Diary / Beauty / Jan 12, 2024
Eyebrow Shaping: How to Shape & Maintain Your Brows
Written by: Piper Gray
Photography by: Ben Ritter
Brow trends are fleeting but a defined, full brow? That is a look for the ages, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s perfect for a natural approach, the no-makeup makeup: minimalist, healthy-looking, at once youthful but sophisticated. (A full, groomed brow does not age you up or down.)
We’re not talking revamping your natural shape—Bobbi believes the shape you have is already the right shape for you. We’ll go over simple tips to tidy up, following the natural lines of your arch and tail, and then filling in or taming as needed.
These are easy-to-enact strategies and guidelines for the best ways to highlight your natural shape—no time-consuming overhaul necessary.
Why Should I Shape My Brows?
Eyebrows draw attention upward, they frame the eyes, and they complement your natural face shape. Their importance—and the impact they can lend to your look everyday—cannot be overstated.
So of course, keeping your eyes—and the area above (your brows) and below (your under-eye area)—as put-together as possible is a surefire way to put your best face forward. And when we say “shape”, we don’t mean dramatically alter your natural arch. It’s much more subtle than that: this is about simply defining.
While eyebrows, like all other features, are subject to trends, you can’t go wrong with a fuller, defined brow. It’s timeless. Plus? It’s incredible low maintenance and fits right into our natural approach at Jones Road Beauty.
Maybe you’re already doing monthly maintenance—getting your brows waxed or threaded—so in that case, you’re familiar with the benefits of keeping your hairs intact and groomed.
And if you’ve overplucked in the past, you may feel skittish about picking up tweezers again or even touching your brows at all. Understandable, but not to worry, we’re not suggesting any dramatic moves here. (And if you’re in the regrowth phase, there are still things you can do.)
How To Tame Thick Eyebrows
Luckily, you don’t need much to start shaping and defining brows, especially if they’re full and unruly. Here’s a quick checklist, and we will run through how exactly we will use each.
- - Cleanser, like our Cleansing Stick
- - A spoolie (found on one end of The Eyebrow Brush)
- - Tweezers
- - Small, sharp scissors
- - The Brow Pencil
- - The Brow Gel
Start With Your Brow Shape
Like we said, we’re not encouraging any dramatic maneuvers here. In other words, don’t change your shape. Embrace it.
This is not about creating a more dramatic arch or dramatically thinning out. Of course if you really want to experiment, don’t let us stop you—but just know (in case this is news or you skipped the ’90’s) brows take a while to grow back and your original growth may not fully return.
Assess where your arch naturally sits above your eye, and how long the tail (the thinnest part of your brow) extends. If you notice straggling hairs outside of your main silhouette, that’s the area you need to target with tweezing. And you may not even care to pluck; you may just want to trim. (We’ll give you some guidance in a bit about that step.)
How to Pluck Your Eyebrows
Before you grab your tweezers, make sure your face and brows are completely clean.
When you wash your face, how often are you giving your brows a good but gentle scrub? They rarely take priority in your cleansing routine, but now’s the time to make sure no extra makeup—brow-specific products as well as residue like from your foundation—has settled into the fine hairs.
We recommend tweezing after you’ve gotten out of the shower, when the warm water has opened your pores. (This will make the hairs easier and likely less painful to remove.)
This is important: Don’t use your moisturizer or any other products just yet in case they lodge in your brows, sticking the fine hairs together which may lead you to overlook stray or too-long brow hairs.
First, brush the hairs up with the spoolie end of The Eyebrow Brush and gently tweeze any hairs that fall outside of your primary shape. Go slow, and always remove less than you think (to start). Once you’ve finished your first go-round with plucking stray brow hairs, brush up again to help you see which hairs you’d like to trim. Speaking of which…
How to Trim Your Eyebrows
Trimming, like tweezing, requires patience and a slow, steady hand. (Again, always better to remove too little at first, rather than too much, and then go back if need be.)
Now that your brows are brushed up, you’ll evidently see which hairs could use a light snip. Make sure to use a pair of small, sharp scissors (it’s easy to find scissors specially designed for this purpose; we’re not talking about craft scissors here).
Follow your natural arch, starting at the tail, working toward the center and top of the eye, and then cut to the top of your brow line.
Brush again and see if you’d like to do another round of tweezing and trimming.
How to Fill in Your Eyebrows
Even if you haven’t overplucked, you’ll probably want to fill in your brows with a pencil. It’s common that our brows are a bit sparse in some areas, fuller in others. Completely natural.
First, choose the color of your pencil. You’ll want to consider your hair color, too, not just the color of your brows; it’s possible they are different shades. And by hair color, not your natural one. If you’ve colored your hair, take into account what it looks like dyed.
Here’s an example. Say you have blonde hair but your brows are dark. Then you’ll want to find a color that’s in between—too light a color won’t make an impact, and too dark will dramatically contrast the difference in your hair and brow colors.
Our Brow Pencil is easy to grasp so you can lightly maneuver over your brows, adjusting the pressure as needed. Even amateurs will get the hang of defining and patching up any sparse areas in no time. Use short, gentle flicks; don’t bear down too much. Natural is what we’re going for—not thick or too uniform-looking.
The pencil’s unique formulation, which includes tiny, hairlike fibers, adds dimension and fullness to your brows. It’s also formulated with nourishing ingredients such as shea butter, a plant extract rich in antioxidants, polyphenols, and other components that help to soothe your skin.
If you prefer, a shadow can also work. Use the tapered end of The Eyebrow Brush to lightly apply The Best Eyeshadow, also in short, gentle flicks.
Whether you use a pencil or a shadow, the spoolie end of The Eyebrow Brush is great for evenly distributing and blending in the color more.
How to Use Brow Gel to Complete Your Look
If you’re leery of thick or bushy brows, that’s no reason to skip adding The Brow Gel. A good gel (like ours) is the final touch in making your brows stand out. In fact, its gel-based formulation works wonders on thick, unruly brows, offering a comfortable hold without stiffness.
A quick swipe of brow gel keeps your brows full but tamed and defined. You can use more, by applying multiple strokes, to build color and mimic fullness.
Ours comes in five colors that correspond with the colors of The Brow Pencil (choose the same color) or in Clear, for simply smoothing and shaping.
To start, begin at the inside of the brow, lightly pressing the spoolie upward, and make your way toward the arch and lastly the tail.
The Bottom Line
Naturally taming thick eyebrows is about understanding and working with their unique shape, subtly filling in sparse areas, and setting them into a polished yet natural look. The Brow Pencil, The Brow Gel, and The Eyebrow Brush are essential tools in this process, offering ease of use and effectiveness while adhering to our ethos of enhancing natural beauty.
As trends come and go, the beauty of thick, well-groomed eyebrows remains timeless, a testament to the power of embracing and enhancing natural features. Explore our range of eyebrow products to find the perfect tools for your beauty routine and experience the difference with simple, clean, and effective makeup.