Anyone who knows me, knows that I’ve always longed for eyebrows. My eyebrows are sparse, almost nonexistent, and do absolutely nothing for my face. When I got married in 2010, I chose my makeup artist based on her ability to create natural looking brows. Since then, I’ve struggled with creating eyebrows for my everyday look. I’ve tried stencils. I’ve freehandedly used a pencil to fill them. I’ve watched countless YouTube tutorials to help me find my natural brow shape. And I still walk around NYC browless. You can only imagine the joy I felt when I saw a tweet from the Associate Editor of Ladies Home Journal asking for women to submit photos for an eyebrow makeover. With these eyebrows, I just knew they would select me.
And they did!
I remember walking in the studio and being greeted with intense stares. The editors, makeup artists, and photographer were looking at my “eyebrows” to see if they were as bad as they appeared in the picture I sent. They were delighted, however, to see that I at least had eyebrows and assured me that I would have beautiful brows once the makeover was complete.
Before we started, I explained to the crew that I waxed my eyebrows once a month. I AM a female and that’s what females do right— get their eyebrows done. I would be no different. In fact, I once spent nearly $100 getting them done at Damone Roberts Salon. The makeup artist at his salon did a phenomenal job, however, my makeover experience with Ladies Home Journal was more instructional. Courtney, an eyebrow pro from Benefit Cosmetics, not only explained everything to me as she created my eyebrows but she let me map my right eyebrow as well. It was a learning experience and I left feeling confident in my abilities to fill my brows on a daily basis.
Before and after
To achieve the perfect eyebrow, Courtney provided me with the following steps:
1. Map out your eyebrows. Take a pencil and line it up with the inner corner of your nose and the inner corner of your eye. Then, make a mark there using a brow pencil. This tells you where your eyebrow should start. Next, hold the pencil horizontally from the outside corner of your nose through the outer corner of your pupil and make another mark—as this is where your arch should be. Lastly, line up the outer corner of your nose with the outer corner of your eye to make the final mark—this is where your eyebrow should end. For an illustrated guide of brow mapping, visit Benefits Cosmetics.
2. Draw straight lines to connect the brows. It’s that simple.
3. Use an eyebrow wax and powder to fill in the area. Carefully fill in the brows, first using eyebrow wax and then eyebrow powder.
4. Tweeze flyways. Tweeze the flyaway hairs to ensure a clean look.
5. Soften the eyebrows. For a more natural look, take an eyebrow shaping brush and gently tap the eyebrows. Then, round the edges with a Q-tip.
6. Apply a highlighter. Use brow highlighter under the eyebrows to make them stand out more.
With these really simple and basic steps, I walk out my house looking like a new woman everyday!
-Natifia Mullins
