Eyebrows – From Bare to Bold!

When you buy a beautiful painting, you want to make sure you get the frame just right. Get it wrong and the work of art is lost. What’s this got to do with makeup? Everything. When it comes to makeup, the work of art is your face, the ‘frame’ your eyebrows.

You should never underestimate the authority of the eyebrows over the complete look of your makeup; their colour, thickness and shape hold the key to pulling everything together to achieve a succinct, powerful look.

Up until quite recently, the eyebrow trend has been the manicured, thin, almost surprised look. Think Kylie Minogue, Pamela Anderson, Mariah Carey, Julia Roberts, and the lady who kicked it all off: Greta Garbo…

Greta Garbo with her iconic brows

Julia Roberts

Kylie sporting the 'surprised' look

But it looks like we’ve turned a corner, so you can put your tweezers aside: now it’s all about thick, dark, dramatic brows. Hard-edged and heavily defined, this look is taking hold and if you pick up any celebrity magazine you’ll see it everywhere. Keira Knightly is just one example, demonstrating just how striking the style can be.

Keira Knightly

But despite its recent appearance on our catwalks, the heavy arch isn’t actually a completely new style. Rather, it’s re-emerged from the days of Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, and Audrey Hepburn.  These stunning actresses sported what was dubbed the ‘Diva Arch’ – a powerful, captivating, and almost handsome look.

Elizabeth Taylor

Audrey Hepburn

Makeup artist Charlotte Tillbury uses the heavy arch on her models, and describes eyebrows as the ‘pillars of the face’, which I think hits the nail on the head. Similarly, fellow makeup artist Diane Kendal uses thick, angular brows to give an edge to a more natural look; if you’re going for soft, subtle shades everywhere else, she says, strong eyebrows will inject that much needed oomph.

But there’s definitely a limit to how far you can go with this. As much as we all love Frida Kahlo, there’s a reason why her unibrow, ‘caterpillar’ look never fully caught on…

Frida Kahlo

Makeup trends are fascinating, and if you look back through history you’ll discover some pretty extreme fashions. Take Queen Elizabeth, who inspired women to not only get rid of their eyebrows altogether, but also pluck their hairlines to accentuate their foreheads. I’m pretty sure this is a fashion that won’t resurface…

All I can say is that I absolutely love the current look, and hope that it sticks around for a while. It’s striking and powerful, authoritative and beautiful. When creating the strong arch, it’s important to follow the natural line of the brow, using a good quality brow pencil and brush to get a good thickness. My favourite it Lingering by MAC; it does exactly what it says on the tin, and the quality of finish is amazing.

And when it comes to choosing colours, if you have dark hair then go for one shade lighter, and if you have light hair, go for one shade darker. Once you’ve found the best shape and thickness for your face, stick to it; eyebrows are a really important factor in your makeup regime.

So take a look at the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn and have a go at recreating her iconic arches. It’ll transform your look…