If I had a band name, it would be Badly Drawn Brows. (Free band name for beauty-school rejects, right here for the taking!) But I didn’t feel like I could create believable, fuller brows until I met makeup artist Cyndle Komarovski, who told me at our first meeting that she is known for her brow technique. In the GIFs below, Komarovski shows us a few easy ways to make it look like you don’t have Instagram brows, sperm brows, or Cara Delevingne brows, but just plain, pretty, slightly thicker brows.
Step 1: If you want your brows to look thicker, start by brushing a serum like Eyeko’s Brow Gel upward through them to give them an instant lift. Just don’t brush so aggressively that the hairs stand straight up.
Step 2: Pick your brow pencil. You often need a lighter-color pencil that you think. For example, even if you have black or very dark brunette hair, don’t choose a black pencil because it can look harsh. Ashy or more gray tones, in general, look better. Your brow pencils should have no trace of red because brow hair is never red IRL. If you are a redhead with very light or almost blonde brows, you might even use a powder and brush it through. Komarovski likes Anastasia Brow Whiz in Taupe, which she uses starting at the edge of her brow closest to her nose. She begins with short strokes following the brow hairs’ direction, going up and filling in gaps.
Step 3: Komarovski then moves to the arch, where she does short diagonal strokes. You want your stroke length to match the length of your hair so as to look believable. Don’t draw back-and-forth strokes because that looks drawn and you aren’t in a BYOB painting class. Draw a stroke and pencil in the next spot.
Step 4: Draw a line down from the arch to create the tail end of the brow. Note that you want to have a lighter hand here. You don’t want to extend your brow tail too long, but extending it a little gives a more youthful look.
Step 5: The finished believable brow.
