Misunderstood, and too often neglected, the eyebrows consistently do not get the attention they deserve. First and foremost, grooming our eyebrows appears to be a time consuming and often painful procedure; is it worth all the tweezing and plucking? The quick answer is ‘yes’, absolutely! If done correctly and often, taking care of our eyebrows can be relatively quick and painless!
The eyebrows play an important part in the over-all appearance of our face. They add definition to the eyes, a frame that can make our eyes appear more open, bigger as well as larger. The shape of our eyebrows also adds personality to our overall image; you can achieve a natural yet sophisticated look to a look of disdain (too thin, too arched) or (shudder) an unkempt, bushy, wild look! So, I’m guessing most of you would like to go with a natural yet sophisticated look that really enhances both the eyes and the face. Make-up artists call this the ‘ideal’ eyebrow shape.
Here’s how it works. The eyebrow is made up of three distinct parts:
A- The Inclination
B- Apex
C- Tail
Photo credit : tomboythatwearsmakeup.com/bombay-bombshell
As you can see from the illustration above, it shows you where the beginning (A- inclination), middle (B- apex) and end (C- tail) of your eyebrow should be.
The inclination is the thickest part of the brow and should start at the tear duct. The apex is the highest point of the arch and should be about two thirds outwards from your starting point (align it with the outer edge of your iris) and the tail is the slope down to the outer corners of your eyes.
Now, before you begin getting your eyebrows in shape – here are the three essential tools you will need: tweezers, manicure scissors and an eyebrow comb/brush.
There are 3 different kinds of tweezers:
1) Pointed tip: for short or ingrown hairs
2) Slanted tip: this is my first choice when using tweezers as it has the best grip and control.
3) Square tip: for coarse hair, it pulls out many hairs at once.
First using your eyebrow brush, sweep half the eyebrow hair upwards (the inclination) and the other half (the tail) downwards, trim the excess that goes beyond the natural hair line using your manicure scissors. This alone makes your eyebrows look clean and neat.
Always remember to err on the side of caution; you never want to take off too much hair in case it creates gaps when you brush the hair back down.
Second, start plucking! Pull the skin tight as this will lessen any discomfort. Always pull starting at the root, and in the direction of the hair growth.
A couple of pointers:
The best time to tweeze your brows is right after you’ve taken a shower. Your pores are more open, so there is little discomfort.
Try not to over pluck - always follow the natural shape of your eyebrow.
If you should end up with gaps either from trimming or tweezing, no worries! You can fix the situation by filling the gaps with an eyebrow pencil and then blending in the color.
Use an eyebrow pencil to define your eyebrows; this will enhance the impact of your eyes – a must for evenings out.
When choosing an eyebrow pencil color, your best bet is to complement your hair color.
The Marcelle Accent Eyebrow Crayon comes with a small round brush attached that you can use to diffuse and blend eyebrow pencil color.
Well groomed and shaped eyebrows will enhance not only your eyes, but your entire face. The converse is also true; no amount of expensive make-up can hide the impact of neglected and over-run eyebrows. And the best part of this is, the more consistent you are in maintaining your beautiful brow, the easier and faster the routine becomes!
