Text by: Tanya Munshi
It is said that the eyes are the most expressive part of a person's face. They emote anger and sadness, happiness and cheer with ease. But for all the credit that the eyes get, the importance of the eyebrows is ignored.
Apart from the protective function of the eyebrow (it prevents dandruff, sweat and other minute particles from getting in the eyes), it plays a big role in appearance and expression.
A scruffy, thick brow if only just evened out, can lend your face a clean look, and can enhance your features.
Ideally, the shape of an eyebrow should be such that if we were to join the start and end of the eyebrow, the line should cross a little above the cornea of the eye.
For women, the inside portion of the eyebrow (right above the eye) should be thick, while narrowing from start to end.
For men, brows should be thicker towards the outer edge and slightly thinner just above the eye.
Face type and eyebrows
Not every face can carry off a fine, high-arched brow. While thin eyebrows can make one face look longer, on another face they might have the opposite effect.
Before you begin shaping your eyebrows, and end up with awkward looking brows, make sure you know what suits the shape of your face.
For a square face: To make your square face look less angular, give your brows a higher arch and a rounded curve at the outer ends.
For a round face: To make your face look oval, shape your eyebrows with a high arch, extending the brow to the end of the cheekbone.
For close-set eyes: To make your eyes look further apart, shape the brows a little closer to the inner corners of the eyes and extend the outer edge slightly outward.
Patience is everything
Shaping your eyebrows is a delicate procedure and impatience will only give you uneven, awkward-looking brows. If you're shaping your brows for the first time or after a long gap, give yourself a decent amount of time and don't rush.
Finding the correct arch
~ Hold the end of a pencil on the tip of your nose and let the tip reach out diagonally to the end of the eyebrow. The point where the pencil tip almost touches is where your eyebrow should end.
~ Next, hold the pencil end from your nose tip and allow the tip of the pencil to reach your forehead. Where your pencil almost touches is the point from where your eyebrow should begin.
Using tweezers
~ The best time to tweeze is right after a bath. The hair follicles are more open making it easier to pull. A cloth soaked in hot water will also work to loosen the brow hair.
~ Tweezers come in three tips: the square tip in used to remove several hair at one go; the slanted tip provides a good grip while tweezing; and the thin tip is good for gripping small/ fine and ingrown hair.
~ Once you've decided on a tweezer, apply some moisturiser on the brow and above and below it before you begin.~ To start, use the tweezers to remove any unwanted hair that are out of the normal shape of the eyebrow.
~ Next, from below the brow begin tweezing the hair in the direction of hair growth.
~ As you tweeze keep in mind where the brow should begin and end, and where you want the arch to be. Remember, the higher the arch, the thinner the brow.
~ Once you've finished shaping the brow, comb the brow hair using a brow brush and trim any long hair into shape with a pair of small scissors.
~ Place used refrigerated tea bags on your eyebrows to soothe the follicles and skin around your eyes.
Whatever you do, never shave your eyebrows. It gives the eyes and face an unnatural feel and can look very unattractive once the hair begins to grow.
Highlight those brows
While getting ready for a night on the town, make sure your make-up works to enhance your eyes, which means working with your eyebrows instead of ignoring them. Here's how to get your eyes looking their best:
~ Buy a compact that matches your skin tone and an eyebrow pencil.
~ Use a dry brush/ dry mascara and gently brush the brows downward.
~ Now use the pencil to draw the arch along the upper edge of the brow and brush the brows in an upward and outward motion.
~ To make your eyebrows look fuller, dab a firm, fine brush in a dark shade of eye shadow and with short, gentle strokes apply it to the brow.
~ If your eyebrows have been overly tweezed, use a dry brush/ dry mascara to brush the eyebrow in the direction of the growth. Fill the scanty areas with eye shadow, making sure to avoid the top and bottom of the brows. This will make the brow look fuller and better defined.
Published in Rediff.com, on July 17, 2007
Link: http://specials.rediff.com/getahead/2007/jul/17slide1.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment