Tips from the go-to brow artist for Hollywood’s A-listers.
Known in LA as ‘The Brow Gal’, Tonya Crooks has brought her range of eyebrow makeup and shaping tools to New Zealand’s About Face salons. We ask the go-to shaper for celebrities like Megan Fox, Fergie and Gwyneth Paltrow how to achieve the perfect brows.
What shape should we be aiming for?
The natural shape that fits your face. If you try to manufacture too high of an arch when you have a straighter brow, you will give yourself that constant ‘surprised look’.
What tips do you have if someone wants to shape their own eyebrows?
1. Brush your brows up to determine their natural shape.
2. Fill in the shape with your colour of eyebrow pencil, using short strokes to emulate the look of hair.
3. Brush through the brows again to blend the colour.
4. Trim the natural shape with scissors.
5. Remove unwanted hairs with tweezers, in the direction of hair growth so as not to break off the hair at the root.
6. Brush through the brow using the brow brush.
7. Apply highlighter pencil 1mm below the brow to accentuate your arch and blend through with a brush or a finger to create the appearance of a thicker brow.
8. Apply clear, water-resistant gel to set the shape.
How often should brows be plucked?
You definitely don’t want to be an ‘every day’ plucker, but when you see stray brow hairs come in, every seven-10 days or so, you should remove them. Don’t get in the habit of over-tweezing because that creates thinning of the brows over time – especially for over 35-year-olds.
How should a brow pencil be applied?
You have to make sure your pencil is very sharp and that you have a harder lead, one that isn’t too creamy, and can emulate natural hair-like strokes. Draw a clean line on the bottom part of the brow, starting at the inside corner of the eye and extending to the end of the brow. Then brush through and do the same on the top to create two parallel lines that intersect at the end of the brow. Brush through with a brow brush, then go back in with the pencil and fill in the middle of the brow with light hair-like strokes.
How do we choose the right colour pencil?
The key is to determine if your eyebrow hair is a warmer tone (any colours with brown, yellow, orange), or more of an ash tone (which is void of any colour like an orange or yellow – think of ash in a fire) and use a pencil accordingly. The BrowGal has three warm tones: espresso, chocolate, and blonde; and three ash tones: black, medium brown and taupe.
From the editors of NEXT
