Ever feel like you’re the last person on earth to learn about a trend or TV show? Welcome to Late to the Party, where we’ll be digging into widely loved topics and techniques through the lens of someone who just discovered them. Everyone’s invited, because it’s never too late to join the hype.
I’m pretty fortunate to be blessed in the eyebrow department. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had fairly thick dark brows, which I used to hate, but actually worked out in my favor as Cara Delevingne rose to fame. Ever since then, I’ve barely tweezed them.
Although I rarely fill in my brows, I never leave the house without a swipe of brow gel to keep the longer hairs in place. I’ve been loyal to Glossier Boy Brow for years, but having run out recently, I’ve just been using whatever clear gel shows up on my desk (one of the many perks of the job). I love the natural look of clear gel, but for whatever reason it doesn’t want to keep my brows in place for more than an hour or two. Then in a recent meeting, I was reminded of a technique that may be the answer to my prayers: Soap brows.
Our editor-in-chief had just returned from Europe, where all her friends were currently obsessed with the technique, which technically went viral back in 2016, but is having a resurgence once again thanks to social media.
The idea behind soap brows is exactly how it sounds: Instead of using a brow gel, you use a bar of soap to shape and set your brows in place. While the trick has been re-popularized by beauty bloggers, it’s actually a classic makeup artist and drag queen technique that’s been used on photoshoots for years. Aside from being insanely cheap, soap is perfect for getting those really fluffy, brushed-up, editorial brows that gel alone can’t quite achieve.
Celebrity brow specialist Joey Healy says that this technique is best for those with darker, longer brows. He notes that if you also fill in your brows, this might not work for you as the soap can move the pigment around. And if you have more fragile brows, a gel might work better for you as the smushing required by soap brows can slow hair growth.
As for putting soap brows into practice, the technique itself is actually quite simple. All you need is a bar of soap (something clear like Pears Original is best), a disposable spoolie brush, and some water or setting spray. Just wet your brush and lightly drag it across the soap. “If you do too much it will start to lather and will look a little white,” says Healy. “You just want it to be ever so damp, and then press your brows in the direction of hair growth; up and then over, and then down.” The result is brows that are essentially glued into place, but looks extremely natural.
Me with my soap brows.
Bella Cacciatore
To be honest, I was totally skeptical. If it was actually so revolutionary, why wasn’t everyone throwing out their brow gel in favor of soap? But I was surprised at how user friendly it is. I love the way it makes my brows stay perky and fluffy, and it actually kept them that way all day, without feeling flaky or chunky. It wasn’t messy, and I spent less time on my brows than usual.
To say my eyebrows have always been lush would be polite. When I was growing up, they were bushy, and not in the cool Boy Brow kind of way. I have dark, thick hair—and the brows to match. Case in point: Back in middle school a guy once told me, “Your eyebrows are just so masculine,” and I went home and cried. My mother plied me with photos of Brooke Shields and told me how lucky I was. But in all of my favorite magazines all I saw were hyper-tweezed shots of Gwen Stefani, Drew Barrymore, and Nicole Richie, which made me dream of having dainty little crescent moons above my eyes.
But then something amazing happened. In 2011, Cara Delevingne hit the scene, and suddenly eyebrows weren’t something to minimize. Instead, they were on fleek. Celebrities everywhere began growing theirs out to stay au courant, and in fashion the mentality was the bushier, the better. My brows became my secret weapon, not my shame.
And while I have Delevingne to thank for helping me own my look, these days I have a new brow icon. None other than Meghan Markle. The shape! The thickness! Hers are total perfection. So it’ll come as no surprise that when I was visiting London earlier this month, one of the first stops on my itinerary was the famous salon where the Duchess gets her eyebrows done.
However, when I got to Nails & Brows, the black-owned boutique in the ultra-luxe neighborhood of Mayfair, I learned that it’s not the Markle that its customers flock to the salon for, it’s the Audrey. When Sherrille Riley founded the salon in 2014, she unveiled its signature brow treatment, which is inspired by Audrey Hepburn. “The Audrey consists of a straight, archless brow that tapers out toward your temple. The sculpt instantly lifts your face and creates a fresh and youthful appearance,” she tells me. And it’s the style that Meghan Markle always requests when visiting the salon. I was sold.
When my time came, they took me upstairs where I laid back on a plush white leather chair (airy, monochromatic accents is very much the aesthetic of the salon) beside a series of regulars—one who was getting married over the weekend and made sure to stop in before her big day. As the woman chatted about her upcoming nuptials, my stylist set to work measuring the dimensions of my face (I have been getting my brows done since I was 11 and never once has someone taken the time to actually make sure my brows were proportionate to the rest of my face). Using a piece of thread, she measured from my nostril to the bottom corner of my brow, and kindly told me that the length was too long and that I need to “take some hair off the sides.” The trick, she says, is to extend the string from your nostril to the outer edge of your eye—wherever that line hits on your brow is where the tail should end.
