Great Brows
Great brows are the first step to gorgeous eye makeup. When properly groomed and filled-in, they lift the eye and make you look years younger. To discover your ideal brow shape, lay a pencil next to your nostril reaching up to your brows. Brows should start at the spot where the pencil hits. Then angle the pencil to the outer corner of your eye to see where your brows should end.
Brow Shaping
It is crucial to get your brows shaped by someone skilled. After having them done professionally, you can tweeze new hairs as they come in. Tweezing is most precise, but I recommend at least some waxing, to remove the fine blonde hairs under the brow. Cleaning these up brightens the eye and helps shadow go on smoother.
Thin Brows
Many people’s brows are too thin and/or short. When thin was in, in the 60s and again in the 90s, women over-tweezed, and now their brows won’t fully grow back. You want them look thicker yet still natural. Many women use a pencil that’s too dark. A taupe pencil works on everyone. Brenda Christian’s Universal Brow Definer is a great choice! Follow this with her Perfect Brow Gel to hold everything in place.
Thick Brows
You may be attached to your full brows, but if they are too full they can look heavy and weigh the eye down. It is important to give brows proper shape and balance for your face.
Proper Eye Makeup Application
Many women don’t know how to do eye makeup. Either they wear hardly any for fear of doing it wrong, or they put on the wrong colors confidently, thinking it looks good. The biggest offense is sparkly, frosty shadow- it makes eyelids look wrinkled. Also, avoid cream shadow – it looks oily on the lids.
Powder Shadows are Best. Here is My Foolproof Way to Apply it:
- Apply a base/primer on the lid to cover undertone colors and brighten the eye. I use my Camoflauge Eye Disguise Concealer (part of my Beauty Ammo Kit).
- Apply base eyeshadow. Choose a base color that isn’t too light (think 60s dated light pink) or too dark. It should be close to your skin tone. A pinky-peachy-sunset color is universally flattering. Apply it to entire lid with a fat shadow brush that you use only for base shadow. If you apply other colors with that brush, the next time you apply base shadow the other colors will still be on the brush and the base color won’t go on properly.
- Apply a crease color to the outer 1/3 of the eye and across the whole crease. Most women apply crease shadow too low, which ends up “closing” the eye. Using an angled shadow brush, sweep it up onto the brow bone, and blend it well after. My favorite crease shadow color is a caramel-light-mocha, more bronze than brown with a hint of peach. It looks great with any clothing, eye color and doesn’t distract from features.
- Stay away from purple, green and plain brown for crease colors. Most purples make your eyes look red, greens can look dated and browns are just dull.
- Navy works as liner. Line upper and lower eye with a pencil, then go over it to set it with a dark navy shadow. Use navy with some shimmer for nighttime, but only as liner applied with a stiff tiny angle brush.
- For night, most women look best in the same shadows they use for daytime, but applied with a heavier hand and always well-blended. For a smoky eye, apply navy to the outer third and around the crease, then add black liner in pencil shadow or liquid. Because pencil liner can be oily, it is important to go back over it with shadow to set it and give more staying power.
No Eye is Complete Without Mascara
One of the best selling mascaras (not naming names!) is one of the worst looking on. I can always spot it on someone – their lashes look like frog legs! It is stiff, clumpy and requires several coats. I also dislike waterproof mascara as it is so hard to remove and so harsh on lashes. Use mascara that stays soft on your lashes. Always do a couple coats, and apply a lash conditioner/thickener underneath to make lashes look fuller, yet soft and conditioned.
