Hollywood Brows

Bold eyebrows are in! Here, we reveal Tinseltown’s best arches—and expert tips on how to claim them for yourself

By Emily Hebert

Thick arches accessorized eyes on the fall and spring runways—models sported black Elizabeth Taylor-inspired brows at Altuzarra’s spring show—and they’re popular on the red carpet too. “I love the return to a strong brow,” says CoverGirl celebrity makeup artist Beau Nelson. “It’s classic and beautiful and makes the face look glamorous and powerful-looking.”
 Groomed, filled-in brows can also enhance the eyes. “Think of your eyes as pictures; if you give them beautiful frames, they’ll make more of a statement,” says Hollywood brow-shaper Tonya Crooks. Other benefits of pronounced brows, according to Crooks and fellow star-groomer Anastasia Soare: larger-looking peepers and a more youthful appearance.  

Click through for the hottest celebrity brows—and tips on how to be bold!

The first step to getting gorgeous brows? Wean yourself off tweezers and use scissors sparingly. It’s not easy, but don’t worry—even stars like Kim Kardashian have difficulty letting go. “Kim’s pretty good at doing her own brows, but sometimes when she travels she’ll trim too much and we’ll have to grow the hairs out again,” says Soare, Kardashian’s go-to brow guru.

And, while you might fear sliding into uni-brow territory, putting down the tweezers means letting those pesky inner-brow hairs grow a little. According to Soare, the beginning of the brow should start from the middle of your nose nostril. Adds Crooks: “The most important hair is closest to the nose bridge, where it comes down and starts to follow the ocular bone. If you remove too much from this area, the brow looks flatter and less triangular.”

Of course, not everyone’s eyes are topped with thick frames like Kardashian’s. That’s where growth serums can come in handy, says Crooks, who recommends Talika Eyebrow Lipocils Conditioning Gel and RevitaBrow. Some of her clients, like Fergie, also apply Latisse even though the prescription lash enhancer is not yet FDA-approved for brow use.
 “When Fergie came to me, she tweezed so much that some of her hair follicles were damaged to the point where they were slow to grow back, if at all,” says Crooks. “I had her start using Latisse, but she’d forget to use it. In order for a growth serum to work, you have to apply it every evening before bedtime—that’s the trick.”

Since getting on Crooks’ program—and sticking with it—Fergie’s brows have gotten thicker and shapelier. Crooks says she’s also lowered the Black Eyed Peas singer’s arch and made it less round.  

Besides a thicker appearance, growing out your brows will help you identify their natural shape, says Crooks, whether that be curved—or straight, like Audrey Hepburn’s. “Beautiful, full brows don’t necessarily have to have an arc,” says Crooks. “You should embellish your brows’ innate characteristics instead of working against them and molding them into something they’re not.” To get an accurate idea of how your brows should look, note where new hair growth is coming in, and refer to childhood photos taken during the pre-tweezing stage.

Once you’ve established your true brow shape and cleaned it up accordingly—tweezing one hair at a time to protect against over-plucking—you can embolden your brows with makeup. Most experts recommend filling in eyebrows with a combination of powder and pencil—especially if, despite growing your arches out, they remain thinner than you’d like. “If you’re lacking hair in your brows, applying powder over a waxy pencil will make the color stick,” explains Soare, who shapes the hairs above Megan Fox’s come-hither stare.

When choosing a pencil and powder, Nelson says it’s important to go with a neutral tone that’s not too red or yellow. “Blonds should look for taupes, darker blonds and brunettes should opt for ashy browns, and dark brunettes should pick cool dark browns,” he says, adding that redheads and those with jet-black hair should reach for chestnut and blackened brown cosmetic shades, respectively.

Dark brunettes can lighten their brows one or two hues if they’d like, says brow wiz Heidi Evora-Santiago (exemplifying this look is her client, Evangeline Lilly, shown at left). After using an ultra-sharpened pencil to mimic the appearance of hairs where needed, Evora-Santiago uses an angled brush to apply brow powder on top: “Do soft feathery strokes to lightly fill in any remaining spaces between brow hairs. Brush brows upward with a squirrel brush or clean mascara brush, and lock the look in place with brow gel.” If you don’t have brow gel, you can also mist hairspray on your squirrel brush and comb through.
 

Natural brunettes who go blond can bring their brows up multiple shades with the help of a tinted brow gel, says Soare, who uses the product on Jennifer Lopez. “When I met Jennifer 15 years ago, she had darker hair and eyebrows than she does now,” says Soare about her client. “Since her hair is blonder these days, we’ve had to lighten her brows in order to maintain the right balance.” Soare uses her own tinting product on Lopez in between bleaching sessions (“Sometimes I’ll bleach her brows to make them lighter, but I don’t like to do that too often or else the roots get too dark and the ends get too light,” she says, noting that bleaching and chemical tinting should only be done by a trusted professional).
 

Not everyone who dyes their hair blond has to say goodbye to dark brows, though. “Marilyn Monroe had thick, dark eyebrows even though her hair was platinum and it looked gorgeous,” says Soare. “It worked because she had brown eyes—dark eyes can handle a dark brow even if the hair is blond.”

Monroe’s red lips are also on point. “If you have a bold brow, it's best to forgo a super-smoky eye and make the lips dramatic instead,” says Soare.

Nelson agrees: “Strong brows are great, but the key is to make sure that the rest of the face has some structure to it as well. A bold, defined lip can anchor the look.”

Nelson’s favorite makeup to accompany a bold brow, however, is “the classic Italian cinema face—beautiful liquid eyeliner, voluminous lashes, matte skin, and a creamy peach lip.” Demonstrating a modern-day version of this palette perfectly is newly crowned CoverGirl Sofia Vergara, shown at left.

The original bombshell? Sophia Loren, who was referenced by each of our brow-loving experts. “She’s the queen of the brow,” says Nelson.

“She was gorgeous and admired years ago and today we’re still looking to her for red-carpet inspiration,” says Soare. “Eyebrows were an important part of her look and the Old Hollywood look in general—and those two things never go out of style.”