Curl your lashes and colour your lids all you like but it is your eyebrows that can make or break a look. Too wispy and they won't give a face enough definition; too thick and straggly and it looks as though a couple of caterpillars are crawling across your forehead.
Brows can be high maintenance once you start on them, painful to keep in check (but no pain, no gain, girls) and easy to over-pluck. With time, practice and some light-handed caution, well-manicured brows to go with your look and style are achievable.
Work with your eyebrows' natural line and hair type but to ascertain the best brow for you, look at the shape of your face and build. Step back about a metre from the mirror (and keep doing this at intervals while plucking to avoid mistakes) because this is how most people see you.
As a rule of thumb, with an athletic build and natural look go for a thicker brow; a thinner line suits fine features and a small frame. Arched brows elongate a round face, while a straighter style works well for long faces. Whatever you do, don't get tweezer happy - unlike eyelashes, eyebrows don't always grow back.
To find where your brow should begin, hold a pencil vertically from the outer corner of the nostril to the inner corner of the eye. Any hairs from this point across the bridge of your nose should be uprooted. Placing the pencil on the same nostril corner and holding it diagonally upwards to the outer corner of the eye will determine how long the brow should extend. (To widen close-set eyes - less than an eye's length apart - start brows slightly further apart and extend just beyond the 'pencil line'. Do the opposite for wide-set eyes - more than an eye's length apart.)
The best tweezers have a flat, slanted tip and a tight grip, and always try to pluck in natural light.
The ideal time to pluck is after a shower when pores are open and it isn't as painful, but a warm flannel applied to the skin has the same effect. Before you get down to the nitty gritty, comb brows (either with an eyebrow comb or an old, dry mascara wand) in the direction of growth to see their natural shape. Then start by removing the hairs between the brows, above the nose, plucking hair in the direction of growth as close to the skin as possible to cut down on pain and ensure you're pulling out the entire hair.
