Drawn-on brows?

[Stormith]

So I've been tossing around the idea of shaving my brows for quite some time now. I went through this board and read every eyebrow-related thread there was, but I'd still like some info/opinions...

- What are the best brands for pencils? Should one use a softer or harder tipped pencil?
- About how long does it take you to draw on your brows?
- Do the drawn on brows have any big downfalls or problems?


Also, I'm a little hesitant about just shaving them off right away because I haven't really been able to practice drawing them on... I've thought about shaving half or plucking them down really thin but....my eyebrows are THICK! And I don't mean they look like caterpillars on my face, I just mean my eyebrow hairs are thick and dark like the rest of my hair. Drawing over them isn't...really an option. I've never had a problem with them being visible enough, they're plenty dark and filled in.

I'd like to draw on my brows because I like the crispness of them, I'm so tired of having these unruly brows... I also like how you can change your brows day by day if you wanted to do something fun. I'm more of a natural arch type person anyway. I have no idea who this girl is, but I love her brows:

(Actually...I love her makeup/hair/pretty much everything xD)
But yeah, I'd be into brows that aren't quite so pencil thin and uber-rounded-archy-type.

And for reference, here is my FACE(old picture, but it shows my brows well):



Any advice, answers, tips, & pictures appreciated! Especially pictures :P I like pictures

[MrsEss]

I like your brows. Infact, I would KILL for them.

Madii & Dystopatica will chastise you for thinking about shaving them off & will say as I am......DON'T.

I've never shaved mine off, but I have really, really fair sparse brows.....madii has almost talked me in to getting them cosmetically tattooed on. I don't like mega intense brows on myself - it looks really odd as I'm used to the almost no brows that I have.

I only really need to tweeze them once a month or so...I do know that if you shave them off or over tweeze they grow back....wrong.

Some people can draw them on really, really well. Madii sent me a link (I forget it now) of a brilliant how to, so as not to look like a clown.

Bomber has BEAUTIFUL brows...check out the makeup show off thread.

here's some pics of mine (drwan on over my natural brows)



& I blued them for Madii:


& no make-up:


& & if you are gonna do it.....eyeshadow with an angled brush is better than any pencil

[Bomber]

if it's the unruliness that you mostly want to get rid of, clear mascara or vaseline is really good for taming brows into a neater shape.

I draw over mine with Illamasqua eyebrow cake just to make them that bit tidier looking, without actually having drawn on brows. When you have shaved off and drawn on brows, people REALLY like licking their finger and trying to wipe them off

Bomber has BEAUTIFUL brows...check out the makeup show off thread.

aww

[Dystopatica]

Oh dear Lord, please do not shave them off. Your natural brows in that picture are absolutely lovely and a great shape.

Eyebrows are the single MOST important feature on your face. It's so difficult to draw them on in a flattering and consistant way, for every 100 girls who shave and draw I personally think 99 would look better with natural brows. Of course this is just my personal opinion, but its an opinion formed from a decade of being part of a scene where shaved brows are the norm rather than something unusual.

If you want to play with your brows or occassionally do something theatrical and fun I would recommend skin coloured liquid latex to cover them instead of shaving and having the trouble of trying to get them even on a daily basis, not to mention the additional stress of them rubbing off or running.

Feel free to ignore my advice, like I said this is just my opinion and I learned these lessons the hard way of shaving my own off and looking like a tit for several years till I realised the error of my ways.

[edit] the brow tutorial DSM is talking about is here: http://www.biorequiem.com/blush-respons ... -tutorial/

[Kajablomst.]

I have half brows.. The inner half. they fall out for some reason, so i draw on the rest in a shape that i like, and i can make them different every day. I think it's easier to draw them when I have the inner part of them naturally, looks hard to draw the whole thing. You could try something like that, instead of removing the whole brow you could pluck the inner part how thin you want it and pluck the rest off...?

Here are my brows.

[xalternmommyx]

i pluck mine really thing towards the outer edges... and i use urban decay primer and then throw on some dark purple eyeshadow (my hair is purple and pink) i also throw on a tad bit of face lotion to just make it not look so dry. my eyebrows dry out horribly.

[zomgwtfcupcakes]

You could always so what I do, it makes it easy to draw on brows, it does no permemnant damage and it still looks okay when you have no makeup on.

Basically, I first pluck my eyebrows into a natural shape to gt rid of most of the hair, then I trim them really short (like 2mm) and then use a brow shaver to shave them into the thin shape I would want to draw on.

This method is good if, like me, you find it difficult to draw on brows with absolutely no guide, this way you have sort of a shadow of what you're drawing on to follow with makeup.

Hope that helped

[Lorny]

Noooooooooooo!

Don't. Do. It.

Just don't.

/end pointless post.

[ShadowThrone]

Prepare for a brow essay!

