If the October chill leaves you inclined to cover up a bit more, you’re in fashionable company. Runway models and other style-setters have been complementing their fall frocks with fuller, bolder eyebrows.
It’s a more natural look, but natural should not be confused with unkempt. The look requires some work.
We talked to two brow experts — Lancome national makeup artist Alex Sanchez, who led the backstage preparations at Fashion Focus Chicago (see one model’s fuller-browed look above right), and Anastasia “Eyebrow Queen” Soare, owner of Anastasia Beverly Hills beauty products — about how best to achieve fuller coverage.
Keep in mind that “your brows are sisters, not twins,” Sanchez says. “Strive for a balanced and symmetrical look.”
Step 1: Prep the surrounding skin. Soare recommends concealer to mask stubble or ingrown hairs, and then a powder application.
Step 2: Use an eyebrow pencil to define a beginning and end point for your brow arch. Soare says to align the pencil with the middle of your nostril straight up to your brow — that’s where your arch should begin. For the end, align the pencil from the corner of your nose to the outermost corner of your eye.
Step 3: Fill in the sparse areas. Sanchez recommends short, feathered strokes with a sharp-pointed pencil. “For a more defined brow,” he says, “mix two brow pencil colors on the back of your hand and apply them with an angled brow brush.”
Step 4: Set the look. Soare says to apply a highlighter beneath the arches to lift your brow bone. (The Anastasia Universal Brow Pencil and Highlighter Duo, $21, works well here).
If all this seems like a lot of upkeep, bear in mind:
“Nothing lifts the eye like brows,” Sanchez says, “and in today’s beauty world, brow artistry is an alternative to plastic surgery.”
———-
hstevens@tribune.com
