Beauty

[feline groovy]

Thank goodness!  

13 Reasons Your Eyebrows Look Tragic

Don't worry, there's hope.

Your brows frame your face and give it structure, so it's important to keep your tiny arches on point at all times.

Worried yours are a little wonky?

We asked makeup artist and brow wiz Cyndle Komarovski what makes your arches look off and how to make them pretty, pronto. 

1. You're squaring off the front of your brows.

Doing this too harshly can immediately make them look drawn on (a.k.a. fake). Instead, create shape by using tiny, hair-like strokes, regardless of whether you use a pencil, an angled brush topped with brow powder, or a brow mascara.

2. Your eyebrow's tail is too long.

Overextending the tail of your brows can create a droopy effect, drawing your face down. Your eyebrows naturally stop at a place that lifts your face up and out, which is what you want to maintain. To figure out where the tail of your brow needs to end, hold a brow pencil diagonally at your nostril and line it up with the side of your eye. Where the pencil hits your brow bone is where the end of your eyebrow should end (or can be extended to) without it looking unnatural.

3. You're exaggerating your eyebrow's arch.

Pointy arches can make you look surprised or angry even when you're not. So, if you weren't born with a high arch but want to create a subtle one, hold a brow pencil against your nostril and line it up diagonally with the center of your eye. That's exactly where any arch should go naturally.

Next, with a spoolie brush, work your eyebrow hairs downward. With your brow product of choice (a pencil and a light touch might be your best bet!), ever so slightly alter your brow shape by creating a slight peak at the roots of the hairs at the top of your brows. Finally, brush your brow hairs back up with the spoolie brush so they fall into place and the arch looks natural.

4. You aren't shaping your brows.

Unruly brows are one thing (They're actually in right now!), but unshaped brows don't frame your face as well as well-groomed brows could. Don't have time to see a brow expert? Simply follow the shape of your brow (where the most hair is) and tweeze any strays that fall outside of that shape for perfect arches.

5. You have bald brow spots.

If you've fallen victim to over-plucking in the past, you're not alone. To conceal sparseness, fill in the spots with brow powder using an angled brush or you can opt for a pencil. Then, groom your brows into place with a brow mascara.

6. You're using too much highlighter.

Outlining your brows with a highlighter can put too much of a spotlight on your arches. Instead, opt for a concealer that's one shade lighter than your skin to brighten up your brow area.

7. You're over-filling your brows.

This can make you look like Groucho Marx's twin. The key to making your brows look darker but natural is not getting the formula you're using on your skin. If you have a bald spot you're trying to fill in, that's one thing, but if you're just trying to deepen your brow hair color, your best bet is a brow mascara that you can lightly swipe on for a more dramatic yet believable effect. 

8. You're doing a patchy job of filling in your brows.

If you feel like you only need to amp your arches up at the beginning of your brow, you still need to brush or apply whichever brow product you're using through to the ends. You can taper the amount off toward the tail so it's not as intense, but if you don't apply it to your entire brow, you'll end up with an uneven look, which no one wants.

9. You're using the wrong color.

Choosing the wrong color to fill in your brows is another way you can make your brows look "done" in a bad way. If you're having trouble finding the perfect shade, try using two different tones to fill in your brows. If you're a redhead, use a taupe pencil and then also use an auburn pencil to give your brows natural dimension.

10. You're not blending your brows.

This is one of the most important steps to creating natural-looking arches. An easy way to fill in your brows (which also gives your brow that sharp yet still soft beginning) is by drawing a line (at an angle) under your eyebrow at its start with a brow pencil, and then using a spoolie brush to diffuse it up into your brow. However, you have to remember to blend it entirely or else it will be noticeable.

11. You're using one line to fill in your brows.

Whatever you do, don't fill in your brows with one single swoop of any product, whether it's a pencil, powder, or brow wax. Instead, you want to mimic the tiny hairs that make up your brows by using small, flicking motions to apply the pencil (or angled brush dipped in brow powder) in the direction your hair is growing.

12. Your brows look unkempt.

If you don't groom your brows, they will definitely look it. And even though a messier brow is in at the moment, that look still requires you to brush your brows upward and outward. The best and fastest way to do this is by taking a brow pomade, which will provide hold but won't leave your brow hairs looking like they're frozen into place, and brushing your arches into the shape you want them to be in. 

13. You're using too much product.

Regardless of the brow product you fancy, too much can look like too much. So start conservatively and work your way up to the look you want. After all, it's easier to apply more product than it is to take it off. If you do end up with buildup on your brow, simply take a brow brush and work it through your arches to disperse the excess formula.

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Always remember:  "your brows are sisters, not twins". 

[Mz iMac]

I cannot stand the boxed square look.  Makes the brows so fake looking!

[ID2]

My brows are naturally squared off. I complete the look just by filling it in the way nature intended. Interesting read though. 

[Funloving]

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@ID2 wrote:

My brows are naturally squared off. I complete the look just by filling it in the way nature intended. Interesting read though. 

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@ID2-

I'm a huge fan of 'enhancing' what you were born with.  It's those squared off brows which women create because they were told that's the best eyebrow look- which it most certainly isn't unless that's your natural eyebrow shape.  Then it appears all off to me.

[Funloving]

Too much highlighter is another culprit I'vee noticed.  It's just as bad as creating an arch that's too high and doesn't follow your real lash line.  Enhance is the key- not change-

....unless you have a uni-brow or other extreme cases... lol.

[feline groovy]

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@ID2 wrote:

My brows are naturally squared off. I complete the look just by filling it in the way nature intended. Interesting read though. 

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Thanks, @ID2, and that's the key - enhancing whatever you've got.. 

[Quinny]

Great information, thank you!  I have sparse brows and have been using a brow pencil with feathery strokes to try to fill them in and never have been satisfied with the look.  I have always backed off from eyebrow powders thinking they would be too difficult to work with and I would make a mess with them.  This information has convinced me to try.

As far as squared off eyebrows are concerned.  Like others, my brows grow that way naturally.  I have tried using a pencil to "round off" the square shape and it looks terrible.  I've embraced my square brows, they were intended to be that way!  

[CoG]

Had to revisit this post.  Watching Beauty IQ and observing brows "done right"  according to the "expert" source cited in this post, I've seen the most bizarely shaped, oddly colored brows ever.   This new trend of the parallelogram brow ( supposedly to avoid the 'passe'  square brow) is as unfortunate as the shaved off, drawn in, pencil thin brow of the 60s.  I think these women will look back on these photos and regret their choices.  

Why are the brows the same diameter/thickness from corner to corner?  Why are they all some shade of gray? or green? Who the heck has taupe hair?   Don't they know that you can't color in brows that wide without looking like you've Magic  Markered or Crayoned on a fake brow?  

Once again, the befores are far more attractive than the afters but the advice and products continue to sell, go figure.

[SilleeMee]

Another trend that I'm seeing is the "brow slit"...a brow that has a hair-free thin line through it, usually placed on the outer portion of one brow.

[Katcat1]

Interesting. I was fortunate to have eyebrows and never needed to fill in when I was younger. I still do not have to but I do fill in a little with pencil. What I noticed from your pictures is to keep the starting point longer and then taper down. Thanks for sharing.  Your cat picture made my day!

  Love those cats!