All about my EYEBROWS

If you're one of them who just cannot find their eyebrows looking nice I've got a brow guide for you. I hope it will be as helpful as the latest beauty post about my nude lip makeup. I got many comments about how glad you were that I wrote it. It made me feel accomplished. :)

I've always felt a girl with bad eyebrows until I started using brow makeup. HAHA My hairs naturally grow in this unflattering shape- downwards. You'll see. And as eyebrows frame whole face I find it very disturbing, they just ruin my whole look. I believe that eyebrow look is not something static, it constantly keeps changing regarding your present preferences.

Saying it again, I like my barefaced look but my intention is not to look natural. I prefer taking it to another level where I can be a whole new character each new day. From mermaid, witch, alien to a fairy. Okay, sometimes I want to have 'au naturel' brows too.

My goal is to pull face features up and out and to make my face look slimmer and my look a bit more masculine, tough, sharp. I love looking fierce! I have quite hooded eyes and as a huge makeup enthusiast I must somehow find a way to apply makeup on my lids make and eyeshadow visible. And with very low set eyebrows like my natural ones it is impossible. I have almost no lid area to paint.

I started plucking my eyebrows when I was about 13yo, I believe. I just hated them being bushy. But it just didn't help much as the hairs were very long, thick and grew downwards. Then, I discovered how girly I could look with an arch but my shape just doesn't have a nice arch so it ended up disastrous. As you can see, my brows are very full and nice in the beginning but this tail looks poor. I have very few hairs there and as I said they grow downwards. It has always been a challenge for me to work this out.

A month ago I decided to make a drastic change. I shaved my brow tail off. It was the best decision of 2015 so far. I absolutely adore it! Now I have a possibility to draw my preferred brow shape. They still can look quite natural if I want so. It requires a bit more time and makeup skills so I would't recommend shaving them off to everybody.

HOW I DO MY EYEBROWS

I figured out that I love my brows to be thick, straight, very long and pulled out. I don't always wear the same look. Sometimes I draw in more prominent arch, sometimes I draw the end a bit more arched, sometimes I draw them very dark, sometimes ombre, sometimes 'natural', sometimes very sharp and artificial.

I'll guide you through the most important stages of drawing in eyebrows how I like them to be. I do the same steps whether I use just eyebrow pencils, just eyebrow shadow or both.

I usually use:
-Ebelin eyebrow trimmer to shave them off and to clean up space around
-Catrice eyebrow pencils in 030 and 040
-Inglot eyebrow powder in 569
-Essence eyeliner brush
-Crown brushes angled eyebrpw brush C160 - 1/8
-Urban Decay Naked Basics palette: Faint (classic brown) and Crave (black)- not pictured

I really like the products I use now, but I feel there's some room for improvement thought. I wish to try Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow products because I've heard many positive things about them.

Step 1: Prepping
I shave eyebrow tails and clean up around every few days using a trimmer. I pluck only between my brows if needed. Sometimes I also shorten my hairs using scissors. Before applying any products I comb them to desired shape.
Then I apply regular primer, it's a very important step if you shave off your brows because shadow must stick to something. I usually use Kryolan Underbase or MAC paint pot in Soft ochre.

STEP 2: Drawing a bottom line
I draw a line starting at the middle of my brows and dragging it out. I usually draw a longer brow than they say it should be (place a pen from your nose to outer corner of your eye, the end of your brow should be in the same line, that's your 'perfect length' guide). As I wrote before, I wear different brow looks so I'll show you 2 basic looks I wear the most: straight brow and arched brow. Then I finish it by dragging the colour inwards to where they start. My eyebrows are placed quite near apart and I like it, it gives me that stronger look. I also like the beginning to be quite low and near to my eye because that way my arch is more dramatic.

STEP 3: Shaping
Then I draw in a line above. It doesn't have to be perfect, I correct it later.

STEP 4: Filling in
I just fill in the space between the two lines using a pencil or shadows. Usually I concentrate on darkening the outer part and the bottom line. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect.

STEP 5: Correcting
I use a concealer that is a few shades lighter, I love Kryolan Dermacolor D0 concealer (you can buy it in Kabuki Makeup place for around 4.50 EUR for a refill) because it's very very pigmented and thick. Only a bit goes a long way. It's used by most drag queens, I discovered it thanks to Joseph Harwood.
So, I use a flat brush that is precise enough to draw a crisp line. That way I can easily clean it all up or narrow them down if needed.

STEP 6: Blending and setting
I blend it out with the same brush but you could also do it with fingers. It's important to set them too, especially if you shave your eyebrows. You can use a brow gel but I somehow dislike it. I first spray a hairspray to a spoolie and brush through my actual hairs so they stay in place and continue by gently applying Kryolan translucent powder (also available in Kabuki for around 7 EUR) with a bigger fluffy brush all over eyebrows.

And they're done!

You can see a difference in how arched they look:

Blend blend blend! :)

I think I found my favourite way of doing my brows, it takes me approximately 10 minutes to do them perfectly or 5 minutes if I leave them imperfected with concealer.

I really hope this guide was helpful and that I'll get some feedback from you.

Stay fabulous!

Xx, Agnes