Have you ever seen the pictures of celebrities and beauty influencers with smooth skin and perfect eyebrows and thought “I wish I knew how to do a look like that”? Us, too. After years of practice – and some really questionable eyebrow looks – we’ve finally found the formula for recreating those iconic brows every time! Here are our tips and tricks to help you fulfill all those brow-inspo looks at home.
The first place you need to start when trying to get perfect eyebrows is buying a good eyebrow pencil. And while all the TikTok influencers and YouTube vloggers will tell you “THIS IS THE ONLY EYEBROW PENCIL YOU WILL EVER NEED,” the truth is a little different: the right eyebrow pencil will differ from person to person.
For me, I’ve tried out what feels like hundreds of eyebrow pencils and found that Rimmel’s Brow This Way Fill & Sculpt Eyebrow Definer worked best for me. I like to have the retractable crayon and thin spoolie brush (plus it’s only $2.99). But that may not be what works best for you – this is where you’re going to have to try out different brands and products and see which ones you like best.
And when you find the one you like, stick with it! No need to change brands for what’s new or what’s promoted by some celebrity – if it works for you and you like the way it looks, that’s all you need to know.
One big issue that comes up when creating the perfect eyebrows is color. A lot of people will try to pair directly to their hair color, which makes sense in theory. But if you look at home eyebrows look natural, they’re usually a shade or two darker than your hair color. They’re closer in shade to the darkest part of your hair (your roots) than they are to the rest of it.
This may not prove to be as major of an issue for people who naturally have super dark hair, but for blondes, brunettes, and redheads, this can be a problem for creating flawless brows. So make sure when you’re searching for your brow brush, you’re looking at colors a shade darker than your hair or shades closest to the color of your roots.
To start the perfect eyebrows, you need to establish the shape of your brows. So here is where a calm hand and a good mirror come in handy. I usually start with my bottom brow line and draw a straight line along the bottom from the inside corner all the way to the outside corner. I like to do this all in one go to keep from creating gaps or unwanted curves in my line.
Then I do the same thing along the top. Some people like to leave the top a little less defined so they can really emphasize the “natural” curve of their eyebrow hairs. I have really thin, unruly brows though, so creating that shape along the top is a must. Make sure, too, that you create a crisp outside corner where you’re two lines meet.
Personal tip: don’t draw a line for your inside corners. I know that some feel this helps better define the shape, but honestly, it just creates a very boxy effect and takes away the natural movement of your eyebrow hairs. I like to keep this undefined, but I do fill it in slightly to help darken it.
Don’t be afraid to fill in that color! You want your eyebrows to look thick and dark to get the perfect eyebrows – the Cara Delevigne look – so fill it in nice and dark. You’ll want to start about half an inch from the inside corner and fill in all the gaps until you reach that sharp outside angle you made earlier. Make sure you stay within the shape you created to really keep it clean and straight.
Unfortunately, sometimes being generous in filling in your brows can mean you might have to restock on eyebrow pencils more often. If you choose an affordable eyebrow pencil option, however, this can help keep your makeup costs down when you’re restocking.
Here’s a pro tip for getting the perfect eyebrows that I learned after years of too dark, too blocky brows: don’t fill in the inside corner. Remember how we started filling in about half an inch from the inside corner? That’s to help keep your eyebrows from becoming too dark or having an unnatural shape.
If you’re like me and have super thin, blonde eyebrows, you’ll have to fill in the inside corner just a little bit to ensure you get a natural blend and color. However, if you have naturally dark eyebrows, you may not have to fill in that area at all and can just create the perfect ombré color when you blend in the edges.
Note for all my fellow makeup enthusiasts with thin eyebrows: if you’re looking to get the perfect eyebrows, you may have to draw in some extra hairs. You do this by making thin, smooth strokes in the gaps of your eyebrows that follow the direction of your other eyebrow hairs. This can get sort of tricky if you’re not yet confident in your artistic skills, so fortunately they do make products to ease the struggle!
For example, L’Oreal Paris has a Micro Ink Pen eyebrow brush with a ridged marker design that works to create small, individual strokes in the gaps of your eyebrow. There are plenty of products similar to this online and in stores, so just take some extra time the next time you go to your local Ulta or Target to see if there’s a micro brush that works for you!
If blending is important for every other element of makeup, then you can bet that blending is important for the perfect eyebrows. For those of you who, like me, were not sure what that little brush at the end of your eyebrow pencil was for, here’s a quick lesson: that little brush bit is called a spoolie, and its sole purpose is to comb, blend, and shape brows.
So after you’ve finished with your shaping and filling, it’s time to use your spoolie to brush and blend it out! Blend up from the bottom to help get rid of any exaggerated lines in your brow shape. If you drew your top line, I like to brush downwards to help blend my edges into my eyebrow filling. Then I brush from the inside corner to the outside corner.
This is also the point when, if you wanted to, you could brush your hairs upward for a more unruly and natural look, or you brush them back towards your outside corners for a sleeker eyebrow. Have some fun here and blend and brush until you’ve got the perfect color and shape.
Foundation is your best friend and partner in crime when it comes to getting the perfect eyebrows. Foundation or concealer is what really helps cement the shape and sharpness of your brow. Similar to the picture, you’re going to want to find a thin, angled brush to apply your concealer. I like to do mine in all the areas I drew the shape – both the top edge and the bottom edge – and really emphasize that sharp outer corner.
This is also where I like to define my inside corner shape. While I don’t like using an eyebrow pencil because it makes it look too boxy, foundation or concealer can help get rid of any excess color that may have spread during the brushing and blending process. So just like how you drew a straight line to create your shape, right above that goes the straight line of foundation to define that shape.
I have also found that if I will blend outwards away from the brow when I go to blend the foundation around my eyebrow, it helps keep my skin coverage from having any weird bumps or weird discolorations. So once again, blend, blend, blend!
After I’ve drawn, filled, and emphasized the shape of my perfect eyebrows, I like to brush on a little eyebrow mascara to create a fuller color and plumper brow. I like to use Almay’s Brow Styler, but you should use whichever one you like the best and whichever eyebrow mascara works best for you!
Just a quick brush or two along my eyebrows can help deepen my color and create a plumper effect on my brows. You may want to bring out your spoolie again afterward if you accidentally plumped too much and made those little mascara clots we all get sometimes, but those will blend no problem and you’ll have that deep color and perfect shape that will make you eyebrow-inspo worthy.
Don’t forget to spray and set your perfect eyebrows! The worst thing you could do to your brows is let them wear away after a day of sweating, shopping, or hanging out. So make sure to take that extra moment to spray and set your brows and face so you can be confident all day and night!
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