The Ultimate Brow Tips & Tricks From An Expert

Don’t fiddle with your brows in between appointments. Leave them alone so your brow hair stays in a similar cycle and your artist has enough to work with each time. Plucking the odd one close to the eyelid is fine, but if you’re doubtful, leave it.

Trimming, tweezing, waxing, threading…There are so many different ways to shape your brows but I think threading is the best technique. It’s much kinder on the skin and given that so many clients use actives in their skincare now, I find it the safest. Threading helps you to guide removal of individual hairs, so it’s also one of the easiest ways to achieve the perfect shape. It takes it from the root too, so regrowth is slower.

Brow gel is perfect for giving natural arches a little extra something. Many of us won’t go out without our brows done and a slick of gel can help you feel more put-together. There is nothing worse than drooping brows and a temporary lift makes all the difference. Tinted versions are so useful if you want your brows to look fuller or, in my case, to mask the odd grey hair. I love Glossier Boy Brow and Chanel’s Le Gel Sourcils. 

My favourite product for brows is a very thin nibbed pencil. Nothing beats it for mimicking hairstrokes – a dry formula is best, especially if you’re slightly heavier handed as it will always look soft and natural. I recommend the Kosas Nano Brow and Hourglass Arch Brow Micro Pencils. Both are available in a number of shades.

Another misconception is that you should match the colour of your brows to your hair. But it doesn’t make sense as a rule. Instead, take time to match the pencils, pomades and gels you use to your brow hair – it’s what makes the biggest difference.

If you’re unsure where and how to apply your brow products, follow the shape that naturally sits along your brow bone – this is the best guide. If your eyes are small and hooded, you don’t want a thick brow as this will look heavy and ageing. Instead, lift your arches to open the eyes. A general rule with eye make-up – including brows – is you want to work up and out. The more you do this, the more awake and fresher your face will look. You also want to avoid having brows too thin at the front and too thick at the ends, as this will drag your eyes down.

A lot of people book brow lamination but forget the maintenance that’s required post-treatment. Think of it like bleaching your hair – it’s a chemical process and requires a lot of aftercare to rehydrate and keep brows smooth and conditioned. Look to castor oil and growth serums.

Microblading is the treatment everyone’s heard of but it’s actually only suitable for a select number of skin types. Instead, cosmetic tattooing is better suited to more people. While the two techniques are similar, cosmetic tattooing is done with an ultra-fine, single needle, while microblading is done with a manual, handheld blade, so in my opinion, cosmetic tattoos cause less trauma to the skin and create more realistic, hair-like strokes that soften in nicely. 

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