How to get the perfect eyebrows

Emma: Make-up lovers, this one's for you! It's Emma here, kicking off our Health and Beauty corner of the blog with something most of us are obsessed with right now- eyebrows, and how to master the perfect arch.

My wow-brow: before and after

Yes I know, they can be an absolute nightmare to perfect! Back in my early eyebrow days, even the thought of trying to get the perfect arch every morning was enough to make me want to hurl a hairbrush at my mirror. I'd watch endless tutorials on YouTube; the make up artists always made the process look so simple, yet as soon as I turned to the mirror with my eyebrow pencil I was quick to learn that simple and eyebrows are two words that are at complete polar opposites. 

HOWEVER, before you stop reading and close this article in disgust, I have an announcement to make. I, Emma Shallcross, am finally happy with my eyebrows. After two years of experimenting: slugs, sperm, chunky blocks and thin arches- you name it, I had it! After two years, I can finally look in the mirror and say 'dayum girl, these eyebrows are on point'. (I have actually done this. Just ask my boyfriend *awkward cough*) 

So without further ado, let's get this tutorial up and running. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible for you guys, as I know myself how baffling it can be when a 'simple' brow tutorial video results in us requiring ten different products, a skilled eyebrow threader as a mate and the tears of five infertile nuns. 

(By the way, Laur isn't contributing to the article as she doesn't appreciate the fine art of good eyebrows. Jokes, she just doesn't like drawing them on) 

Step 1: Remove any excess hair. Good news for anyone with hideous natural brows like me: To achieve this look, it helps if your eyebrows are really, really thin. 

A very rare picture of my natural brows

On the right, you will see a rare picture of my natural eyebrow as an example. See how there's barely any hair? This is because the less hair there is, the easier it is to create your own shape without having to follow lines from hair that is already there. Basically, if you have a lot of eyebrow hair, you will have to draw around the all the hair, which for me, gave me the appearance of having wide, chunky and unnatural slug eyebrows. (Before any make up artists or people who are overprotective of their eyebrows start kicking off, there is nothing wrong with having big eyebrows, I just find that this look looks better with thinner ones). 

You can get rid of eyebrow hair by plucking, waxing, or threading. For wimps like me, there are eyebrow shavers out there which only cost a tenner or so, however your hair does grow back pretty fast so I find that I am shaving them once every week or so. 

My brows when they've been outlined

Step 2: Outline your brows. For my brows, I swear by Maybelline brow satin eyebrow pencil in dark brown to give me my shape and colour. This is the ONLY product that I use (hallelujah) and costs something like a fiver from your local drugstore. Not only that, but the quality is amazing, and my brows stay the same all day, even in our horrific British weather!

Firstly, I will draw the shape of my brows, mainly following the lines from my natural brows. At this point, you don't want to be pressing on too hard as the colour will be too thick and dark, which may be difficult to master at first for people like me who tend to be clumsy and heavy handed (keep on trying, guys!). 

When it comes to drawing the arch, I will always draw above the natural line of my eyebrow. This is because my eyebrows naturally do not have much of an arch in them; however if yours do then you may not have to draw the arch so high above your natural brow line like me! 

Step 3: Shade, shade, shade. Here comes the fun part: the shading! Although there is a special powder nib on the other side of the pen which is specially for shading, I tend not to use this as it makes the brows look quite thick and dark, which isn't the look that I go for. 

To shade, I will continue to use the pen to lightly colour in the middle of my brows in between the two lines I have drawn, again not pressing on too hard. When it comes to the front parts of my eyebrows (closest to my nose) I won't shade these parts at all, which gives them a nice natural look instead of appearing chunky. 

Step 4: Perfecting (optional). If you're feeling particularly outgoing, you can grab some white eye-shadow 

I had to cover my nose- it likes to take centre stage

and lightly dab it on underneath the arch of your brows, which highlights the area and will make your brows appear more lifted. 

So that's it, there's not much to it when you get the hang of it. If you don't grasp it right away, I can't stress how important it is to keep on trying! Practice makes perfect, and to back this point up, I'll end this article with an old pic of me so you can see an example of what my brows used to look like (cringe). 

To each and every one of you reading this, if you found this tutorial particularly helpful, let me know and there'll be more like this in the future!

Emma x