If eyes are the windows of the soul, then eyebrows are surely their vital window treatments. A well-defined brow brings balance and proportion to the face, creating a refreshed, polished and youthful look. The fuller brow trend continues this Fall, updated with a little elongation, a little less arch and a subtle tapering at the end. From tweezing tips to combining hues for a bespoke bold brow, here’s a little lesson in Arch-itecture.
It’s All About Lighting (or lack thereof)
Tweezing is a delicate dance: It’s easy to go overboard. One practically has to have psychic abilities when deciding which stray hairs should stay during a DIY session. It’s counterintuitive, but tweezing in a brightly lit bathroom can do more harm than good. Sania Vucetaj of Sania’s Brow Bar says you should only be using your tweezers in dull light. “The more lighting you have, the more chances you have to tweeze too much and get obsessive,” she says. Dim those bathroom vanities, let your hair follicles breathe, and you’ll see your brows come in fuller.
Brows look more youthful with more fullness in the front.
Fake Fullness
Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in Place Brow Lift Duos are a staple in makeup artist Porsche Cooper’s kit, thanks to a thin applicator that creates hairlike strokes. “Brows look more youthful with more fullness in the front,” she explains. For a believably robust brow, she’ll use two, even three pencils on a single client. Use the lighter color in the front or inner edge of the brow, where the hair is more sparse, for a natural effect. Then, draw a medium shade throughout the middle and the tail or outer end. “That shade should be close to the actual hue of your brow,” she explains. For extra intensity, Porsche uses the darkest shade and goes through the entire length of the brow applying long, light strokes to impart density.
If You Go Overboard
Rather than washing your face and starting from scratch if you apply too much brow pencil, Porsche says to simply brush through your arches to distribute the product. Then, take Estée Lauder Perfecting Loose Powder in a shade that matches your skin tone and apply it on top of your brows using a powder puff, not a sponge. “This absorbs the extra color and softens and diffuses it a bit,” she notes.
Glossy Brows
For on-trend brows with a glossy shine, or if you don’t simply trust your sketching skills, try Estée Lauder Volumizing Brow Tint. The fiber-filled gel yields 12 hours of wear, is smudge-proof, transfer-proof and water-resistant. If a clear glossy effect will do, opt for Estée Lauder Stay-in-Place Brow Gel to set your look.
And if you’re in an editorial state of mind, you can go for colorful brows, like these in the photos above by lightly dusting your brows using one of our new Magic Smoky Powder Shadow Sticks and let your brows wow.