How to use an eyebrow pencil correctly is an essential skill for any makeup lover. While it appears to be a simple task, too much (or too little) and in a few years time you’ll be wondering why none of your friends pointed out your obvious brow blindness.
Over the years, I’ve spent a long time sourcing the very best hacks to bush up my brows, define each hair and shape them to best suit my face and counterbalance my natural deficiencies. As a fairly dark brunette, it’s fairly unfortunate that my natural brows are blonde. Plus, weirdly, they’ve only ever grown half way across, meaning I have to draw the tail on entirely freehand – not an easy task, but I think I’ve become pretty good at it.
This has been helped of course, by the six years I’ve been a beauty editor, with access to the world’s best makeup artists and all the latest brow makeup to test out. So, if you want to reach the expert level when it comes time to use an eyebrow pencil, here’s everything I’ve learned.
Before you start
Before you even pick up an eyebrow pencil, some advice: stop trying to make your brows symmetrical.
We all know what it’s like with winged eyeliner; it’s an endless struggle for symmetry. Many of us carry this pursuit of perfection over to our brows, doubling the morning makeup frustrations. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve drawn on my brows, only to have to keep adding to each side every time I notice a slight imbalance.
It wasn’t until I went backstage one fashion week and heard makeup artist Lisa Potter-Dixon explain that eyebrows “are sisters, not twins”, that I realised I had been labouring under a misapprehension. Just as faces aren’t symmetrical in reality, eyebrows don’t need to be either. In fact, it’s better to accentuate the natural shape of each eyebrow so that it best fits the structure of your face. So, with the myth of perfectly symmetrical eyebrows dispelled, you’re ready to start.
How to prep your eyebrows
I’m partial to an eyebrow gel and spoolie to keep my brows in place, but nothing beats a good ol’ bar of soap. Soap brows have hit mainstream in the past couple of years, helped by the feathered eyebrow trend that saw an ultra-brushed up, almost owl-like brow look and with the new trend has come a throng of new products to create the look.
However, the pros have been on to soap brows for years. “I swear by Pears Soap, straight from the bar,” says makeup artist Naoko Scintu, who regularly works with Jodie Comer and Priyanka Chopra. “I just add a little water and brush into brows and it stays perfectly all day.”
How to use an eyebrow pencil
When drawing on hairs using your eyebrow pencil, make sure you’re drawing up instead of across. The trick is to make small, sharp movements using the sharp point of the pencil to create the hairlike strokes.
To achieve a more natural look when filling in your brows, think vertical (or at a 45 degree angle at the very most), never horizontal. If you closely study the direction of your natural brow hairs, you’ll see that they don’t grow across, so if you draw a line that goes against the natural grain, it will look artificial. Trust me, it’s the difference between a natural looking, fluffy brow and full-on caterpillars.
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