How to Fill in Sparse Eyebrows

If you're like many women, you were born with sparse brows. While you might not have to visit a brow shaper as often as your fuller-browed sisters, you still probably want a polished look. To achieve that, you just need to "fill in" your brows. You can also use these tips if you’ve recently over-plucked your brows and are waiting for them to grow back in.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• eyebrow brush or clean mascara wand
• brow pencil or powder
• brow gel or clear mascara
• mirror

1. Brush your brows outward and upward with an eyebrow brush or a clean mascara wand.

2. Fill in your brows. Pencils and powders stick to skin, not hair, so you want to find areas where there's skin for the product to grab onto. You can either fill them in with pencil or powder. With whatever product you choose, be sure to select a color that is a shade lighter than your brow hair color. Don’t choose a darker color.

3. Pencils seem easy to use, but are actually tricky to master. If you use pencil, sharpen it, and apply the pencil with tiny, feathery strokes. Draw the lines in the same direction as the hair growth.

4. It’s easy to achieve a natural, filled-in brow with powder. To apply the powder to your brows, dip an angled brush into the powder cake, blow on the brush to remove any excess, and apply the powder along your brow line with light strokes. You can also blend two shades of powder. If you use two shades, use the lighter shade in the inner part of your brow, and the darker shade on the ends.

5. To remove any excess powder, brush your brows again with your eyebrow brush or clean mascara wand.

6. Finish your look with a sweep of clear brow gel or clear mascara to set your brows. You can also use a bit of hair spray on a clean mascara wand if you need more staying power.

Tips & Warnings

• If there are any stray hairs well under your brow line, remove them with a tweezer. If you’ve recently over-plucked your brows, you probably can skip this step, unless you notice a very errant stray hair.
• Have your brows professionally waxed, tweezed, or threaded every four to six weeks. Then, maintain this look by tweezing any stray hairs outside of the brow shape created by the professional.
• If you recently over- plucked your brows, allow a few months for them to grow back in.
• If you have very sparse outer brows, be very careful when applying product in this area. It’s easy to end up with an artificial look in this area if you don’t use a light touch and small strokes.
• Don’t shave off your brows and draw them on. This looks very unnatural. If you botch up a tweezing job, just use the techniques above to make your brows look nice while your brows grow back in.

[Susanh]

on 9/26/2008 Very detailed and informative article.

[writesource]

on 8/21/2008 Helpful information. Thanks!