Have You Been Filling In Your Brows With the Wrong Color?
By Lexi Novak
It’s one of those beauty steps that usually gets glossed over as if it were so obvious we don’t even need to explain, but “fill in your brows” leaves a lot of room for (mis)interpretation. Figuring out how to use wax, powder, and pencils is tricky enough, but even if you’ve mastered the technique, your brows could still look ridiculous if you apply the wrong color. I asked brow master Kristie Streicher and makeup artist Troy Surratt (who happens to make the best brow pencils ever) to explain how to find the perfect match when the color on your head isn’t the same as the color above your eyes.
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If you have dark hair and you dye it blonde: “Use a brunette pencil to fill in the sparseness and create a feathered look,” says Surratt. Find one that matches your eyebrow color as closely as possible, but keep in mind that a cool gray cast tends to be the most flattering. “I’m loving the whole contrast of lighter hair and darker brows, especially if you have blue or green eyes,” says Streicher. Her one exception? “If you’re superfair with dark brows and you lighten your hair, it’s nice to soften that with a lighter shade to make it look more natural.”
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If you have blonde hair and you dye it brunette: Use a pencil that’s a shade or two darker than your natural color. “If you’re platinum blonde to strawberry, a blonde pencil would be enough to enhance the brows without making them look drawn on,” says Surratt. For those with medium- to dark-blonde coloring, a light-brunette pencil is best.
If you dye your hair auburn: In this case, “it’s not about matching hair color, which can look fake. It’s about warming the brow base to balance it,” says Surratt. Stick with a warm medium-brown pencil. It will add fullness and definition to brows, and it will pick up the gold hues in the auburn.
Photo: Franz Walderdorff
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