How to Thin the Outer Eyebrows

The outer part of the brow must always be the thinnest.

Eyebrows enhance your features and draw attention to your eyes. Shaping your eyebrows requires the right tools and sufficient knowhow. If you remove too many hairs, you can be left with a permanently surprised and unnatural look. To avoid this, focus on removing one hair at a time. Aim to create eyebrows that are their thickest and widest on the insides and gradually reduce in thickness and width as you move outward.

Things You'll Need

• Mirror
• Eye makeup remover
• Towel
• Eyebrow pencil or eyeliner pencil
• Manicure scissors
• Cotton swab
• Wash cloth
• Water
• Tweezers
• Eyebrow gel

Instructions

1. Position yourself in front of a mirror in a well-lit room. Remove all traces of makeup from your eyes using a mild, oil-free eye makeup remover. Pad your face dry with a clean towel.

2. Brush your eyebrow hairs upward and check if there are any long hairs sticking out on top. Shorten these hairs with manicure scissors so they are the same length as the remaining hairs. Trimming the longer hairs removes excess hair and allows you to see your natural eyebrow shape better.

3. Experiment with eyebrow shapes. Use a dark eyebrow pencil or white eyeliner pencil to draw various eyebrow shapes over your eyebrow hairs. Imagine a vertical line from the side of your left nostril up toward your left brow. Start your eyebrow where the line hits the brow hairs. Imagine a diagonal line from your left nostril, past your left outer eye corner, up to your left eyebrow to find the ending point of your brow. To find your highest eyebrow point, imagine a line from the outer edge of your left iris straight up to the brow.

4. Look at the beginning and ending points of your drawn-on eyebrow. Keep in mind that the ending part of your brow must be the thinnest part, and the beginning point of your eyebrow must be at the same height as the ending point of your brow. If the inner part of the brow falls lower than the ending part, it may result in a permanent angry expression. Wet a cotton swab with oil-free eye makeup remover and correct the pencil outline where needed.

5. Moisten a washcloth with warm water and place the warm cloth on your left eyebrow for three minutes. The warmth of the water opens up your pores and makes tweezing hairs less painful. Avoid wiping the washcloth because you may wipe away your eyebrow outline. Take a shower before tweezing as an alternative.

6. Remove one hair at a time with tweezers. Use tweezers that tightly shut together to instantly remove the hairs. Thin the outer part of the brow by tweezing stray hairs that fall outside of your outline.

7. Avoid tweezing hairs from the top of your eyebrow because this can distort your natural brow shape. Repeat the drawing and tweezing process on your right eyebrow.

8. Brush eyebrow gel through your eyebrows to keep the hairs in place.

Tips & Warnings

• Use eyebrow stencils to easily get two matching eyebrows. Fill in the cutout part of the eyebrow stencil with pencil. Remove the stencil and tweeze stray hairs outside of your outline.

• Disinfect your eyebrow grooming tools with rubbing alcohol before and after each use.

• Use eyebrow pencil or powder to fill in sparse areas and accentuate your eyebrows.

References

• Paula's Choice: Eyebrow Shaping and Shading; Paula Begoun
• "Cosmopolitan" Magazine: Amazing Arches: How to Shape Your Eyebrows
• Eyebrowz: Eyebrow Shaping