When I was younger, I distinctly remember my grandma, whose brows were fairly thin and shaped with the help of a pencil, telling me that I should never do anything to my eyebrows.

I apparently didn’t take my grandma’s advice to heart, because in 5^th grade, I decided it was time to take on the task of shaping my eyebrows. With an unskilled hand and a pair of tweezers, I sat in front of my mirror meticulously plucking hairs.

As you can probably imagine, the end result wasn’t good. I made the classic rookie mistake of plucking too much of the hairs in between my eyebrows, making the natural proportions totally off.  I ended up wishing I had never done it and was embarrassingly trying to hide my eyebrows from my mom, which was obviously hard as eyebrows are on your face…

After that experience, I thankfully allowed my brows to grow back before I touched them again and also vowed that next time I would let someone else do the dirty work.

When I hit my teenage years, I became really into getting my eyebrows waxed. It seemed that it was really “in” to have perfectly shaped brows with absolutely no random hairs. However, this soon posed a couple of issues for me.

I became aware that the women who were waxing my eyebrows had no eyebrow hairs themselves, and instead had what I like to call “marker brows.” This wasn’t too reassuring. Eventually, my brows became way too thin and unnatural looking. Also, walking around for an entire day with red, swollen eyebrows wasn’t worth it. Finally, I shied away from the waxing technique and decided I was ready to take matters into my own hands.

I began to pluck my eyebrows and let them grow out to their natural shape and then just pluck any of the random hairs that appeared way below or above my brow line and some hairs in between. As of lately, this technique has worked perfectly, especially since a huge beauty trend in the past couple years has been bold eyebrows.

Personal anecdote aside, bold brows are everywhere. Open any magazine and you’ll probably see British model Cara Delavigne and her signature eyebrows plastered on an entire page. Minimal, natural looking makeup paired with a bold brow is not only fortunately easy, but also everywhere in the beauty world.

I think that eyebrows really shape the face and bring an entire look together. Eyebrows are my favorite part of my makeup routine, and if I’m running low on time to get ready, chances are I will give attention to my eyebrows first. Whether you’ve got brows that can’t be tamed or some that need a little help making them bold, I’ve come up with a list of products that will be sure to help you achieve a full brow.

Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil: I’ve tried many different eyebrow pencils and this is the one I always seem to reach for. Not only is it inexpensive, it’s long-lasting, comes in three different shades AND comes with an eyebrow brush on the other end. First, I brush my eyebrows up and outward, run a bit of the pencil through my brows in short, upward motions, and then brush through them again to get any excess product out.

Eye Shadow: When making your brows look fuller, it’s extremely important to keep them looking natural. Running a bit of eye shadow through my hairs after applying pencil helps give the brows some natural looking texture. While many other brands and colors of eye shadows can work, I find that MAC eye shadows have the best color payoff and stay on all day. Although they are $15 a pop, they last forever making the price very worth it. If you have blond to light brown hair, Omega is the perfect shade for your brows. While it looks really light in the pan, when it goes on it gives off just enough color for a natural look. Charcoal Brown is the perfect color for those of you with dark brown hair to black hair. After I run the Rimmel pencil through my brows, I apply a bit of Omega (as I have light brown hair) with an angled liner brush, and then run through my brows again with the brush on the other end of the pencil.

Clear Mascara: I like to use clear mascara as the final step because it holds my eyebrows in place all day long. While there are many very good high-end, more expensive brands such Anastasia, I just like to use the Great Lash clear mascara from Maybelline. It’s very inexpensive and does the trick. Quick tip: Before you apply the mascara, run the wand on the back of your hand to avoid crusty, unnatural brows.

I’d love to hear from you all! For any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].