Nearly every woman knows the pain of bad eyebrows. Whether it was the time you over-plucked them in 9th grade, or when you went to your first salon and the lady waxed them unevenly, we all have had that one time when our poor brows had to struggle to get back to normal.
Eyebrows have been in the spotlight more than ever recently, and for good reason. Well-groomed brows act to frame the eyes and highlight your best features. In fact, strong brows can make you look put-together on a makeup free day.
With all the eyebrow products on the market, the options are endless. Whether you want to opt for a natural brow, or a stronger, carved look, you can find endless tutorials on how to achieve your perfect brows.
The right eyebrow shape can brighten your appearance and make you look more youthful. The trick to finding the best brow for your face is to first figure out your face shape, decide what brow color suits you best, and decide what features you want to highlight the most.
Take a look at the natural contours of your face. Notice your chin shape, the line of your jaw, and your forehead. These are all aspects that contribute to the overall shape of your face. If your chin isn’t as defined, and your face seems to gently taper towards your chin, you probably have a long or oval shaped face.
The oval face shape takes kindly to most any shape of brow, but to maintain a softly arched brow (think Beyoncé) will accentuate the prominent cheekbones and gentle jawline.
If you have a long face, you should shape your eyebrows to be more flat. This will essentially “break up” the face at the brow bone and create the illusion of a shorter face.
If the width and length of your face are nearly the same, and your chin and jawbone aren’t as defined, you have a round face. If this is the case, try shaping your eyebrows with a high arch in order to lengthen your features. If you have a rounder brow shape, your whole face can appear rounder, so a killer arch is the way to go.
For those of us with square faces, prominent jawlines are our most visible features. In order to balance the harshness that can overtake your face with this type of jaw, slightly arched or softly curved brows are the most effective shape. By maintaining a bit of arch, your brows don’t detract from your jaw, but instead act as a gentle counterbalance.
A heart-shaped face is characterized by a wide forehead and a pointy chin. For this shape, long brows with a very gentle curve are the best way to detract from the pointy-ness of the chin and “break up” the forehead.
Brow shape is based on a few key factors: arch, length, and thickness. Whatever shape you decide should act as a nonsurgical facelift by detracting from your least favorite features and drawing attention to aspects of your face that you like the most.