First off, your brows look fantastic as they are. From someone who has been on both sides of this, I would say don't do it! I shaved mine off when I was about 19 I think. They were quite thick but I'd plucked them too thin and they got sparse so I started shaving them off and drawing them on, I had black hair at the time so I drew them on black and it suited my general gothy look
don't get me wrong, I loved them for a while and I think they can look great on others, just not me anymore. Basically, I went blonde and still drew them on with a blonde pencil. Then it started to get a hassle drawing them on everyday, thats one of the drawbacks (arf). So pretty much just a few months ago, maybe in March or something I thought I would try growing them back. I'm 26 now and I don't think they are particulary flattering on me, plus I just look odd when relaxing at home etc. Its also almost impossible to try and do a 'natural' look I found. I managed to just grow back a few hairs nearest the inner eye and drawing them on still, mostly. Literally about a month and a half ago I thought I'd never have whole brows again, I decided to just leave the whole area alone and fill in as best I can. Now I have the basic brow shape grown back, I just fill them in and pluck the strays. It will probably take a few more months to get them back properly, if at all, but I am so happy with their progress

If you do still really want to do it, remember that they won't always grow back as they were before, at least not if you shave and pluck them as long as I did! Maybe do the half brow thing if you really want to try. As Kajablomst said, it does make it easier when you at least have something there to use as a guide.

I learned these lessons the hard way of shaving my own off and looking like a tit for several years till I realised the error of my ways.

I'd never have guessed that! Yours look fantastic now.

[AppleBisque]

*personally* if I don't shave my eyebrows off I'd be plucking them every day :/. My eyebrows were always a bit unruly and I found things just went a lot faster for me once I started shaving them right off haha.

For some people it's not a great idea, but I think/hope being browless sometimes isn't too noticeable on me b/c of my bone structure. People notice my lack of real eyebrows more when I draw them back in than if I don't, so I can rush out the door to something without feeling like an alien if I'm not put together yet haha

When I do draw mine back in I use a mabeline liquid liner with an awesome pointed sponge tip (I HATE liquid liners with actual brush tips, they just bend and smudge where you don't want)

http://www.buymebeauty.com/maybellineli ... liner.aspx

you have amazingly shaped eyebrows already though, you'd be hard pressed I think, to redraw them on with the same awesomeness. It took me some months to steady my hand enough to draw my eyebrows -the same- as eachother haha.

[Flick]

With the risk of being stoned I dont like drawn on brows. I am a true believe in eyebrows making the face. You are a very lucky person if you can get away with having none, and yours are really nice anyway. (Lol, I planned out what I was going to say then freaked a little, because so many people seem to love the look.. then read the replies and realised I was just repeating everyone anyway!) I have pretty awesome eyebrows (not to blow my own horn or anything, but I do) .. if you find yours are too unruly go get them profressionally done and ask them to trim them. OR if you have steady hands and faith in yourself get a pair of nail scissors, and trim the very ends of the longest curliest hairs. Also, like Bomber? or someone said, clear mascara or whatever will 'stick' them down. I just comb them down and they're fine, if they look unruly to start with. If I wear makeup I may fill them in with an eyebrow pencil, in brown, but rarely.


Keep em. Downfalls of drawn on eyebrows. They can be really harsh (fine if thats what you're going for), they can go wrong like every other aspect of makeup, you have to do them everyday, they can smudge or whatever.. I can think of many many more.

[Miss Liberty]

I hate to jump on the "don't do it" wagon, but I must agree with the others. Your brows are divine and have a wonderful shape. the arch is REALLY lovely.

I began tweaking mine because they are naturally BONE straight and I wanted a coveted arch like you seem to naturally have. One thing lead to another, and now I am drawing them on everyday. I have half brows naturally at this point, similar to how Kajablomst. described. The ends of my brows no longer grow. I'll be drawing them on FOREVER. I don't know why, but they just will NOT grow back in.

Day to day its not so bad, but it is a pain at times when I can't get them even or run out of pencil. Coming out of the shower, bumming around the house, or first thing in the morning I think I look a fright, and get embarrassed if I am browless around friends, family, and even my husband at times.

For those reasons I would say forget it. Yes, its nice to change the shape and color sometimes for fun, and shaved brows give you that option. However, you are completely reliant on your pencil, crayon, or whatever you use, and sometimes those are a ripe pain.

[justapuppetonastring]

I used to shave and draw mine on with liquid liner with a really thin brush. Iam an absolute perfectionist and would spend 20+ minutes everyday drawing them on until they were completely perfect. Takes a lot of time. You cant go out with mo make-up unless you dont mind having no brows, swimming is a problem and if you go abroad on holiday to hot places thats a problem evern sometimes in the summer is a problem (whe you sweat with theat etc).

Now I have thin eyebrows and draw them in over the top with an eyebrow pencil (body shop brow pencils are great) and it gives the neatness of drawn on brows but takes only a couple minutes. This way you can do them more extreme and very pencilled on or can use a blending brush over the pencil to ake it look very natural. I dont have a pic of my brows but will take one and put it here.

