If you are reading this article and are a woman, continue. If you are reading this article and identify as a man who is eyebrow-conscious, continue. Essentially, keep reading if you are interested in achieving brows on fleek.

For those of you who know me personally, you already are well aware of my obsession with perfect brows. Having these beauties was both a gift and a curse. At an early age, I was ridiculed by my fellow classmates for bushy, caterpillar-like brows. Actually, now that I am writing this I specifically remember my next door neighbor calling me a caterpillar at age 7, which was also the age I began waxing the middle of my eyebrows so that I no longer resembled Helga from “Hey Arnold!” Anyways, back to my eyebrow saga: these babies have been shaped, plucked, waxed, threaded and transformed more times than I can count. I have been through it all, and what I mean by this is that I have literally experienced and experimented with every known eyebrow formula, and continue to do so till this very day. Why, you may ask? Because we should never stop striving for perfection, especially when it comes to our brows, which is why I am here today to present my interpretation of what it takes to be on fleek along with a few stories to supplement how I arrived at each step in the process.

In the beginning, there was nothing. Man was irrelevant and the only matter in the universe was two block-shaped pieces of hair resting on my lower forehead. This was the end of the caterpillar era, and the dawn of separation by wax. There is not much else to be said about these formally conjoined brows, except for the fact that I was now past my Helga stage. Fast-forwarding hundreds of millions of years – to sometime in middle school – I was now attending to both the underneath part of my brows and the top as well. Here is where the story really gets interesting. At this juncture, I had developed enough hand eye coordination to use a tweezers. However, man is a fickle animal and sometimes misuses the tools he/she discovers. By the time I had reached my prime at my Bat Mitzvah I was regularly seeing a specific, family-trusted waxer, and once again my world was about to drastically change. I waxed, plucked, plucked some more, and basically ended up with twigs on my face. Despite my naïve sense of brow education, I took away a very important notion from this woman. She seriously transformed my perception of eyebrows into what it is today: eyebrows shape your face. Literally, the shape of your brows can change the way in which your face is framed. Therefore, despite my over-plucking, she had sculpted mine into perfectly symmetrical parentheses and relentlessly scolded me every time I would come to her with short stubby hairs that grew from my Tweezerman’s. But most importantly, she used blue wax.

Important tip: blue wax is generally used for body hair, and not facial hair. However, because it is meant for body hair it is also significantly less irritating than regular facial wax. Therefore, if you are looking for a waxer and they have the blue wax, I would highly recommend asking them to use it on your face. It causes less irritation, is strong so it can get those short stubborn hairs that you recently plucked and are just poking through the surface again, or is great if you have thick brows in general.

But alas, the dawn of the tweezers and our family-trusted waxer was coming to a tumultuous turning point. I had become tweeze-happy. Tweezing away day and night for the fun of it until my brows looked like absolute shit. There is literally no analogy strong enough to emphasize how jacked they were, seriously. Moving in to 8^th grade, I had discovered yet another amazing tool: pencil and eyebrow filler. And now is a definitive list of my favorite pencils/fillers to date:

Benefit Brow Zings: these are basically a powder-gel filler combo. They come in several different colors and are good for people looking to achieve the full and dark look. Not the best for someone looking to just fill in minor spots or details because all in all, this product is for those who have some SERIOUS brow deficiency. The combination of powder and gel is a heavier look and meant to not fade in color. This was one of my first brow products that I genuinely fell in love with, but eventually had to graduate from as I continued to grow mine out in an attempt to achieve natural fullness.

YSL “Dessin des Sourcils” eyebrow pencil.

This pencil is duel-ended meaning it has both the pencil and the brush in one convenient package. Great for on the go fixes and really good for people who need minimal coverage and aren’t wishing to emulate Helga Pataki’s thickness. I had been using this pencil for sometime in college as well as high school but found that alone, it did not offer the same kind of longevity as the Benefit Brow Zing. It is definitely a softer look and requires additional time and skill to apply because think about it: you are literally drawing on your brows with this pencil. So, in essence, only use a pencil if you know what shape you’re meant to draw because otherwise you are going into battle blind and defenseless.

Benefit “Gimme Brow”.

Along with another product, I am currently using this one and its pretty good. It basically does a few different things: tints, thickens, fills, sets. Meaning, it will dye your brows a little darker for fullness and coat them with a gel-like formula to give it an extra boost of shine and color. In addition, it is not permanent, thank god, it is instantaneous and long-lasting for the day. I really like this product because it feels like the minute I brush it on, my brows instantly feel thicker, hence its name “Gimme Brow”. I would be careful with this one though, because it only offers minimal intensity and coverage as far as coloring goes. It is more like a thickener than an actual filler (in my opinion at least).

Laura Mercier brow powder duo and brow pencil.

