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9 Eyebrow Shaping Mistakes That Are Keeping Yours From On-Fleek Status
Your eyebrows can be striking and transformative, with the power to take your beauty to the next level by accentuating your other beautiful features. But perfect brows can be difficult to achieve, and a lot of eyebrow shaping mistakes are committed along the way. A lot of women try to match them, even though brow experts say eyebrows are sisters, not twins, and that their individual shapes should be respected. Another eyebrow shaping sin is over-plucking, but don’t feel too bad if you went for that '90s, barely-there look. A lot of women did, including some of the biggest stars in the world.
Celebrities like Gwen Stefani and Angelina Jolie over-tweezed and experimented with weird shapes until they came to their senses (or found professional stylists). Suddenly, they were rocking bolder brows that made them look more beautiful than ever.
And clearly these celebrities were on to something. Having fuller, properly-shaped brows enhances your natural beauty and highlights your other amazing facial features. And you don’t need to splurge on a brow expert to correct the mistakes. With the right tools and a little knowhow, you can correct your common eyebrow shaping mistakes and create flawless, on fleek brows all on your own.
1You Go Above The Brow
Eyebrow specialist Sania Vucetaj told Elle that tweezing above the brow is a major no-no, noting that, “if you accidentally tweeze into the arch, it brings the brow down instead of lifting it up.” If you need to trim above-brow, brush the hairs upward and then trim them with eyebrow scissors.
2You Use Old Tweezers
You may get better with age, but your beauty tools don’t. When you use dull tweezers, you can’t grip the hairs as easily, resulting in red and irritated skin from the failed plucking attempts. Obviously you can invest in a new pair, but some companies, like Tweezerman, offer a sharpening service.
3You Don’t Know Where Your Arch Is
Everyone has an arch, but not everyone knows how to find it. If you’re having trouble, makeup artist Ramy Gafini told Cosmopolitan readers to hold a pencil parallel to the side of the bridge of their nose, as that’s there the inner edge of the brows should start. “To determine the highest point of your arch, place the pencil parallel to the outside corner of your iris,” Gafini advises Once you’ve found your arch, respect it by not over-plucking it.
4You Don’t Match Your Brows To Your Face Shape
Yes, there is a right and wrong brow style for every face. “The shape and size of your eyes play a role, but face shape is hands down the most important factor in determining the ideal angle for your arches,” Jo-Anna Lynn, a brow specialist for the Sally Hershberger salons in New York City, told Allure. To guide readers, Lynn noted that long-faced gals should extend the length of their brows, while anyone with a round face should keep brow angles sharp and high.
5You Pluck Too Close To The Mirror
There’s something thrilling about leaning in to your mirror and pulling out all those tiny hairs. Except that if you do it this way, you could wind up with too-thin, over-tweezed brows. Gafni gave Real Simple an easy solution — step away from the the mirror periodically during tweezing to check the shape and symmetry of your eyebrows.
6 6. You Tweeze At The Wrong Time
When it comes to minimizing the pain of plucking, timing is everything. For example, your skin can be very sensitive during your period, so put tweezing off until after you’re done surfing the crimson wave. You may also want to wait till after you take a shower to shape up your brows. The warm water will open up your pores so that the hair follicles can be removed more easily, minimizing the redness and irritation that comes with yanking on your brows.
7You Over-Tweeze Between Your Brows
Fear of the dreaded unibrow may lead to over-plucking the area between your brows. It’s an understandable concern, but this common mistake can upset the balance of your face and make your eyes seem too-far apart. Malynda Vigliotti, owner of Boom Boom Brow Bar in New York City, explained to Good Housekeeping that “the beginning of your eyebrow should line up with the bridge of your nose.”
8 8. You Take Too Much Off the Ends
Plucking the tails of your brows too short results in comma brows, which don’t look good on anyone. What is the one sign you’re over-plucking the ends? You raise your eyebrows while tweezing, according to Allure. To avoid this mishap, make sure your eyebrows remain as long as the length of your eye. And if you’ve already tweezed those ends too short, don’t panic. You can use an eyebrow pencil to extend the length of your brow until the hairs grow back.
9 9. You Wax Or Thread Your Eyebrows
Some experts prefer tweezing to threading and waxing for a variety of reasons. In an interview with Refinery29, Maybelline New York brow expert Maribeth Madron explained that, “waxing can waxing rounds your brows, which in turn makes your face appear older,” explains to Refinery29. As for threading, Gafni told The Daily Makeover that the trendy method is old-fashioned and ineffective. “Today we have indoor plumbing and tweezers,” he said. “So why revert to threading when tweezing is far more precise and hygienic?”
Images: Yeko Photo StudioCourtesy of Mike Melrose, me and the sysop, Victoria Henderson, Megan Leetz, Vivian D Nguyen/Flickr; benefitcosmetics, tweezerman, tweezerman, maccosmetics/Instagram
