If there’s one facial feature that acts as a sign of the times, it’s your eyebrow shape. From the razor-thin brows of the ’90s, to the trend-setting bush brothers of Cara Delevingne, eyebrows products are many people’s desert island beauty product of choice and with good reason.
Your eyebrow shape has an unmatched ability to give proportion to your face, enhance your features and frame your eyes beautifully. Just take it from brow queen (and former architect) Anastasia Soare, founder and CEO of the iconic Anastasia Beverly Hills, who applied her knowledge of scale and structure to our brows. “If you look at a portrait, you can change how you perceive someone entirely based on their brow placement and shape,” she reckons.
Low and heavy can make you look tired or sad; high and arched can make you look stern; straight and pointy can make you look angry; too fair and it can lack the definition needed to pull attention towards your eyes; too dark and they will look slug-chic… there are just so many aspects to consider. It’s no wonder brow treatments like tinting, threading, microblading and brow laminating are such big business.
But rather than committing to transient trends, we’ve seen a return towards much more natural brows lately. Paired with simple tweaks (like fluffing them up, filling them in or shading them slightly) to add subtle shape or definition where needed.
Celebs like Shay Mitchell, Zendaya and Dua Lipa, are all good examples, since they emphasise their natural arches. Rather than harsh Nike tick shapes that shoot up, and then down, the straighter shape and slightly lifted tail-end create an eye-opening effect, with soft tapering used to keep it natural and modern.
According to Nilam Holmes, brow expert and founder of Eyebrow Queen, they’ve got their brow style exactly right by ditching anything too trend-led in favour of what works for them. “Your eyebrows create the frame and balance to your face. Having the right style and shape of brow can make a huge difference to your look,” she says. While Sherrille Riley, founder of Nails & Brows, Mayfair adds: “The most important thing is to work with your natural brow shape, rather than against it. Then go in with brow products and treatments to enhance, fill in gaps or add volume.”
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