While we all know that tweezing your brows can be a real pain in the butt, there’s a way to make the whole process a lot less painful. After taking a hot shower, grab your favorite pair of tweezersand pluck your eyebrows. The warm water helps open up the follicles, which allows the hair to be pulled out much easier. You can also take ibuprofen or Advil about 30 minutes before to reduce inflammation and pain. Choose your perfect shade of fiber pomade crayon eyebrow makeup —if you have light hair choose one shade darker than your brows, and if you have dark hair, choose one shade lighter.
Apply your soft or hard wax in the direction of the hair growth, and always pull the wax off in the opposite direction of how your hair grows. Using the right type of scissors is essential to properly trimming your brows. With its ultra-thin blades, this Joey Healy brow scissor allows you to be as precise as possible. Read more about waxing here. It also has a coated grip handle, so you don’t have to worry about slipping and accidentally taking off more hair than you meant to. Start at the tail of your eyebrow, and use short, feathery strokes to fill in your eyebrow. Be sure your strokes begin at the underside of your eyebrow and move outward toward your temple for the most natural look.
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Waxing your eyebrows at home can seem daunting for beginners, and rightfully so! No one wants crazy-shaped or overly thinned-out brows. If you have to mark the brow with a pencil, there is no shame in that game to give yourself a border. Using a smaller, angled waxing spatula helps with this.
What you most likely don’t need is a magnifying mirror—it distorts your reflection, which can easily lead to over-plucking. To avoid giving yourself thinner brows than intended, use a plain old tabletop mirror instead. Tweezerman tools are a popular choice among brow experts, but Bellavance swears by the Benefit Cosmetics tweezers, which have a handy grooming brush on one end.
Founded by Carol Galland, a breast cancer survivor and her daughter, Danielle, we are recognized as the industry’s worldwide leader. We were the first online store dedicated to head covering options during cancer treatments; our original designs set the standard. Our mission is to provide comfort through our compassionate service, enlighten you with information and empower you to feel like yourself, even with hair loss. If so, you may try mirroring your best brow instead. “A great tip for simplifying the process is to find your ‘better’ brow, lightly groom that side first and then use it to model your other brow after,” Healy says. Just know it’s only one option, and you can certainly shape your brows differently if you want to. Next, identify your shape and your goal using the information above.
Step 1: Brush Your Brows
Then, color in sparse spots with a pencil, such as L’Oréal Paris Brow Stylist Professional (Buy It, $12, ulta.com), or a powder. Brunettes should opt for a shade or two lighter than their hair color.
If you prefer a more low-maintenance approach to your eyebrows, try a gel like the NYX Professional Makeup Thick It Stick It! A tinted formula available in eight different shades, it thickens your brows while keeping every hair in place with just a couple of swipes. I love Bobbi Brown’s Perfectly Defined Long-Wear Brow Pencil because it’s wide one way and narrow in another, so you have a lot of control to do different things.
Using small brow scissors (not kitchen scissors!), single out the hairs that are too long and trim them one by one at an angle, following the shape of your brow. “Trim one millimetre at a time, and don’t pull the hair while you’re trimming—when you let go and it bounces back, it’s going to be a lot shorter,” says Tran. When you’re done, connect these points with straight lines, taking care not to hug the brow too closely. “You want to see your brow inside this box, so you know that you’re not digging into your shape as you’re plucking,” adds Bellavance.
Take the guesswork out of shaping your brows with ABH’s Stencils. The set comes complete with five different patented eyebrow shapes based on Anastasia’s Golden Ratio® Eyebrow Shaping Method. Each eyebrow Stencil shape is designed to help you achieve perfectly balanced, symmetrical brows every time you shape and fill your brows. Plus, each Stencil features 3 markings that align with the 3 points of the Golden Ratio® Method, so you can easily line up your Stencil with its proper placement and fill with powder. The eyebrow tattoos can sometimes give off a shiny effect; you can rectify this side effect in a snap with eyebrow powder. Simply brush eyebrow powder in short ticks on top of the tattoo with a brow brush. You can also use a spoolie brush to soften the look of the powder.
Leave the wax for 30 seconds to make it go a bit tacky so it won’t run or smudge into other eyebrow hairs you want to keep. Pluck any hairs that you find outside of your ideal brow line. Find the root of the hair with the prongs of the tweezers and pull quickly in the opposite direction of the hair growth to remove the hairs completely. Move on to the middle section of your eyebrows and brush the hairs upward once again. Then, repeat the same comb and trim technique on the tail of your brow.