How to do eyebrows, from shaping to tidying

Nothing highlights an eye and makes the face look neat like a well-defined eyebrow. Here’s how to do eyebrows, starting with a guide to the basics of brow shapes and moving on to general tips.

How to shape eyebrows

If you’re on the hunt for the perfect eyebrow shape, a precision trimmer will open up plenty of options for you. Below is some guidance on how to shape eyebrows in a number of classic brow shapes.

Brow shapes: arched eyebrows

There’s an undeniable elegance to perfectly arched eyebrows.

Arches can be high or low, gentle or sharp. The perfect eyebrow shape will depend on the person. An angled arch offers great contrast to a round face, whereas a square face might benefit from a more rounded eyebrow.

Your arch will generally look best if you work with the part of your eyebrow that’s naturally highest, taking out stray hairs beneath it to define the shape more clearly.

The usual position for an arch is about two thirds of the way along the eyebrow, towards the outer end. If your arch is more centered, try to avoid a very high, sharply defined arch, or you’ll just end up looking surprised.

Brow shapes: tapered eyebrows

You can taper your eyebrows, bringing them to a point at the ends. It’s a striking look, especially if your eyebrows are naturally thick, and Princess Ameerah pulls it off incredibly.

A tapered eyebrow will usually be roughly the same width from the center of the face to the eyebrow’s arch or highest point, then begin to narrow as the eyebrow dips again.

Try not to shorten your eyebrows. Having long eyebrows is an advantage that shouldn’t be thrown away. Just narrow them as they sweep out towards the outer edges.

Tapered eyebrows can be combined with a defined arch for a more dramatic look.

Brow shapes: natural eyebrows

Eyebrow grooming doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re not sure which of the brow shapes to go for, you can save time by keeping your eyebrows the way they naturally fall, just trimming stray hairs at the edges or between the brows.

If your eyebrows aren’t naturally arched, it’s easy to accidentally thin them out too much while trying to carve an arch into them. You might find it easiest to embrace your straight eyebrow and make it work for you.

A trimmer with length settings will let you trim your eyebrow hairs to an even length, if that’s all you need, and it’ll also let you switch to a hair removal setting if you decide to try more serious shaping.

Touch-up pen trimmer

HP6393/60

-{discount-value}

Touch-up pen trimmer

HP6393/60

Reviews Reviews

Smooth skin on the go

Stay smooth. Whenever, wherever. The new, on-the-go trimmer from Philips is a discrete beauty tool that makes it quick and easy to remove even the finest body and facial hairs on the go. It comes with a cleaning brush for extra hygene. See all benefits

Unfortunately this product is no longer available

Smooth skin on the go

Stay smooth. Whenever, wherever. The new, on-the-go trimmer from Philips is a discrete beauty tool that makes it quick and easy to remove even the finest body and facial hairs on the go. It comes with a cleaning brush for extra hygene. See all benefits

How to shape eyebrows: tips and tricks

Using a spoolie brush or mascara wand to brush your eyebrows before you start will help you to see what you’re doing more clearly. Make sure there’s no mascara on there.
Whatever the shape you’re going for, you can make the shaping easier by defining the shape you want with a clearly visible eyebrow pencil, then removing the hairs that fall outside that shape.
Avoid thinning your eyebrows too dramatically. When you’re trimming, remove a little at a time, and take a moment to step back and check how you look before going back in to tackle more hairs.
As a general rule, when you’re shaping your eyebrows, avoid taking more than a few hairs off the top of the brow. Most of the work usually happens underneath.
Tweezed hairs take longer to grow back than trimmed ones, so using a trimmer is less risky than tweezing. Save your tweezers for hairs you know for certain you don’t want to see again.
If you’ve accidentally removed too much hair, don’t panic. The hair will grow back, after all. In the meantime, you can use an eyebrow pencil to fill in the brow.

If a brow shape isn’t working for you, you can always try a different one later on. Once you’ve mastered how to do eyebrows, your eyebrows will bring out your eyes and complement your face perfectly.

All tips