What makes your eyebrows look better?

If there’s one facial feature that acts as a sign of the times, it’s your eyebrow shape. From the razor-thin brows of the '90s, to the trend-setting bush brothers of Cara Delevingne, eyebrows products are many people's desert island beauty product of choice and with good reason.

Your eyebrow shape has an unmatched ability to give proportion to your face, enhance your features and frame your eyes beautifully. Just take it from brow queen (and former architect) Anastasia Soare, founder and CEO of the iconic Anastasia Beverly Hills, who applied her knowledge of scale and structure to our brows. "If you look at a portrait, you can change how you perceive someone entirely based on their brow placement and shape," she reckons.

Low and heavy can make you look tired or sad; high and arched can make you look stern; straight and pointy can make you look angry; too fair and it can lack the definition needed to pull attention towards your eyes; too dark and they will look slug-chic… there are just so many aspects to consider. It's no wonder brow treatments like tinting, threading, microblading and brow laminating are such big business.

But rather than committing to transient trends, we've seen a return towards much more natural brows lately. Paired with simple tweaks (like fluffing them up, filling them in or shading them slightly) to add subtle shape or definition where needed.

Celebs like Shay Mitchell, Zendaya and Dua Lipa, are all good examples, since they emphasise their natural arches. Rather than harsh Nike tick shapes that shoot up, and then down, the straighter shape and slightly lifted tail-end create an eye-opening effect, with soft tapering used to keep it natural and modern.

According to Nilam Holmes, brow expert and founder of Eyebrow Queen, they've got their brow style exactly right by ditching anything too trend-led in favour of what works for them. "Your eyebrows create the frame and balance to your face. Having the right style and shape of brow can make a huge difference to your look," she says. While Sherrille Riley, founder of Nails & Brows, Mayfair adds: “The most important thing is to work with your natural brow shape, rather than against it. Then go in with brow products and treatments to enhance, fill in gaps or add volume.”

juliawhite

My eyebrows are one of my favorite features on my face, but they’re also the one I feel the most insecure about, because 20 years of psoriasis has left them patchy and thin.

Growing up, I took for granted how full and resilient my eyebrows were—they even managed to recover from the ’90s over-plucking trend. But when I was in high school, I started to develop flaky patches on my hairline and in my eyebrows. The flakes started to rip out my brow hairs, causing my brows to look patchy and uneven. My dermatologist diagnosed these issues as psoriasis, a condition that causes patches of thickened, dry, red, patchy skin. To help manage my symptoms, the derm gave me a topical cream to apply daily.

Although the cream helped keep my symptoms in check, psoriasis is a chronic condition, and I still experienced flares—especially in the winter. Self-conscious of the red patches down my forehead and along my eyebrows, I asked my hair stylist to give me long bangs à la Brigitte Bardot. While my bangs covered up my sparse brows, they obviously didn’t address the root issue.

And psoriasis isn’t the only thing that can cause thin eyebrows, of course. Part of the issue is that many of us lose some of the fullness of our brows naturally as we age, SELF explained previously. But over-grooming your brows can lead to thinner eyebrows, too, as can thyroid and dietary issues that can cause hair loss.

I’ve tried several techniques to prevent existing brow hairs from falling out, regrow my thin eyebrows, and give the impression that I have full brows. Although many of them haven’t worked, some things actually have. Here’s are the best strategies I’ve discovered through trial and error. And even if you don’t have psoriasis, you might find them helpful for getting the full-brow look.

1. Give eyebrow growth serums a shot.

I’ve tried several brow-growth serums and waited patiently for the results. In my experience, most are like snake oil—all talk and no growth. But personally, I feel like the serum from RevitaBrow Cosmetics Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner ($111, Dermstore) actually works for me.

I started using it after a period of three months when I didn’t touch my tweezers, allowing my brows to grow without any interruption. Now I use it after I wash my face every morning and night. I carefully apply the serum to my brows with the wand, always following the growth of the hair. This growth serum brought my fledgling brows back to life.

2. Fill your brows in with a tinted eyebrow gel.

In my quest to get fuller brows for my wedding, an eyebrow savior—an employee at Sephora—introduced me to the Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel ($22, Ulta). It gives me the appearance of thicker, bold brows, even when they are thin and uneven. Now I use this gel in my everyday look because it’s easy to apply and is long-lasting.