It is very much up to you but I would say just pluck them quite thin thenuse to pencil to make them more dramatic and neat xx

[VixenSingsBlack]

When I feel like my eyebrows are getting too unruly and really annoying me, I simply cut the eyebrow hairs really short, like how guys shave their heads down to little nubs. Then the hair is neat and tidy, and I can fill in with any color I want while maintaining my natural brow. As far as I can tell thus far, there's no long term effects at all, because the hairs just grow back out to their "normal" length. Maybe give this technique a shot and see how you like it. I use an eyelash comb to separate and stand up the eyebrow hair, then I use a tiny pair of scissors to trim. Makes me feel neater and cleaner in the eyebrow area, and it gives me the ability to more easily change eyebrow color should I desire it.

[Stormith]

So I made a bit of a jump and decided to do away with half of my brows, per Kajablomst's suggestion. I'm really happy with my results, because I've been able to lift the arch a bit and open up my eye area more, which I really wanted. I've been using a brow pencil to draw them on, it's not as much a pencil as it is pressed powder in pencil form. Works great, goes on really nice and matches my eyebrows perfectly! And I wear glasses 80% of the time, so having the more defined brows works well for me.


Remainder of my natural brows. I feel like spock, but I think they're cute :}}


Excuse my derpy face, I herp a derp quite a bit. My "norma" brow look. Pretty much recreating my natural brow shape, but lifted and extended a bit


Moar


This is my preferred new style, I like the elevated, extended arch. Looks nice with my glasses in my opinion :3


Same brows sans glasses

And the pictures sort of make them look more contrasty, in real life you can't really tell any big colour difference.

And sorry for all the pictures, I felt they worked better than descriptions


Any criticism, advice, etc,?

[Kajablomst.]

Looks great. Still looks very natural wich suits you alot. did you shave or pluck?

[justapuppetonastring]

Looks awesome. Good job x

[MrsEss]

the way they look on the last pic is really nice. Glad you didn't shave them off altogether

[MissAnthropik]

Personally, and I know this isn't what you will want to hear, but I preferred them before

In the pics where you have half brows, the first ones look almost exactly the same as before just, as madii says, a bit fuzzier. But if they are going to look the same then you have to question why do it? In the pictures where you say you have an elevated arch, I don't see it, maybe it's a bad camera angle, but they look flatter to me, and I don't find that as flattering on you.

Just my opinion obviously, but I think you had great brows before

Interestingly reading this thread has given me an idea... I pluck my brows quite thin, although not as thin as they used to be, and draw on in pencil, and i also lift the arch slightly and move it slightly towards the outside of my face, basically i take the natural line from the nose side outwards, then go fractionally beyond and take the line down on the top side of my actual brow on the outer corners (/badly explained description). I do this cause my eyebrows whilst dark are quite sparse and each hair is long, and I end up needing to fill in the gaps and if i don't thin them out then they look like big thick things. But I had never considered trimming them to help maintain the shape. I think I might grow mine back a bit thicker and then trim them and see what happens!

[VixenSingsBlack]

Personally, and I know this isn't what you will want to hear, but I preferred them before

In the pics where you have half brows, the first ones look almost exactly the same as before just, as madii says, a bit fuzzier. But if they are going to look the same then you have to question why do it? In the pictures where you say you have an elevated arch, I don't see it, maybe it's a bad camera angle, but they look flatter to me, and I don't find that as flattering on you.

Just my opinion obviously, but I think you had great brows before

Interestingly reading this thread has given me an idea... I pluck my brows quite thin, although not as thin as they used to be, and draw on in pencil, and i also lift the arch slightly and move it slightly towards the outside of my face, basically i take the natural line from the nose side outwards, then go fractionally beyond and take the line down on the top side of my actual brow on the outer corners (/badly explained description). I do this cause my eyebrows whilst dark are quite sparse and each hair is long, and I end up needing to fill in the gaps and if i don't thin them out then they look like big thick things. But I had never considered trimming them to help maintain the shape. I think I might grow mine back a bit thicker and then trim them and see what happens!

Here's how it looks

My normal brows


Trimmed 2 weeks ago


Trimmed 5 minutes ago


Freshly Trimmed with liquid liner on top

[MissAnthropik]

mine are way more sparse that yours... I don't think mine will look like that, but i might just try, i can always pencil them in like i already do! Can't be going to look that bad. If it looks ok, i'll grow mine back a bit thicker

[Flick]

Personally, and I know this isn't what you will want to hear, but I preferred them before

In the pics where you have half brows, the first ones look almost exactly the same as before just, as madii says, a bit fuzzier. But if they are going to look the same then you have to question why do it? In the pictures where you say you have an elevated arch, I don't see it, maybe it's a bad camera angle, but they look flatter to me, and I don't find that as flattering on you.

Just my opinion obviously, but I think you had great brows before

This. I just dont think people should mess with whats already good, and you honestly had awesome eyebrows before.

Vixensingsblack, thats sort of what I was talking about, except the 2 weeks later picture rather than the 5 minutes ago.