It's taken me a good number of years to finally achieve brows that I'm happy with. They started off life full and bordering on bushy, then at the age of around 13 I had a terrible waxing experience consisting of the therapist taking it upon herself to shape them down to half of their original thickness. I spent a good few years trying to grow them back properly, then ended up with them looking uneven until I discovered brow serum and started to gradually get them to a decent shape. Even after all that, I'm still learning the best products to use on them and have gone through pretty much all forms of pencil, shadow, gel and cream to find the best brow routine. I let my brows grow as unruly and unkept as I could bare for the before photo above, just so that you could all see what a huge difference using the right products can make. Here's what works for me.
| Regularly use a brow growth serum. Even if your brows are already nice and thick, you may want to consider applying brow serum to any sparse patches to get them looking a great shape when you aren't wearing make up. I've been using M2 Beauté Eyebrow Renewing Serum on the inner part of my brows as they are a little too sparse for my liking but have so far noticed more hairs coming through since starting using the product.
| Only pluck/reshape your brows once you've drawn on the shape you want to achieve. Over plucking your brows is the ultimate sin and is something which I think is fair to say we've all been guilty of. To avoid any disasters, first draw in your brows as you normally would, and only then start to pluck away stray hairs. I always find this is far easier than trying to guess at the shape I want to go for without seeing what they will end up looking like.
| Use an ash toned shade. This one is completely personal preference, but I've had a rule for a couple of years now to never ever use warm toned shades on my brows. I found in the past that doing so gave the danger of me ending up with almost orangey looking eyebrows and I just generally much prefer the look of an ashy tone. I always go through my brows using Anastasia Dip Brow Pomade and then set with a powder. No prizes for guessing my most loved shade from the HD Brows palette.
| Start by applying product in the middle of the brows, then outwards, and use the product left on the brush for the most inner part. Having a thick, drawn on and fake looking brow is my absolute nightmare. Sharpie brows don't do anyone any favours. Use short and gentle strokes and take time to go through each brow. The Nars Brow Defining Brush is seriously incredible for this and is unlike anything I've ever come across before, it makes filling in brows absolutely foolproof. It's hard to imagine that one brush can make that much difference, but I promise, you need this.
| Brush through brows with a spooly (real word). I'd heard about this trick a while back but for some reason had only waited until recently to put it into practice, not expecting it to work half as well as it did. I'd always hated before how I so easily applied too much product to my brows and they ended up looking too drawn on for my liking. The spooly trick brushes away all excess product to ensure brows are left looking natural yet defined, if there's one trick you take from this post then seriously give this one a go. You will be amazed at how much of a difference it will make.
| Only pluck/reshape your brows once you've drawn on the shape you want to achieve. Over plucking your brows is the ultimate sin and is something which I think is fair to say we've all been guilty of. To avoid any disasters, first draw in your brows as you normally would, and only then start to pluck away stray hairs. I always find this is far easier than trying to guess at the shape I want to go for without seeing what they will end up looking like.
| Use an ash toned shade. This one is completely personal preference, but I've had a rule for a couple of years now to never ever use warm toned shades on my brows. I found in the past that doing so gave the danger of me ending up with almost orangey looking eyebrows and I just generally much prefer the look of an ashy tone. I always go through my brows using Anastasia Dip Brow Pomade and then set with a powder. No prizes for guessing my most loved shade from the HD Brows palette.
| Start by applying product in the middle of the brows, then outwards, and use the product left on the brush for the most inner part. Having a thick, drawn on and fake looking brow is my absolute nightmare. Sharpie brows don't do anyone any favours. Use short and gentle strokes and take time to go through each brow. The Nars Brow Defining Brush is seriously incredible for this and is unlike anything I've ever come across before, it makes filling in brows absolutely foolproof. It's hard to imagine that one brush can make that much difference, but I promise, you need this.
| Brush through brows with a spooly (real word). I'd heard about this trick a while back but for some reason had only waited until recently to put it into practice, not expecting it to work half as well as it did. I'd always hated before how I so easily applied too much product to my brows and they ended up looking too drawn on for my liking. The spooly trick brushes away all excess product to ensure brows are left looking natural yet defined, if there's one trick you take from this post then seriously give this one a go. You will be amazed at how much of a difference it will make.
| Set the brows using a clear coloured brow gel or mascara. I tend to prefer using a clear coloured brow gel over one with pigment in as it means that I'm not overloading my brows with different shades of product. If you want to ensure that any product you use stays set all day then be sure not to miss out this step.
As you can probably sense, my eyebrows are what I consider to be the most important part of my make up routine and what I spend most time trying to get just right. I'd absolutely love to hear what you favourite brow products are and what your routine consists of, please do leave a comment and let me know.
