Beauty: Drawing Eyebrows

Ok!  Now that we've covered foundation, it's time to move on to brows.  I learned to do makeup in a specific chronological order: foundation, brows, eyes, cheeks, lips, and then finish everything off with hair.  This is pretty much how the tutorials will come along.

Since we've already learned to properly lay a foundation, we start with a foundation-primed face with bare eyebrows.

Next, we're going to take an eyeliner/eyebrow pencil (here I'm using Prestige's eyeliner pencil in Black Brown) and draw in the rough shape of our natural eyebrow arch and tail.  Be sure to use light, short strokes.  We don't want a heavy, solid line.

I know it doesn't look that great yet.  In fact, you're probably wondering if I even know what I'm doing.  Don't despair, it'll get better!  We're just in the beginning stages.

For the following step, you're going to need eyebrow powder and a small angled eyebrow brush.  I'm using the MAC #266 brush that I've had for at least 5 years.  The Shiseido eyebrow powder that I have even older.  Can you see that the light brown side on the right has been completely used up?  Hella ghetto!  But hey, it works.

I use the really dark brown to match my hair color.  Most people like to use a slightly lighter shade.  That's entirely up to you and how you want the end result to look.  You'll want to lightly tap the brush to the brow powder to pick up the product and then tap off any excess.  A little powder goes a long, long way.  Starting at the arch, use short, light strokes to fill in your brow and refine the tail.  Then work your way inward, using less and less pressure as you'll want your eyebrows to fade to a lighter shade towards the center of your face.  Ideally, brows should be thicker towards the center and taper to a thin line towards the outer edge.

After completing this step, your brows should look something like this:

We're not done yet!  This doesn't look bad, but it could still be better.  We're going to perfect our brow shape by refining it with concealer, sort of like using Photoshop retouching in real life.

I'm using Maybelline's Mineral Power Natural Perfecting Concealer that's in a shade close to my natural skin tone, maybe a little lighter.  I can't remember exactly what shade off the top of my head.  I'm going to apply it using Sonia Kashuk's concealer brush that I bought from Target for about $5-$6.

You'll just need a little concealer at the tip of your bristles.  Like the brow powder, a little concealer goes a long way.  Starting from the inner corner, sweep a line of concealer to the tail, keeping the line steady and clean in order to get a really defined arch and taper.  Once you've finished this step, blend the concealer with your fingers in order to soften harsh lines.

The final result should look something like this:

Before and after shot, including a completed eyes bonus so you can get a feel of an overall, put-together look:

Here's a before and after complete headshot, including hair:

The eyes have it, folks!  Nothing packs a punch like a pair of perfectly prepared peepers!  How's that for drama?

I hope you all found this helpful.  I know that an instructional video would be better, so we're still working out the logistics of getting that done.  In the meantime, I hope this will do.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Next up is a simple, dramatic eye.  3 steps, 5 minutes.  It doesn't get any easier than that!

Hugs,
Cat