The Grown-up’s guide to elegant brows
... and how, if you get it right, they’ll take years off you
SO WHAT’S the most important step in your beauty routine? While plenty of women would say it’s a flick of mascara or a sweep of bold lipstick, many make-up artists feel differently.
They say it is, in fact, our eyebrows that have the biggest impact on our face — and perfecting your arches should be a fundamental part of your beauty regime.
Because of the way that eyebrows fade and become thinner with age, defining and shaping them has a decidedly rejuvenating effect on the face.
Even better, if you apply products cleverly, you can draw attention to your eyes, make your face appear longer and slimmer and give yourself a mini eye-lift.
In a sign that we’ve woken up to this power, the market for eyebrow products and treatments is now worth €46.3 million — double what it was in 2015.
The recent fashion has been for bold, bushy brows — as worn by the elegant Elizabeth Taylor and, more recently, model Cara Delevingne.
So there was uproar when pop star Rihanna appeared on the cover of September’s Vogue with her natural brows blanked out and replaced with a single, pencil-thin sweep of crayon.
Not everyone can carry off this style, which made even Rihanna look a little strange. But you can accentuate your looks by working on your brows. After all, they’re the one major facial feature whose shape you can easily change!
But how do you get the effect you want — and avoid looking harsh or overdone?
From hair-thickening gels to crayons, pencils and styling pomades to give you the perfect shape, brow specialist Jaimineey Patel, from Blink Brow Bar, shows you how . . .
BEST PRODUCTS TO BUY
BENEFIT Gimme Brow Eyebrow Gel (below, €26, boots.ie). Tiny mascara-type wand of brow thickening gel. BOBBI BROWN Brow Kit (left, €46, brownthomas. com). Two shades of powder with mini tweezers for emergency shaping. BROW Lift pencil by Charlotte Tilbury (€30, arnotts.ie). A waxy pencil for shaping and colouring your brows. ESTEE LAUDER Brow multitasker (€27, debenhams.ie). All you need to wow those brows in a compact pencil and brush set. BLINK Brow Bar Brow Sculpting Pomade (above), Ultra Slim Brow Definer, Ultimate Arch Definer, Brow Build Gel and Conceal And Lift pencil (€22, net-a-porter.com).