As a child of the ’90s, super-thin eyebrows were the thing in the beauty world. My idols were the thin-browed Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. Brook Shields and her unplucked eyebrows were the antithesis of my approach. Instead, I plucked them to the extreme, ridding my forehead of hairs at a rapid rate.
Now in my 30s, my eyebrows have grown back a little, though never to the thick, fullness of my pre-plucked youth. Because of this, I’ve become very good at making them look thicker without a brow pencil or coloured powder. My secret is: brow gel.
Whenever I tried to thicken my eyebrows with dark pencils and powders, I found they looked blocky and unnatural. When I use only a clear brow gel, they look both thicker but higher too, opening up my eyes and making me look more awake.
“The best way to apply brow gel is to follow the natural direction of the hairs, starting from the inner corner of the brow and brushing upwards and outwards. Then, using small strokes, you can refine the shape to place each hair exactly where you want it,” the Clarins make-up team explained to me when I asked.
“The trick is to brush the hairs slightly upwards, especially at the inner corners of the brows, directing the tail ends outwards. This is what visibly opens up the eyes and creates that flattering ‘lifted’ effect.”
A final tip: after applying the gel, gently press the flat side of the brush or your fingertip against the hairs for a few seconds. This helps to set them in place and dampen any tell-tale shine.
If you do prefer to use a pencil or coloured powder, it’s best to brush brows up – with a clean spoolie – first, followed by adding shade and then locking it all in place with a gel. Go slow, you can always add more colour at the end, whereas it’s quite hard to come back from an overfilled brow.
Here are some of my favourite brow gels for thicker, lifted brows.
