My full eyebrow routine: Shaping, lightening & filling!

Everybody always seems to say that eyebrows frame the whole face or complete an entire look. The general rule is that if you have dark hair, your brows can be up to two shades lighter than your hair colour, and if you have light hair, your brows can be two shades darker.

My hair is very dark brown and my eyebrows are naturally almost black. I always felt like I couldn’t really fill them in because they always seemed way too overpowering for my face. I also used to think that sometimes my makeup would look a bit strange when I had a full face on and then practically nothing on my brows. So, I decided to lighten them a little bit so that they’d appear a bit softer. When I was trying to work out how to do it, I couldn’t find anything similar online, so I thought I’d share my full brow routine on here; grooming, lightening, and filling!

They probably didn’t need doing this time, and they were light enough already – but I did lighten them a little bit more anyway so that I could share what I do properly.  

I always shape them before lightening them so I can see the hairs clearly. I used to be a bit addicted to getting my brows threaded to the point where I almost had none left! Since I’ve been growing them back, I’ve just been plucking the odd hairs, so I always do this to start after brushing them through with a spoolie.

Then, I lighten them. I use the Smooth Care Hair Lightener from Boots. It comes with an accelerator cream, lightener cream, little mixing pot thing and a spatula to apply the products with. I mix equal parts of the two creams together and then apply onto clean skin, covering the hair completely. The instructions say to leave on for ten minutes, but I always scrape the bit at the start of my brow off in less than two minutes because I want this part to blend gradually when the rest of my brow is filled, without being too bold. I take the rest of the product off within about five minutes with a wet cotton pad, and then rinse the skin with cold water.

I usually fill my brows differently depending on the makeup look that I’m wearing and the amount of time that I have. The Seventeen Brow’s That! kit comes with a mini pencil, pomade sort of thing, a brow powder, a highlighter, and a tiny brush. Here I used a mixture of the pomade and powder, and then set it with the Maybelline BROWdrama. If I’m in a rush, I tend to use this Sleek Eyebrow Stylist with some of the clear gel from my Brow Bar To Go.

If I’m wearing a more dramatic makeup look and want a bolder brow, I will usually take a concealer a little bit lighter than my skin tone and outline my brows for really clean definition. Once blended, I will also highlight my brow bone.

I always use the MAC 266 on my brows (this is just a limited edition one) but the Real Techniques Brow Brush is great too and much more affordable. I like to use the Real Techniques Accent Brush for concealing and highlighting, but this Maybelline one which comes with their Lasting Drama Gel Liner is quite good as well.

The Anastasia (Beverly  Hills) products definitely seem to be the most popular but they're not really readily available in the UK. What other good brow products are there?!

xxx