Brow Talk

This is gonna be a quick'n'sharp one- most eyebrow tutorials advocate filling your eyebrows in by 'drawing' two lines (made of short strokes or not), one under the eyebrow and the other above/on its upper border, and then gently filling it in. I seriously disagree with that...it can make you look like this:

...or this:

or this:

or this:

Even Kim Kardashian's makeup artist screwed up this time:

As you can see, if you overdraw your upper brow border it's gonna look fake and 'drawn on', not filled in. If you are doing this with a pencil, more reason to be attentive- pencils are notorious for creating obvious lines and looking unnatural. The best choice is to use a brow powder for the first half of the brow and the arch, and then gently fill it in underneath/on top of the lower half with the pencil of your choice; if you see any line or feel like it's too much you can easily blend out the 'mistake' with a q-tip and use a bit of translucent powder (no color, thus no orangey or flesh-toned brows, and lighter consistency) to correct the marks and then you can continue with your routine. 

Kim K's brows are usually beautiful and carefully filled in, no obvious lines whatsoever and a natural shade that complements both her skintone and hair color:

Therefore the lined brows must have been the product of over-zealousness combined with a soft pencil that was just left there and not blended in properly. You might not tell if you're used to getting your eyebrows made up/dyed in a much darker color or they're thick enough, but trust me, it IS very visible. I've noticed the 'two lines' eyebrow style in some of my favorite makeup artists, not to mention the plethora of YouTube 'gurus'. It's just wrong, and unnatural, and distasteful!

I'm no model for brows but i just thought i could exemplify what i'm talking about with some pics...post-makeup, that is:

The lighting is rubbish, however you can see the eyebrows don't look unnatural; i can still see that they're filled in, which is something yourself shouldn't be able to do in the first place, for a good job to pass the test. Nevertheless, i'm waaayyy over the Groucho brows phase. If you are not sure about what's going on with your eyebrows try tilting your head and check them in the mirror:

As you can see, from this position, any line is visible- even my uber discreet brow powder is quite there. You should not see any definite line at the root of the hairs-that's the clown 'drawing' that makes everybody look ridiculous and your eyebrows, obviously filled in. Therefore: Blend, blend, blend.