Overall it took them 40 minutes of threading, tweezing, filling in, and highlighting to give my brows that magic Meghan Markle/Audrey Hepburn realness—and I’ve never loved them more. So here’s my gift to you, a breakdown of exactly what they did, plus a few tricks for bringing out the best in your brows. Spoiler: It requires a lot of brushing.
Step 1: Take a brow brush—Riley recommends using the Beauty Edit Mayfair Brow Styler—and thread or tweeze your brows in a straight line, while following their natural shape. Remember: The Audrey is all about bringing your brow up and making it archless.
Gone are the days of eyebrows being an afterthought—or worse, hardly even there. Thanks to the likes of Cara Delevingne and Lily Collins, full, bushy eyebrows have been enjoying their time in the spotlight over the past few years. But even with so many great new innovations on shelves (cushions! pomades! gels!), mastering the art of thick, fluffy eyebrows is hard to get right. To get to the bottom of how to get full eyebrows once and for all, we polled brow pros around the country to share the most common mistakes they see women making with their brows. From over-plucking and over-arching to using the wrong shade of pencil, here are things you want to avoid—and the tricks to replace them with.
Eyebrows can make or break a look. Just look at last summer, when Rihanna debuted nineties-thin brows on the cover of British Vogue and everybody panicked, myself included. I’ve spent all this time growing out my brows to be their natural, full, gorgeous selves—and now thin is in? Thankfully, that trend didn’t really take off, and Brooke Shields–inspired eyebrows have stuck around.
For the most part, I leave my brows alone. I’ll run a tinted gel through them and brush the hairs into place but generally don’t touch pigmented products like waxes, pencils, or powders. (I’m terrified of looking like I Sharpied my brows on.) That said, when our beauty director brought me the Laneige Eyebrow Cushion from a recent trip to Korea, I was intrigued. K-beauty is so advanced that even brow products come in packaging and formats I’ve never tried before. The Laneige Eyebrow Cushion, for example, houses the brow product in a cushion sponge inside the compact—just like you’d see in a cushion foundation. It also comes with a double-sided applicator that includes an angled brush on one end and a tiny spoolie on the other.
Still, I was worried my brows would look painted on—until I tried it. The end result was full and defined. The cushion keeps you from using too much product, resulting in a very natural finish; it also allows for the formula to be watery and lightweight, like watercolors, so it’s impossible for the tint to get too clumpy or crunchy.
It’s fairly intuitive to use, even for someone like me, who usually just swipes on Glossier’s Boy Brow and goes. I started by brushing my brows into shape with the spoolie side of the brush, then dipped the angled brush into the lighter side of the compact (the darker side doesn’t match my hair). Instead of drawing on my whole brows, I made small strokes, as if I were painting, to fill in any sparse patches. I also used the brush to define the tails and make them a little sharper, but left the arch and shape alone. Finally, with the spoolie, I fluffed up the hair a little bit and blended the color out.
As a result, my brows looked more defined, but not in an obvious way. It just gave a little more structure to my face and shifted focus to my eyes. I topped the cushion off with a little clear gel to keep the actual hairs in place, and my brows looked flawless all day. While the pigment is a great product, in my eyes the real hero of the compact is the included spoolie. It’s short but very dense, so it easily fluffs up hairs while brushing them into place, making the perfect fuzzy yet defined brow.
Maybe one day thin brows will be back—but until then, I’ll be reaching for this cushion.
Unless you’ve been chilling under a rock lately, you’ve probably heard of microblading, the new-ish, semi-permanent version of eyebrow tattoos. They’re not your grandma’s stamped-on brows; instead, the delicate, super-fine hair strokes look natural and realistic in a way that the first-gen versions never did. Microblading’s recent popularity has spawned microshading and microfeathering, two techniques that give you a different brow look depending on your preferences. Here’s how they differ—and what that’ll mean for you.
Microblading
Eyebrows before and after microblading
Best for: Anyone who wants a natural brow look that lasts.
What is microblading: Microblading is a technique using a super-fine pen (technically, a bundle of 12 to 15 needles) to deposit pigment into skin. The tip is so fine, in fact, that it can create hair strokes that look legit. And the needles reach only into the superficial layers of the skin, which is what makes the method semi-permanent (versus permanent, like traditional cosmetic tattoos). Think of each stroke as a little paper-cut. (We know what you’re wondering: Yes, it hurts, but your brow artist can numb the area first.) Compared to other techniques, “microblading gives a very natural look and better simulates hair,” says Betsy Shuki, makeup artist and brow expert who offers microblading services at the office of NYC plastic surgeon Scott Wells, MD.
