Whether you have eyebrows on your face or not, you'll know how tricky the brow game can be. So many pencils! Pomades! Tints! Stencil thingys! It can be confusing as hell to know what's actually worth spending money on and what kind of products and techniques will actually work.
If this is you, welcome. Because it just so happens that beauty whizz and makeup artist Sarah Marie Fahd recently dished out all her top tips to nabbing your best brows on a recent episode of You Beauty podcast. And goodness, we needed these tips since yesterday.
Watch: Speaking of brows, here's Mia Freedman on the $10 product she uses for fuller brows. Post continues below.
Speaking to the lovely Kelly McCarren on the podcast, Sarah Marie said, "I have a technique that will make drawing your brows in look like it's your natural brow hair. I think that will help a lot of people."
And yes, please — tell us more…
Want to listen to the full episode? Click below.
Of course, as always keep in mind that makeup is a 'you do you' kind of thing, but if you're stuck in a brow rut and can't seem to find the right products or technique that works for you, there could be some tips here for you.
Here's Sarah Marie's six tips to your best brows yet.
- Get a good pair of tweezers.
First on the list? A good set of tweezers — and there's one brand Sarah Marie never steers from.
"When I had clients, I use Tweezerman tweezers. I love them. They are so accurate, and you can actually send them back to get serviced for free. So they realign your tweezers. So it's perfect. You've got the angled tweezer and you've got the really pointy one," said Sarah Marie.
"So, the angle one, obviously you would use it how you'd use a normal tweezer, the really sharp, pointy one, if you've got ingrown hairs. They're around the $30 mark, but they're a one-time purchase."
2. Shape your brows with a pencil.
On the show, both Sarah Marie and Kelly brought the same brow pencil to talk about — so you're going to bet it's a goodie.
Any guesses? It's the Benefit Cosmetics Precisely My Brow Pencil, $48.
"Huge fan. I've spoken about this pencil before. I use the 3.5 in the medium brown," shared Sarah Marie. "It's adjustable and I'm very light-handed. I don't like using dark brown because it's just too harsh and angry."
"I shape my brows how I want the outline of them to look. I softly shape them with that pencil first, so that way I have a guide. I go very minimal on the inner corners towards the nose, because I'm going to use a pomade to kind of create a softness and some fake hair there."
3. A pomade can be used for fullness.
Next? Once you have an outline of your brow shape, Sarah Marie recommends adding fullness and volume with a brow pomade.
"I get the shade 3.5 in the Benefit Cosmetics Brow Pomade ($48). I find it really waterproof — it's amazing. I use it with the IT Cosmetics Universal Brow-Transformer Brush, $24. Using the spoolie, you comb your brows (like what you do when you're trimming your brows), and then you use this pomade through your brow from the outer part. And what's left on the brush, you're flicking it up and creating a fake hair look."
"That brush is great. Anything like that makes your brow routine lower maintenance. I probably spend five minutes on my brows, max."
4. Fill in any sparse areas.
Remember back in 2016 when straight, Sharpie-looking brows were a thing? Well, thank goodness natural-looking brows have made a comeback. And Sarah Marie has some tips for filling in those sparse areas to make them look as real and natural as possible.
After shaping the outline of her brows and using a pomade with a spoolie, she shared she fills in any blanks, starting on the inside. "When I'm doing the inner part, like the first quarter of my brows, I'm going up with my brow pencil," she explained. "When I need to fill in on the skin, I'm going kind of sideways and up. And then on the halfway mark of my brow, I'm going outward — it's kind of like out and up a little bit at an angle. I don't want that harsh, straight line."
"It's all about emphasising the hair you have, and then making it a little darker on the skin so it blends in."
5. Don't make your brows too long.
The one thing Sarah Marie hates? Unnecessarily long brows. Apparently, it's one of the biggest mistakes she sees as an expert — and it only exaggerates the look of drawn-on brows.
"My pet peeve when it comes to brows is people making their brows so much longer than they need to be. Because it not only drags your brows down — but your entire face. It makes everything look fake — and not in a good way. If your brows are lifted, they appear fresh, whereas, if you're leaving them long at the ends, you're dragging everything down and making yourself look angry."
6. Set with hairspray.
"I usually don't need to set my brows because the pomade is waterproof," shared Sarah Marie. However, if you're not using a pomade and looking for the best way to set your brows, there's one unusual products Sarah Marie recommends over brow gel.
Any guesses? Hairspray!
"I used to use hairspray for my clients and spray it on a disposable mascara spoolie — and brush that through," she shared. "I found it a little easier to control sometimes than the gels, and it lasted ages. So, if you don't have a brow gel, you can use a spoolie at the end of your eyebrow pencil, or just a disposable spoolie, spray it with hairspray and then just comb it through your brows."
What's do your brow routine look like? Do you use any of the above products? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
Feature image: Instagram/@sarahmariefahd.