The age of overdrawn and overly dark eyebrows is past us, but brows are still a focal point in our makeup routines. Getting our brows to look thicker and healthier can be a real chore, especially when you’re starting from a place where your brows are on the thinner side. If your brows are thin and over-tweezed (and not growing back anytime soon), the key to success is to remember the golden rule: “less is more.”
Don’t attack your brows with the thickest, darkest brow gel you can find. Don’t assume the solution is to grab a brow stencil that doesn’t suit your face and overcompensate. For a natural look that beefs up your brows but allows them to retain their distinctive character, follow these three tips that are approved by makeup artists.
1. Use Tinted Brow Gel
Celebrity Makeup Artist Margina Dennis says she is a fan of using a tinted brow gel to put the heft back into thin brows and make them stand out, but without making them appear over-exaggerated and unnatural. According to Dennis, "less is more when comes to brows” “and “creating shape so that they frame the eyes instead of focusing on them being dense" is the key to success.
Choose a tinted brow gel in a shade that’s as close a match to your natural brows as possible, or no more than one to two shades lighter. Swipe your brows upward and then outward.
2. Try Brow Pomade or Powder
Super faint brows can disappear and look thinner when they aren’t framing the face. A brow pomade or powder in a shade that’s one to two hues lighter than your natural brows will add depth and density to existing brows. Dennis says to "fill this in with light hair-like strokes inside of the outline” and then "fill this in with light hair-like strokes inside of the outline” and fill in the shape of your brows with a "stippling motion." Dennis adds that it’s important to draw on "hair-like strokes to create fullness" and that going too dark with your powder or pomade can actually be aging, so be careful when choosing colors.
3. Use Eyebrow Stencils to Enhance Brow Shape
It can be a challenge free drawing a brow shape if yours lacks shape due to over-tweezing. Dennis recommends choosing a "brow stencil in the brow shape you like and take a light colored pencil or concealer on a liner brush and draw the outline of the brow shape."
Being practical will work in your favor here. If you are starting out with naturally thin brows, a Brooke Shields stencil may appear too unnatural to work well. Be realistic and sample of few stencils at first so you can determine which look the best on you.
