Eyebrow 101 with Brittany Chevelle, Quad City Make up Artist

One of the biggest beauty trends right now is full, natural brows. Say good-bye to those over-plucked, thin brows. Thick is in! And for good reason too.

Full brows give the illusion of a more youthful appearance; but they also frame your face, and accentuate your makeup.

You may be growing your brows out as you read this, and if so, I highly recommend visiting a brow expert/brow bar to give you a natural-full shape. In the meantime, here’s a quick an easy way to fill your brows in and fake a full look!

 First, decide if you are more comfortable using a brow pencil or brow powder. Typically, brow powders will give you a softer, natural look and are great for filling in sparse brows. I prefer to use both products because the pencil will give a clean precise line, whereas the brow powder gives a diffused look. When picking out colors, if you are blond, choose a color that best matches your roots. Generally, two shades darker than your hair color. If you have brunette or black hair, I recommend choosing a color that best matches your hair color, or even one shade lighter. You don’t want to look like Oscar the Grouch! ;)

Additionaly, will also need: an angled brow brush, spoolie (brow brush, or you can use a new toothbrush), concealer and highlight power.

Before you begin to fill in your brows, you need to determine your natural shape. So grab your brow pencil and brow brush, and stand in front of a mirror. First, to find the start of your eyebrows, place the brow brush vertically, against the edge of your nose, from nostril up to your brow. Then, using the brow pencil draw a small light dot. That is where your brow should begin. Next, to find the arch of your brow, place the angled brush again on the outer edge of your nostril, angled upwards and out, lining up just with the outer part of your pupil. Again, make a small dot just at the top of your brow. To find where your brows should end, you will use the brow brush to line up the edge of your nostril, with the outer corner of your eye. Place a small dot at the end.  Repeat with other eye.

Grab your brow pencil, and underline the underside of your brows. This part should be more defined. Then, using the arch point you found earlier, draw from the dot, down to connect with the end of the underside line.  You should now have the outer part of your brow out-lined. Next, take your brow pencil and using the powder, begin to fill in the out-lined area, using light brush strokes. Gradually,shading  the pigment into the inner part of your brow. If you need to add more brow powder to the start of your brows, be sure that tap off any excess. You do not want this area to be to dark, or harsh. Then, using a spoolie, begin to brush through your brows to blend the colors.

You may skip this next part, but to get that precise, groomed brow look, I like to use a lighter concealer to the underside of my brows to finish off the look.This will highlight the brow bone and give a nice clean brow line. You may also add a shimmery highlighter to the brow bone to really make it pop!