How to Manicure Your Eyebrows

For those of you who have followed my beauty articles for a while, you are probably aware of just how important I think it is to take care of your eyebrows - men, that means you, too! Having nice eyebrows framing your eyes makes it easier to really see your eyes, and draws attention to them. There are many ways that you can achieve beautiful, shapely brows: threading, waxing, plucking. But how to go about it is the question? Allow me to share with you my personal eyebrow manicuring routine, and follow these steps for perfectly manicured brows!

Step one: Shaping. Grab an eyeliner or lip-liner (the color is irrelevant) and take a good look in the mirror. Before you start removing any hair, the most important step is to make sure you've got a good enough floor-plan to work from. The general rule states that your eyebrows should line up with the outside edge of your nostrils on the inside, and end just about one half of an inch above the outer corner of your eye on the outside. Make a light mark on each end of your brow to note where your brow should begin and end. Now, look at your face again. You want your brows to have a smooth line at the top edge, and a nice curve or arch on the bottom. Using the eye or lip-liner, lightly sketch in the shape that you want for your brows. Be sure to make them as even as you can on each side!

Step two: Threading or Waxing. I prefer waxing, but if you are interested in the art of eyebrow threading, feel free to read through my tutorial, linked here. Now, comes the fun part - pulling out the hair! Do you remember the marks we made earlier? What you want to do now, is to remove as much of the hair outside of those marks as possible. Wax makes this a very quick process, and the pain lasts a split second. After you wax or thread your eyebrows, you may notice that you still have unsightly stray hairs left. Do not continue to wax/thread until they are gone! You will risk removing hair that you did not intend to remove. Simply remove as much as you can in this step, and then proceed.

Step three: Plucking. Now is where you remove those stray hairs from step two! Grab a pair of tweezers and carefully pluck the remaining hairs that you want to remove. Remember to keep your brows symmetrical, though - keep checking periodically to ensure that your eyebrows are as even as possible.

Step four: Trimming. Many people can skip this step, but once I discovered what a difference it makes, I never do! Take a small eyebrow brush (or CLEAN mascara wand) and brush your eyebrows straight upwards. Do you look ridiculous? Good, then you're doing it right. Now, take a small pair of scissors such as manicuring scissors and snip away the extra length. Once you are done, brush your brows back into place. You will be shocked just how neat and trim your eyebrows look once they're trimmed down and shaped up!