Bleached Brows: Cara Delevingne Did It and You Should Too

After seasons of fetishizing the kind of lush, super-dark eyebrows on models like Cara Delevingne or Hilary Rhoda, some stylists are thinking its time to lighten up. While the models at the Givenchy show in Paris all had severely bleached arches, courtesy of makeup artist Pat McGrath. This included Delevingne, who was unrecognizable without her trademark black face frame. At Giambattista Valli, the models had lightened, but not completely erased brows, which makeup artist Val Garland said helped make their faces glow.

“Most women can’t get away with bleaching the brow entirely,” says makeup artist Robert Sesnek, whose clients include Chrissy Teigen, Lily Aldridge, and Kiernan Shipka. “But lightening it can bring a lot of focus to the eye.” He suggests taking the color down a shade or two—say, from black to chestnut—with facial hair bleach, such as Jolene Crème Bleach (which he always carries in his makeup kit). “It’s a very effective tool,” he says. “It takes some of the darkness out, and you end up with more eye space. Ultra dark can really close you off.”


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Givenchy. Courtesy of Givenchy


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Sacai. Courtesy of Sacai


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Loewe. Courtesy of Loewe


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Sibling. Courtesy of Sibling


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Givenchy. Courtesy of Givenchy


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Giambattista Valli. Courtesy of Giambattista Valli


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Alexander Wang. Courtesy of Alexander Wang


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Haider Ackermann. Courtesy of Haider Ackermann.