I was blessed with naturally "full" eyebrows thanks to my parents, and I've been doing them ever since I learned to pluck them (around 12-13?). For me, doing them myself is the easiest way to get the fuller look I like. I've gone to salons to get them waxed twice, both when I was in high school, and they always made them too thin.
Getting your eyebrows waxed is a great way to get the right shape, because then you can maintain them by tweezing. I prefer saving the money and leaving them more natural, though, by using small beauty scissors to trim down the length of the hairs and tweezers to pluck away strays.
I use the three following products to upkeep my brows on a regular basis:
Please excuse the state of my ELF brow gel- it's been put to good use!
ELF Wet Gloss Lash & Brow mascara ($1 professional line)
Beauty scissors
Tweezers
I don't normally fill in my brows with any brow pencils/gels (when I do, I use my MAC Impeccable Brow Pencil in Taupe). My go-to, super-inexpensive, daily brow saver is the ELF Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear mascara from the $1 line. It's a double-sided clear brow gel/mascara, but both sides are virtually identical so I use them interchangeably. I call this my brow saver because it honestly makes my life so much better. With the way my brows are, they get unruly and craziness ensues without something to tame them! You can of course use any brow gel you have to do this, but this is an awesome deal and doesn't leave your brows crunchy or stiff.
This sequence of pictures shows the awesomeness that is brow gel:
The picture on the far left would be my eyebrows at their worst- if my hands touch them, I pull on a sweatshirt, etc. (And that's me making a stink eye at them too). You probably all know how to use a brow gel- I don't do anything out of the ordinary- but basically, I just take the wand and comb my eyebrows in an upward motion, then comb them over in place. I tried showing this in the middle and far right picture.
And that's it for daily maintenance! As for trimming them, the brow gel comes in handy again. I comb them upwards, like I did above, just in a more exaggerated way- you want the length to extend a little above your natural eyebrow, so you know what needs to be trimmed. The brow gel just helps to hold them up there while you trim them. Then, you just hold the beauty scissors horizontally and clip the stray/long hairs to your desire. I usually just take off the ends and leave them long enough to still look "full", but cleaned up.
I love maintaining my brows this way because it's simple and affordable- you really can save a lot of money doing it yourself, if possible. It's definitely personal preference, though, and deciding how thin/thick you want them to be is your call! I know some people feel the need to pencil in their eyebrows, too, which also depends on the look you like on yourself.
How do you guys do your eyebrows? Have you tried the ELF $1 brow gel/mascara? If there's a better/easier/faster way, or just any tips/tricks you'd like to share, please do!
xox
