If you ask any makeup artist, you'll get an unanimous answer – eyebrows are the most important part of the face. Why is that?
Surely nice skin, good bone structure and great makeup skills will show on your face, but you can ruin everything with wrongly shaped eyebrows. To see it for yourself, look at the picture below; the same face and the same makeup but different brows create completely different expressions and effects.
The most important thing about brows is they have to suit the shape of your face. In most of the cases, the natural arch of the brows is fine, just needs a bit of work in getting it in line. If your natural arch doesn't suit your face shape, then leave the part of the eyebrow that does (which is commonly the beginning) and pluck the rest. You can always draw the rest of it with an eyebrow shadow or pencil.
Here are the most common eyebrow shapes:
Also, here is the picture of most common face shapes:
Let's find the correct eyebrow shape according to face shape.
Oval face shape
This shape doesn't need much attention so it's considered to be the best face shape to have. Any eyebrows work on this face but curved eyebrows look exceptional. A soft angled eyebrow is what suits this face the best.
Round face shape
For this face shape, the goal is to make it appear less round by making the face look longer. A solution is a high arched eyebrow which elongates the face. People with a round face shape should stay away from the rounded eyebrows, which make the face more round. If you don't feel comfortable with a high arched brows, try soft angled eyebrows.
Long face shape
The aim for this face shape to look shorter. This is done with a flat shaped eyebrow, as opposed to an high arched eyebrows. Flat brow will draw attention away from the length of your face and add a bit of width to it instead. An absolute no-no for this face is a high arched brow, which makes long face look even longer.
Square face shape
The strong jaw line is the most striking feature of this face shape. Forehead, cheeks and jawline will both be equal in width and the jawline will be squared. So the aim for the brows is to soften the jaw line. An angled brow with a sharp peak, like in the 50's, works great here. Curved brows could work as well, but an angled brow evens the face better. One more tip: make sure that the arch of the brow is directly above the square of the jaw.
Heart face shape
Rounded tops and pointy bottom are the recogniseable features of this face shape, which looks like a typical heart. What we want to do, is to soften the curves of the face with the eyebrows. The best choice for this shape are rounded eyebrows with very soft arches. The arch may be high or low depending on whether it is a short heart shaped face or a long heart shaped face. Try to keep brow width natural but not too bushy or too thin.
Diamond face shape
This kind of face is the widest at the cheek bones area. A curved eyebrow solves the purpose to soften the and balance out the face. This way the widest part is more subtle and the arch elongates the face so it looks more balanced.
I hope you'll find this article helpful in determining which kind of brows suit you the best. For my next article (Eyebrows pt.2) I'm preparing a tutorial how to draw / fill in your eyebrows and what to use. Till then, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via e-mail sara.makeup@yahoo.com or on my Facebook page Dancesportmakeup.
Stay beautiful,
Sara
