Beauty Hints: Eyebrows
By Alicia Hart
The blank facial expression of a child’s drawing is a thing that disturbs many adults without their quite knowing why. The essential features are there, but still there’s something missing — the eyebrows.
Eyebrows are important — yours quite as much as those a young artist adds to his picture with a couple of enexpert pencil strokes. With the proper eyebrows your eyes become more beautiful and expressive, and your entire face gains balance and importance.
There are three major eyebrow problems, according to Max Factor, Jr., Hollywood make-up stylist. Those that are unruly or to thick may, as a rule, be easily remedied. Too-thin ones offer a bigger challenge.
If your brows are of basically good formation, yet still fail to frame your eyes as they should, chances are that control is the thing that’s lacking.
There’s no need to dim your beauty with masculine-looking bushy eyebrows. Make a habit, urges Factor, of brushing them regularly. A bit of petroleum jelly, smoothed on before you begin brushing, will help bring them into line.
If the basic shape is good, following the contours of your eye sockets, it’s a good idea to restrict your tweezing to the few strays that straggle beyond the edges. Often pointing-up of the tips is all that’s necessary.
If your problem is too-abundant eyebrows that shadow far down into your lids, brushing is not the sole answer to your problem. A skillful reshaping is called for. First study your brows and determine what part of the natural line should be retained.
As a rule, the upper part of most women’s eyebrows are in perfect line with the bony arch and should not be changed except for elimination of stragglers.
Even up the upper edge and then tweeze the lower side of your eyebrows to conform with this. By clearing the area between your eyes and your brows in this manner, you can highlight your eyes, make them appear larger.
The eye-socket should again be your guide if you’re faced with the task of placing eyebrows where nature has forgotten to grow them.
In this case eyebrow pencils, not tweezers, are your best allies. Begin by drawing a single shadowy line along your brow arch to act as a guide. Shadow this line with your fingertip.
Then, with a very sharp pencil point, draw on brows, making one “hair” at a time with short, sure strokes. Dull the sharpness of this effect with your fingertips.
To avoid a look of obvious artificiality, use both a black and brown eyebrow pencil to produce a two-toned effect. First create an arch of black “hairs,” and then feather brown ones over them.
This two-color trick is an important one for anyone who uses an eyebrow pencil to remember. If your brows are very dark, avoid using a jet black pencil, advises Factor. A brown one is best, to create a proper illusion of light and shadow.
Text taken from the Edwardsville Intelligencer. Edwardsville, Illinois. February 7, 1951
