Frugal Beauty: Shaping Your Eyebrows at Home

They say your eyes are the window to your soul~and whether you believe that or not the eyes are one of the first things we notice about a persons face. One of the easiest ways to beautify your eyes is to have nicely shaped eyebrows to frame them.

Now I know some of you out there like to go “au natural”~and more power to you if that works for you.  However left to their own devices, my eyebrows would resemble a couple of fat caterpillars climbing across my forehead.  Not quite the dreaded “Bert” uni-brow, but pretty close.

Photo by Kevin Harber

You can get a professional to help you with this common beauty problem–places to have your eyebrows waxed or threaded are all over the place–but it will cost you.  Here locally in my rural area eyebrow waxing costs between $12-$15.  That doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it adds up.  If I get my eyebrows waxed every time I get my hair cut (once every 4 weeks) I’d spend about $156 a year.

That’s $156.  On my eyebrows.

Never fear, there is a more frugal way!  Tweezing (also known as plucking) is cheap and easy to do at home.  All you need is a few very inexpensive items, some patience and some time.

Photo by Mandi Gaga

Materials

Eyebrow Tweezers
Mirror
Pencil or straight edge

Optional: White eyeliner, ice, lighted makeup mirror

Instructions

1.  Optional: Take an ice cube and use it to numb the area around the eyebrow.  Reapply the ice as necessary throughout the process.

2. To figure out where the start of  your brow should be, take a straight edge (a pencil, ruler, anything) and hold it against the side of the tip of your nose pointing straight up and down.  It should form a line like #1 in this picture:

Photo adapted from one by Nathan Siemers

If you have a white eye pencil, make a line across the eyebrow at this point.  Everything to the “nose” side of this line you just pluck or tweeze out.

3.  To figure out where the end of your eyebrow is, move your pencil so that it makes a line from the bottom edge of your nose to the outside corner of your eye.  It should form a line like #2 in the picture.  If using a white eye pencil, make a line across the eyebrow at this point.   Everything to the outside of this line (toward the ear) should be tweezed out.

4.  To figure out where the arch of your eyebrow is, move the pencil so that it makes a line from the bottom edge of your nose to the outside of your pupil.  It should form a line roughly like #3 in the picture.  Again, if you’re using a white eye pencil, make a line across the eyebrow at this point.

5.  Be careful plucking out the arch.  PLEASE-err on the side of taking out less hair rather than more.  You can always pluck a few more strands out-but you will have to wait a while for an overzealous tweezing job to fill in.   Also-you will want to make sure that the arch on your left and right eyes match up.  Tip: if you have a white eye pencil use it to outline the desired final eyebrow shape, then you can simply “pluck outside the lines”.

6.  Consider whether or not to pluck above your eyebrow.  Some folks will swear that you never, ever, ever should pluck up above the eyebrow.  Personally (what with the caterpillar issue) I find that a little bit of clean up plucking up there keeps things looking nicer.  But be careful & go slow.  If you are at all nervous about it either wait, or use that white eye pencil to draw the outline first.

Are you more of a visual learner?  Well I found this youtube video that shows you the whole process:

Still need some help? This Eyebrowz site has some info on what brow shapes look best on what face shapes.

So do you go au natural, pluck your own eyebrows, or get them waxed?