharona recently launched her own skin care line for all types of skin. Please submit questions to [email protected]. Questions may be used in future columns; all inquiries will remain anonymous. Visit www.sharonasilva.com for more information.