I am in a furious mood. Thanks to some strong antibiotics, my temperament has been reset to “perpetual angry comedown”. If I’m feeling a bit better, there’s an upswing to a more manageable “miserable”. So now is a good time for some straight talking about eyebrows.
Where did it all go wrong? One minute, a few years ago, we turned our backs on overplucking and embraced a boyish, stronger brow. This was a good thing. I have unkind thoughts about women with overplucked brows. I’m not sure why: empty forehead, empty brain?
Anyway, the handsome brow has morphed into something monstrous. Women – mostly younger ones – are wearing massive, drawn-on eyebrows, many looking as though they’ve been stencilled on with some boot polish. Often there isn’t even an attempt to make them look as though they are made out of hair.
It must be really bad, as men are starting to notice. In a recent survey, 2,000 male Tinder users said the “HD brow”, as the exaggerated, high-definition eyebrow is known, was the second worst thing to see in a woman’s profile photo. (The first was “too much make-up”.) Now I would never, ever suggest tweaking your look to suit the male gaze, but it is significant that men have registered a brow trend when most of them wouldn’t notice new hair.
The basics then: the key to a modern power brow is to stick to your natural shape and colour and enhance rather than distort. If I do anything at all to the shape, I get a little bit of threading under the brow – never at the top and never in between them. Brows do get thinner as you get older, so subtle dyeing makes them look fuller. Or you could use browscara: I like Benefit Gimme Brow (£18.50; benefitcosmetics.co.uk) or L’Oréal Brow Artist Plumper (£5.99; boots.com). If you’re uncertain about pencils or powders, these are the safest route to subtle density.
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Top make-up artist Kay Montano recommends Brow Powder Duo from Anastasia Beverly Hills (£17; cultbeauty.co.uk), a brand known for excellent brow products – I like the DipBrow Pomade (£15), which keeps them in place as well as colouring. Montano also recommends Chanel Eyebrow Pencil in Noir Cendré (£19; selfridges.com) and Japanese brand Suqqu’s Eyebrow Pen (£20; selfridges.com) in Moss Green – yes, green. She explains: “The key is (unless you are a redhead) to avoid all brown-toned pencils. This is because once the brown hits your skin, it always looks too red. Grey-toned green, mixed with your skin tone, is far closer to the colour of actual eyebrows. My final touch is a cheap, clear mascara.”
If you insist on a pencil, please don’t draw. Shavata Singh, the British brow guru, says, “The key is not to wear too much at the start of your brow. Use light strokes 2mm from the beginning of the brow, then a brush to blend it evenly.” Shavata’s Double Ended Eyebrow Pencil (£9.50; shavata.co.uk) is a great tool. “Apply it this way and it won’t look made-up at all.”