Okay, so now that we've talked about types of brows and having that initial professional shaping, lets talk enhancements. Well first of all, what is the color of an ideal brow? That depends on the color of your hair at the time. Dark haired beauties can pull off dark eyebrows. Ideally, the color of the brow should be a shade or two lighter than the hair if you have ebony, or super dark brown hair. Sometimes black brows with fair skin and raven colored hair looks shockingly beautiful, expecially in the winter. But it is a VERY hard look to pull off, the eyebrow shape and thickness must be perfect(not bushy and in no way too thin or drawn on, and the makeup must be light and neutral or cool toned. And the hair should be impecably styled and the overall look (meaning clothing) hip and fashion-forward. My young friend Ali pulls this look off perfectly, but then again, she is ,like, nineteen.
If you have those very full or thick brows I wish I had, you may not need to use enhancements at all after that good professional shaping. As I mentioned in Part one, most thick, full brows only need to be shaped to make them look super! For sparse brows or brows that are a bit short, gentle strokes with a angeled eye liner brush dipped in a colored brow powder or cream make everything look even and lovely. I prefer an angeled brush to a pencil for novices (and if you feel comfortable with pencils, keep the point SHARP. Unless you are an artist, please practice drawing realistic eyebrow hairs with a pencil on paper until you reach a natural look. The color should fill in and extend and look like it is a part of the actual brow. Again USE MULTIPLE STROKES--not one solid line. I've seen the one line look and it is horrid! It can look like a brown rainbow was painted over someone's eyes:(
For most of us dark haired folks, applying a chestnut brown brow powder or pencil will still make our eyes "pop" without drawing all the attention to themselves. We want our eyes to be saying "hello", but we don't want our brows to be stealing the show. The rule of thumb, one to two shades lighter than our actual hair color. For very dark brown hair or black hair, a chestnut color is best. No need to lighten the natural color of the brows themselves, just enchance and brighten with the makeup. If you want jet black brows, you should have black hair. Also, being darker skinned helps keep the contrast and "fakeness" to a minimum. (Unless you are super fair-skinned, younger, and going for the cutting-edge model look like Ali). Have them tinted jet black, and use an off-black brow color very, very l i g h t l y!
For blond haired chicks, a good rule of thumb is no more than three shades darker than your hair color, but at least a shade darker than your hair. True blondies who have platinum gold hair and truly pale brows, those brows often dissapear into your skin color and don't get a chance to truly present those bright eyes. So a bit darker works. Have pale brows tinted to a cool light brown.
Never pair dark brows with blonde hair, if you dye your hair, have the brows brought up a shade or two. Try to fill in and enhance with a light brown color.
Redheads and auburns are pretty lucky! They can match their brows to their hair or go up to two shades deeper for strawberry blondes or even dark brown for deep reds, but as long as they keep the color in the warm family(golden, reddish browns, not cool browns), they are good to go!
About maintenence, once the initial shaping is done, if you want you can keep the new growth away with a good pair of needlenosed or slanted tweezers--I only recommend Tweezerman's(see below). But I would leave the waxing and threading to the pros. Especially because wax products marketed to the public are subpar and may have you looking a hot mess.
THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
For dark brown or black brows--Anatasia Brow Duo in Ebony($22)at Ulta OR Ardell Brow Defining Powder in Mink ($10--throw away the free brush) Get this at a drugstore or Amazon.com OR M.A.C Power point eyeliner in Stubborn Brownat M.A.C. stores or counters ($15-it's smearproof-use to line eyes and define brows)
For Blonde or very light brown--try M.A.C.'s own Brow Set gel in BoyGirl or Beguile ($15) or Maybelline Expert Eyes in Blonde ($3 for a pack of two pencils) at the drugstore.
Red brows--Anastasia Brow Duo in Strawburn ($22) or NYX Brow cake powder ($6) Both available at Ulta.
Tweezerman's Tweezers--($15-22 and worth every penny--they even sharpen for free)
M.A.C.'s Brush #208 Angle Brow Brush is best!($19.50)
Any makeup sharpener will do.
NOW, rock those brows with PRIDE, and I promise you, this little change will make a BIG difference in the way you look and feel!
Love,
Bronzediva
P.S.-I will try to get a pic of Ali so you can see what i mean about the dark brown, light skin look!
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