Like haircuts, eyebrow shapes aren’t one-size-fits-all. Getting perfect brows really depends on the dimensions of your face—and knowing how to shape eyebrows based on your specific face shape can not only emphasize your eyes and make you look younger, but it can even let you get away with wearing less makeup.
The right brow will help open up the entire eye area and work to improve the face’s overall symmetry. The perfect brow will make you look fresh, rested, young, healthy, and overall, more attractive. Do we have your attention yet?
So how do you go about learning how to shape eyebrows? For starters, your unique face shape plays a role in determining which eyebrow shape works best for you.
Square
A square jaw accents the angularity of your face, so softly rounded brows are the way to go. Make sure your brows are not too angular. But beware of making brows appear too round; you don’t want to over pluck and create rainbow-shaped brows!
Round
If your face is round you want to make sure your brows are very angular. Because there is a lack of definition in a rounder face, the perfect angled brow can bring out and define facial bone structure that is lacking or not present. For round faces, a higher arch is flattering.
Long
A long face is characterized by features that are vertically stretched out. In this case, it is important to extend the tails of your brows east-to-west to really play up horizontal features. Alicia always suggests that the tails of brows extend beyond the corner of the eye, but a long face should make it a point for tails to extend a bit longer. It is important to be aware when sculpting the tail, however, as allowing it out too far will drag the eye down and make it appear droopy.
Heart
Although bold brows are in this season, a heart-shaped face will definitely want to steer shy of this trend. Because of the petite jaw line and emphasis on the upper portion of the face, it is important to keep brows well-manicured and exceptionally groomed. That being said, a thin brow is never in! The idea here is to create a shape that is controlled and never bushy. This tight brow on the top hemisphere of the face will serve to balance the smaller chin and jawline of the bottom half.
Oval
A classic, balanced brow is perfect for this well-proportioned face shape. Just make sure you follow the three rules for all face shapes (see below).
All Face Shapes
No matter what face shape you have, there are three golden rules to follow when it comes to your brows.
- The head of the brow should begin at the bridge of your nose. This point can be easily found by vertically holding a pencil up to either side of your nose bone.
- The arch of your eyebrows should be about two-thirds of the way out. One of the biggest mistakes I see day-to-day is a centered arch. This gives the dreaded ‘rainbow’ shape!
- Don’t cut your brows short. The tail should, at the very least, end on an imaginary line from the corner of the nose to the corner of the eye. You can allow it to extend slightly further as long as that tail doesn’t end lower than where the head begins (this can make the eyes look droopy). Make sure your tails always taper to a crisp point to best lift the eye.