If you’ve ever looked back at 2010 selfies, you’ll know this to be true — brows make a difference. Though being a victim of Facebook memories gives us a chuckle, we’d never freely sport bare arches, especially if there’s a photo-op involved.
It’s almost a decade later, and most people won’t even get caught without at least a little brow tint — that’s how microblading got so popular in the first place, right?
But according to Benefit Cosmetics’ global brow expert, Jared Bailey, some of us still have it a little wrong. Read on for the 5 brow don’ts we’ve all been victims of.
Brow Don’t #5: Only filling in where there’s hair
Image by Jared Bailey
Brows matter in contouring our face just as much as bronzer does. Not only do they purposefully frame your face, but having a mismatched arch for your face shape can potentially throw off your look.
For this, Jared recommends taking a pencil and marking where your inner nose meets your brow. Starting off your shape here helps to create an illusion of a slimmer nose.
For your arch, make a line from your nostril and the center of your eye, and mark where it hits your brow. For the tail, don’t end where the hair does. Make sure to make a line from your nose to the end of your eye to know until where to extend your brow.
Brow Don’t #4: Using a shade that’s way off
Though matching your face foundation to your neck holds the top spot on things that are almost impossible, getting a brow color that looks absolutely natural might be second.
For this, Jared recommends using a shade that matches your brow hairs, especially if you don’t have your hair color-treated. For extra drama, use a shade 1-2 tones darker.
Brow Don’t #3: Going tweezer-crazy
We don’t look for a good foundation just in our base makeup, but in our brows as well. Remember, your brow hairs serve as the skeleton for the way you’ll be shaping them. Getting a little tweezer-crazy might feel therapeutic in the moment, but you’ll be regretting it after.
But if you have gone overboard with the plucking, Jared recommends pretending it never happened by using a Precisely, My Brow pencil in your natural brow shape.
Brow Don’t #2: Following brow trends
Image from Jared Bailey
2017 was definitely the year for weird brow trends. Instagram served us everything from glitter brows to McDonalds brows, and as much as we loved these kooky looks, Jared doesn’t think we should be following them. Not to a T, at least!
“What’s important is that if you want to play and experiment, you do something couture,” Jared says. He believes these trends aren’t ready-to-wear looks, and that brow artists should be putting their own custom spin instead of just copying.
Brow Don’t #1: Blocking out your whole brow with one color
The infamous “Instagram-brow” lived it’s best life 2 years ago, and is slowly going out of style. These days, people are going for something more natural and feathery, but still structured, and only a few artists have mastered this look with little hiccup.
Luckily for us, Jared tipped us off with the secret — it’s all about contrast.
Don’t get us wrong. Blocking off your whole brow with one color definitely does the job, but to get that natural gradient with effortless, hair-like strokes, you’ll need to work with a lighter and darker shade.
Jared recommends filling in the brow with the lighter shade, then adding darker strokes only in sparse areas, so you can still see the “skeleton” of the brow.
For this job, he recommends using the Benefit Cosmetics Brow Contour Pro because it’s a 4-in-1 pen with all the colours you need — a light shade, a dark shade, a concealer, and a highlight shade.
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