Eye on Brows

By: Marvin Westmore

Posted: June 25, 2008, from the January 2006 issue of Skin Inc. magazine.

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• Tattooing or permanent makeup for sparse or nonexistent brows

My preference is a 7-inch wooden brow pencil, sharpened with a single-edge razor blade or a multipurpose snap-off blade cutter. This enables me to make thin, natural hairlike strokes in the direction in which the brow grows. My second preference is a fine-line mechanical pencil that also creates dimensional hairlike strokes. Some eyebrow pencil leads are firm, while others are soft. The soft ones have a tendency to wear down fast and to smudge easily.

Brush-on brow powder colors the skin and does not leave natural-looking hairlike strokes. Lash and eyebrow dye only affects the existing brow hair and does nothing for the sparse areas. As a result, once the brow hair is the desired color, a pencil still will be needed to fill in and enhance. Tattooing and permanent cosmetics may lead to an unnatural shape and a solid coloring that produces an extremely artificial look.

Capitalize on eyebrows

You can develop a lucrative specialty service with eyebrow shaping and designing. These techniques will set you and your business apart in the field of personalized makeup artistry in today’s fast-paced and competitive economy. When you develop the knowledge and skills for this much-needed service, you also will develop a loyal and growing clientele.

Author’s note: Sixteen years ago, I wrote my first article “Balance and Symmetry of Eyebrows,” for a budding young skin care publication called Skin Inc. magazine. How time flies!