I am currently using this product along with “Gimme Brow”. It is so far my most favorite combination. Laura Mercier does not come cheap, but lasts forever. A little goes a long way with this brand. The brow powder duo is basically two different powder colors that you can mix, or not mix, so that you can lightly fill in for a softer, more natural look. The pencil is similar to the YSL one but the brush is higher quality and the actual consistency of the pencil is smooth, light, and doesn’t feel gooey like how your old Sephora brand eyeliners used to get in 7^th grade. (Side note: if you are willing to splurge, there is a great Laura Mercier eyebrow filler brush that you can buy for the powder duo).

Benefit Brow Bar Tinting.

This is not a product, but instead a service. If you haven’t caught the trend yet, I have a special place in my heart for Benefit Cosmetics, which you will understand in greater detail late on in the article. The brow tinting service changed my life. You are not dying the hair, but instead tinting so that it eventually fades to a softer look and you don’t have to live with it for several weeks or months. Tinting lasts about 2 weeks for full effect, and not only adds thickness to your brows with the color, but also slightly dyes the skin underneath for an extra oomph. Don’t worry though, its not bad for the skin underneath whatsoever. I have never had any type of reaction to Benefit tinting. A great thing about this particular service is that it is offered anywhere where there is a Benefit Cosmetics Brow Bar. Ulta has one in every store and sometimes you may find them elsewhere as well. Added bonus: whoever is tinting them for you will match the color perfectly, meaning you’re not just getting some hack dye-job but instead, colors will actually be mixed and tested so that you’re not walking out of the store looking like Kahlessi, unless of course that is the look you’re going for.

The end of the tweezers era was coming and I was shifting into the time of threading and waxing.

Threading.

A lot of women who I’ve talked to throughout the years tell me they either hate it or love it, and nothing in between. Here is the thing about threading: it is very difficult to find a good threader. Sure, they all technically do the same thing, but they do not have the same skill as one another. For one, a special tip that I’d like to mention is that you should watch the person who is about to thread you do someone else. Something that I try to stay away from when it comes to threaders are the ones who follow the natural shape of your brows in their current state. Meaning, if they are threading and are doing so in alignment with the shape that clearly is not working for your face, then they’re merely continuing the problem of non-fleekness. I know this might sound counter-intuitive but essentially, everyone has a natural shape to their brows which over time is morphed into what we think is a better-looking shape. This is totally wrong. The threader who follows the self-made “natural” shape is one who is not doing their job correctly. Threaders more or less get the stray hairs, trim a little, and shape but only at the clients request.

And here is another problem, asking for a shape is sometimes misguided, which is why I do not personally trust threading as much these days because even if I do in fact request the correct shape, it does not always mean I will end up with what I ordered. Sometimes, I would walk out of the threaders with an economy carwash instead of the ultra-deluxe one, know what I mean? The upside to threading is that if you in fact have found one that you believe to be trustworthy with your brows, you are experiencing more pain without the cost of skin irritation. Threading definitely helps when it comes to the later, namely because you’re not applying heat or any type of solution to the skin. But beware: threading is literally plucking times 842039740293429048. When your brows are being pulled out, it is done at the very root of the hair. You’re pores are therefore more exposed than ever after threading and you should take extra precaution to not touch your face whatsover. In addition, do not ask for moisturizer, ONLY apply aloe or water until you come home and wash your face with your preferred skincare regimen. The skin is a freshly exposed and very sensitive, bacterium and other undesirable elements can easily enter your pores.

Waxing.

Back to waxing… yes, blue wax is a positive. But there are still many other kinds as well. Almost all waxers today will tell you that the product they use is for sensitive skin, is hypo-allergenic, gluten-free, fair trade, blah blah blah. Aside from the actual formula to the product being used, there is another VERY important component that everyone should pay attention to: layout and design. No I am not talking about the blueprints of your Barbie Dream Home, I’m speaking of the actual shape of your brows. My current, and absolute favorite, way to map your brows is by using Benefit Cosmetic’s brow mapping guide:

1. Find the three spots on your brows: where the bridge of your nose meets your brow (more specifically, where the naison of your nose meets the brow), your natural arch, your natural end point, which can be found if you move diagonally outward from the far corner of your eye to your outmost brow point.
2. Mark each spot! (the start, the arch, and the end)
3. And finally, my favorite part: draw on the perfect shape by connecting all three spots. You do not need to aim for any specific shape, but rather draw one in accordance your face’s natural slope and where the markings meet each other.

In my personal opinion, The Benefit Brow mapping method is the best way to start shaping your brows into what they should be so that your face is properly framed and all other facial features compliment each other, including your brows. To see a full demo on this, go to https://www.benefitcosmetics.com/beauty-services#section=mapping&dilemma=uneven