How to Get Fierce Eyebrows in 6 Easy Steps

In this brave new age of Fierce Brows, we are all refugees of no-brows, mono-brows, comma brows, and drawn-on brows, and have come to Brow City hoping we will be welcomed with open arms.

YE SHALL.

Here is how to get the über-brows you desire.

Step one: Pluck the outliers.

You probably have a healthy fear of tweezers by now—all of us have gotten a little tweeze-happy and ended up looking/feeling like this at some point—but you *will* be okay. Thread your forefinger and thumb through the tweezer handles, raise the pincers to your brows, steady your heart rate, and remove just the wild hairs growing out by Hagrid’s Hut.

I choose to also get rid of the eyebrow ends, where they dip down into a haphazard mess, but your eyebrows are probably so thin there it’s not a big deal either way. And there is no chance you will overpluck, so don’t worry.

Step two: Brush them.

The goal here is neatness, maybe, but mostly to see what you’re working with. Brush your eyebrows straight up into a super-Cara and then smooth the top in an outward direction (you can snip the tops? But I don’t do that?). If you are me, you will be horrified at just how long some of your eyebrows are until you remember: oh yeah, this look is in right now. Cool.

Step three: Begin blocking.

Your eyebrows might look like a shuttlecock flying through the air, or a squirrel dive-bombing off a tree, or a comet, and THAT IS OKAY, because we are now going to transform them into handsome forehead wings. Using some brow-shaped shadow and an angled brush, sweep a straightish line from the bottom of your brow near your nose to the underneath of the eyebrow peak, then continue the line out toward your hair line. There might be a bit of a gap between the line and the possum-doing-crunches brow that sits above it. That is okay! Really think about making the line straight, more than a rollercoaster of curves. This will make your brows nice and blocky and powerful, like a handsome calligraphic stroke.

Step four: Block in the top.

Hoo hoo hoooo, now we’re getting our superbrowers (idk). Sketch a light line from the upper end of your brows near your nose to the peaks, or loci of attitude. Continue the line down and out to wherever you decided the tail would end. You should feel a bit cartoonish at this point. Refer to this before-and-after picture of Lauren Conrad to reaffirm your faith in filling your brows.

Step five: Fill them in!

Now do little strokes with the brush anywhere there is a gap between your brow and the lines you sketched. Think of each stroke as a missing brow hair. This feels weird, right? Don’t worry, we will soften the look before loosing you on Orange County.

Step six: One last brush!

Repeat the up-and-across brush technique you honed in step two with your brow/lash brush/comb. This will help the shadow blend with your brows a bit, soften the edges, and justify your keeping such a ridiculous-looking implement in your beauty toolbox. We all have one, don’t we? Somewhere between age 8 and 13, you just end up with one, with a really cheap plastic head that falls off all the time. Where do they come from???

If you are feeling fanceee, you can use a clear mascara to “set” your brows—this is an extra credit move that is somewhat important if you want the lustrous animal brows of Cara D.

You’re done! Now you don’t have to worry about doing anything with your eyes or face or clothes, because brows alone are it.

Have you stepped into the browerful world of brow-filling?