Eyebrows are back—big, bold and beautiful! After a long run on the thin-and-getting-thinner side, they’re coming into their own again, no longer to be regarded as a feature to be minimized to almost annihilation. Today’s brows are back as a prominent feature on the face, and while they’re still far from taking on a bushy status, they are definitely more prominent and “fully” celebrated. Perhaps it has to do with all of the impressive cosmetics products dedicated to eyebrows of late; first drawing more attention and time spent on pencil, brush and wand detail, and as a result of all this fuss—looking better than ever.

The Ways the Brow Shapes up
Eyebrows have a history peppered with a decent bit of shape-shifting from changing times and styles, but as they’ve moved from perfectly symmetrical arches above the eye to more diagonally angled lines with the arc positioned closer to the outside—to name a couple—they’ve tended to generally remain on the thin to thinner side. We’ve seen the starting point migrate back and forth a bit, just as we’ve seen the stopping point follow changing fashion dictates. At least among all recent civilized cultures, there has never been a move to cosmetically deify the unibrow. It would actually come as quite a shock to find anyone, anywhere who would ever classify a single, centrally connected brow as anything but wax-worthy.

Little Things Mean a Lot
For two such comparatively little facial components, brows actually receive a lot more attention than any other spot on the rest of the face. Biologically, your eyebrows serve the purpose of protecting your eyes from airborne debris, and can even be a bit of a shade-blocker, to boot. We tweeze them, thread them, wax them and depilate them. Then we come back with pencils, powders and some of us even pay for pricey permanent makeup tattoos to fill in and shape them to align with the times.

Pro Sania Vucetaj’s client list includes such regal beauties as Rihanna and many princesses of Saudi royalty, and she is happy to share her expert “browsing” tips. She classifies today’s full eyebrows as “beautiful and exotic looking.” Understanding that not everybody was blessed with substantial brows, she stresses the shape of brows to be the most important aspect, adding that makeup effects can make up for brow insufficiency.

Some of Vucetaj’s “Today’s Brows” Pro-Tips:

• Have the intended shape in mind before beginning. You want the brow front to align with the upper bridge of your nose.
• She suggests filling in your brows prior to any plucking. This provides the ideal template for success. Begin at the widest point with your pencil slanted at a perpendicular angle, and turning it to become sideways at the arch and thinnest at the end. Your brow should arch ¾ of the distance beginning at the nose bridge side and ending at the outer end.
• Once you’ve drawn and filled in your brows, brush them straight up, and you can then come back in and tweeze–which she states is the superior method of all, in removing brow hair.
• With the brow hairs brushed up, it’s ok to snip any hairs that are obviously longer than the others, extending past the edge, but do so sparingly.
• Brow pencils containing too much wax can easily clump. Look for a pencil that is more powder. and only a tad of wax, for a more natural look.
• After the trimming and tweezing, you probably need to come back in and touch up a faded brow line with your pencil.
• Repeat on the other brow–in a mirror-like fashion.
• She advises finishing your brows with a light dusting of sheer powder, as this will help to set your work and ensure that it will last.