In my opinion, the hardest part in doing makeup is the eyebrows. Ive encountered different kinds of eyebrows: over plucked, shaved in half, bushy, brows with patchy no hair areas (my very own hah), etc. We read it all the time, that when we do our brows, we should follow the natural shape. That works sometimes when your own brows has a nice shape. But you sometimes have to go in and change the shape of the brows either by plucking/shaving or filling them in.
The main points of the eyebrows are: the starting point, the arch and the end point. This one you see in all those magazine and books where you measure by aligning a straight object (eg. a brush) along the side of your nose to the corners of your eye (end point), side of your nose along your eye (arch), side of the bridge of your nose towards your forehead (Starting point). Im sure its quite hard to imagine so here's an image from my portfolio of pretty Miel. You can use these lines as guideline when shaping your brows or when your drawing them on.
1: Starting point, 2: Arch and 3: End PointAs for filling in your brows, there are a lot of products in the market now. There are brow powders, pencils and even creams. Ive tried pencils and powders and I currently use a powder. I like that it gives you more control and isn't too overpowering unlike some of the pencils ive tried. The only decent brow pencil ive liked so far is M.A.C's brow pencil in lingering because you can slowly build the color and it doesnt look too fake.
I like to start filling in my brows in the middle and work my way to the end point where it should be the darkest. My own brows dont have an arch from the several times ive had people shave my eyebrows when they do my makeup (ugh. never ever again). I make sure that the arch on both sides are the same before I move on to the starting point. The starting point should be squar-ish in shape and a tad bit lighter then the middle part and end part of the eyebrow. I sometimes struggle with this because my eyebrows really need to be drawn on. So what I do is I draw the entire eyebrow shape and go back to the starting point and lighten it a bit with a qtip. Another good way to lighten it is by using M.A.C's brow set.
M.A.C. Browset in Girlboy, Beguile and Mink
Swatches (Girl boy, Beguile and Mink) w/ flash
Swatches (Girl boy, Beguile and Mink) w/o flash My eyebrows: quickly filled it in with an eyebrow powder
Left: Beguile; Right: Girl Boy
I dont normally apply it over my entire eyebrow but I
did in the picture to give you a better idea of what it would look like.
My favorite is Girl boy which looks orange brown on the swatch but when applied looks like light brown. Beguile looks more like Golden brown but darker. I first purchased Mink because it was dark and thought I needed to swipe it all over my brows haha.
I really love the browsets from M.A.C. As nicely shaped eyebrows help frame the face, sometimes lighter eyebrows helps to make the face looks softer. And the browsets do that. If youre afriad of bleaching your eyebrows or want to see what you look like with lighter eyebrows, trying the browset is a good start!
A few more tips ive picked up that might be useful:- An angular face (eg. square shaped) should have more of a rounded shaped eyebrows, while a person with a round face should make her eyebrows a bit more angular or a bit more arched.
- If youre a brunette your eyebrow color should be at lease 1-2 shades lighter. If you have
red or blonde hair, your eyebrows should be at least 1-2 shades darker
Hope this helps!The best way to get it right is to practice, practice, practice. I am no expert at this, its still a hit and miss for me sometimes and I even still struggle with my own, given that my eyebrow hair are so scarce hahaha.
Would love to hear from anyone who does her brows differently! hehe Ive yet to
try the cream one from MUFE as it is out of stock at the moment but ill let you guys know as soon as I get my hands on it. Oh and btw, if youre in the Philippines the Girl boy browset has been out of stock since March, hopefully they'll have it by next month. =)
