Never was there a feature more obsessed over on social media and IRL than eyebrows. In addition to framing the eyes, when correctly groomed, brows create balance, impacting the overall appearance of your face. And with the rising influence of #onfleek and #browgamestrong on Instagram, the brow industry has literally exploded with pro-grade products that providing the best results the beauty world has ever seen. But despite the boom in powders, pomades, waxes and gels, the humble eyebrow pencil remains king when it comes to an essential shaping and defining of sparse arches.
With over 15 years of expertise, Tonya Crooks has become Hollywood’s go-to pro for perfect eyebrows. “To me it’s all about balance and achieving a beautiful, natural-looking brow,” the BrowGal founder told me on her recent visit to Dubai. Her famed natural approach and consistent, well-groomed eyebrows have become a necessity for A-listers around the world, including Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Gwyneth Paltrow and Fergie to name but a few. I was lucky enough to have the brow guru reshape my own patchy brows and introduce me firsthand to her impressive range where I discovered my latest must-have product- The BrowGal Skinny Eyebrow Pencil.
This is a brow definer like no other I’ve tried before. According to Crooks this is down to the fact that “each pencil is made in three different countries. The pressure-sensitive “lead” is made in South Korea and has been formulated to be neither too soft nor too waxy and comes in three warm shades and three ash shades that blend perfectly with the natural hair. The outer casing comes from California’s finest cedar trees to make sure the wood that won’t flake or chip. And finally the Chinese-made cap includes an in-built blade that sharpens the pencil to a perfect tip every time.”
I always shied away from pencils due to the fact that they never give me natural-looking results, but I’m now well and truly converted. This product is easy to control and the colour blends seamlessly in to the hairs; you can’t tell where the brow ends and the pencil begins. It doesn’t smudge or fade and lasts for hours even in Dubai’s intense heat and humidity.
Here Tonya shares her top tips for achieving flawless, red carpet-ready arches.
- There are three basic shapes of brow: an arch like Megan Fox, an arc like Fergie or a straighter brow like Natalie Portman. Work out which category you naturally fall in to.
- If you’re victim of the Nineties tadpole brow, put down the tweezers! Go back and look at pictures of yourself before you discovered tweezers. That’s your launch pad. See if you can spot an arch, arc or straight line and start from there.
- Ignore the “insta-brow” trends! If you have the right shape for your face, you’ll never be out of style.
- As the saying goes, your brows are sisters not twins. You need to look at your brows and work out how they’re different in order to learn how to balance them. This is also why you’ll never achieve a “perfect brow” using stencils. They’ll always look “off” because they’re not organic.
- When choosing a brow filling product, find the tone that matches your hair and skin colour. This is key to achieving natural results. You shouldn’t be able to tell where the hair stops and the product starts.
- Fill your brows BEFORE tweezing. This will help you see which hairs need to be removed, preventing you from going overboard.
- Trimming the unruly hairs will make your brows look tidy without losing the volume. Only cut the long hairs though as cutting along the entire brow will make the hairs look stubby and sharp.