What you should know: Prices vary based on location and artist expertise, but expect a quality job to run somewhere between $700 to $1,500. In the first few days, you might want to plan around your brows. “On the first day after microblading, clean your eyebrows with distilled water on cotton pad gently and apply aftercare cream every four hours,” says Shuki. On the second day, repeat that three times. For the next five days, do this morning and night. Your brow area might be red and scabby, so try not to schedule big things (e.g., a huge job interview or engagement photos) for the first week or two. “Also, avoid going to the gym, any excess sweating around eyebrows will prevent pigment retention and can cause infection,” adds Shuki.
How long microblading lasts: You’ll need a touch-up in about a month (the cost of this is typically budgeted into the fee of the initial service). Then, microblading can last anywhere from 12 months to three years, depending on your lifestyle. A few ways to extend it: Stay out of the sun, since it can fade the pigment, and avoid putting exfoliants (like retinol and glycolic acid) near your brows, because they’ll lift the top layers of your skin with continued use—and the color with it.
Microfeathering
PHOTO: Kristie Striecher / Striiike
Eyebrows before and after microfeathering
Best for: Anyone who wants to lightly fill out the brows they already have.
What is microfeathering: Microfeathering is a form of microblading, and a technique created (and trademarked) by eyebrow artist-to-the-stars Kristie Streicher. She’s best known for her feathered brow, a no-needle shaping method that’s all about a natural, fluffy-looking brow. This is similar to that, but with pigment. Like microblading, she uses a fine blade to create tiny incisions. “Pigment is then deposited into the incisions, resulting in an incredible natural-looking ‘eyebrow hair,'” says Streicher. Unlike microblading, which typically creates most of the brow for you, Streicher uses your existing brow hairs as the “starting base” and simply fills it in as needed.
What you should know: Microfeathering is a little more high-maintenance than microblading, only because Streicher is so exact. She requires a consultation to ensure that there’s enough natural hair to help blend the pigment into your brows. (And, even so, there’s usually a growing-out period of six to 12 months so your existing brow hairs are all accounted for.) It’s also a two-part process (all of which costs $1,000 for Streicher’s procedure). “During the first appointment, microfeathered strokes are created in some of the more dense area of the brow,” explains Streicher. “Six to eight weeks later, depending on how your skin heals and responds, additional strokes are then added.” Everyone heals differently, she says, so she can better complete the look once she knows how your skin will recover.
How long microfeathering lasts: It typically doesn’t have the staying power of microblading because “the pigmented stokes are much finer and natural looking,” says Streicher. Depending on certain factors, like your skin type (oily skin won’t hold the pigment as well), age, and skin care routine, microfeathering will usually last eight to 12 months, max.
Watch: Microblading, Microshading, and Microfeathering: What’s the Difference?
Microshading
PHOTO: Betsy Erbeli Shuki
Eyebrows after microshading and microblading
Best for: Anyone who wants brows to look more “done” (i.e. thick and filled in).
What is microshading: If microblading is like painting and microfeathering more like sketching, microshading is like an Impressionist got ahold of the blade. “Microshading technique is done using either an electric hand tool or a manual tool, which creates a soft, powdered effect that resembles eyebrow powder,” says Shuki. Instead of the hair stroke typical with microblading and microfeathering, microshading employs a stippling method, which uses repetitive dots of pigment. It’s like the pomade or powder to microblading’s pencil strokes—just semi-permanent. The overall effect more closely resembles the sort of brow you’d find on any given Instagram influencer.
What you should know: Some people could benefit from a combo of microshading and microblading, says Shuki. That candidate would have thinning eyebrows with drier skin—so, likely on the more mature side. Thinning brows can benefit from the extra oomph of shading. If you’re on the fence between the two, nothing beats checking out photos on Instagram. They’ll give you a good understanding of a brow artist’s style, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect when you make an appointment. Plus, it shows the quality of the work, since pictures can’t hide a botched microblading or microshading job. (Also, spring for an artist with a license or certificate from the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals or the American Academy of Micropigmentation, which shows that they’ve undergone the proper training.) Luckily, if you do get both, the price is about the same as it would be for just microblading. Expect to pay anywhere between $700 and $1,500.
How long microshading lasts: All good news here—there’s no difference in the lifespan of microshading and microblading. So, excluding the first touch-up, you have a solid year before you need to see your brow artist again.
