I love brows. They’re a great feature. You can dye, pluck, shape, pencil and brush them. And then leave them to grow wild.
Now, I’m no professional, but I do have some advice on drawing on brows for novice brow-artistes. Note that shaping brows is a whole other matter - I won’t begin to give you advice on that… maybe in another post.
You can see in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots in the pics below that drawing brows can make a subtle (yet at the same time super-awesome) difference. Between taking the first and the second pictures I have used a soft brow pencil to fill in my brow, brushed the brow into shape, and smoothed over with some brow gel. Seems like a lot or work, but it’s fun and great for special occasions.
Tips:
- There are a lot of different products you can use to draw on brows: pencils, powders, gels and creams. Personally I prefer soft pencils with a brow brush at the end (like the Kevyn Aucoin one pictured below).
- When you apply the colour to the brow, use short, gentle strokes as though you’re drawing in individual brow hairs.
- Basically, you are wanting to highlight the existing shape of your brow (so don’t go outside of your natural brow area), and fill in any gaps in your hair.
- Brushing your brows into shape afterwards is important because the bristles themselves create tiny lines in the colour that mimick the natural look of brow-hair. It also softens the colour so you can tone down the colour you’ve applied.
- Brow gels (like the YSL one pictured below) are possibly a waste of money. But I guess if you have particularly unruley brows it might help keep them in place.
I’ve used a number of brow pencils over the years. I can recommend the Kevyn Aucoin (very pricy but the brush at the end is really handy) (available online and at Mecca Cosmetica), Nutrimetics pencil, Clinique retractible pencil (this item looks exactly like the Maybeline version, like exactly, so it may be the same as the Maybeline). You could also play around using brownish eyeshadows on your brows - apply with a sponge tip eyeshadow applicator.