Find your ultimate brow shape at home
People often overlook their eyebrows as an important part of their appearance, which is a huge shame, really. When you have full, well-groomed brows that are shaped to suit your face, your features appear balanced, your eyes pop and you look groomed without even a scrap of makeup on.
But because a one-size-fits-all approach does not work when it comes to shaping eyebrows, finding the right brow shape for you is rather difficult. Well, it used to be difficult.
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Enter Lien Davies’ foolproof eyebrow-measuring system: the Brow Quad Ratio, which we’ve taken from her fantastic eBook, Ultimate Brow Shape. This unique step-by-step measuring and shaping system, uses your facial features and face shape to determine where your brows start, arch and end, so that you can find you ultimate shape in the comfort of your own home. Yep, it's DIY - no need to go to the salon. Want to know how it works? Here’s how…
PRE-BROW SHAPING PREPARATION
It’s important to avoid distractions while working out your Brow Quad Ratio (a little maths requires concentration), so pour yourself a cup of tea and head into a room with lots of natural light. It’s ideal to sit in front of a full-length mirror or a vanity with a mirror, and to have a smaller handheld mirror for close-ups. Important tip: avoid using the magnified side if it has one – this will make it mighty tempting to over pluck, and unintentional thinner brows are not ideal. You’ll also need a clear ruler and a sharp brow pencil.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO MEASURE YOUR EYEBROWS
Measuring and outlining the shape of how your brows should look prior to any hair removal will ensure you’re left with your ideal shape each and every time. And the Brow Quad Ratio lets you personalise your shape without any guesswork.
The result of your measurements will resemble an irregular quadrangle, which can be repeated over time to ensure your brows are equal in shape, height, thickness and length. Oh, and applying the markings and measurements on your 'better' brow is a wise idea, because you will then need to replicate your measurement on your other brow to ensure they look similar. (Hint: your ‘better’ brow is likely to be the one on the opposite side to the hand you write with, as you’re less likely to have overplucked it.)
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HOW TO LOCATE YOUR BROW START, ARCH AND END
Before you can determine your Brow Quad Ratio, you need to firstly identify where your eyebrows should start, arch and end.
(a) To find the starting point...
Position the ruler so that it sits vertically up from the centre, or close to the centre, of your nostril and intersects with your top brow line. Once you've found this spot, mark it with a vertical line that matches your natural brow thickness and height. Eyebrows look best when they begin with a right angle. Note: if starting at the centre of the nostril is too unrealistic for you, then move your start point to the outer edge of the inner nostril instead.
(b) To find the arch...
Position the ruler so that it sits vertically at, or close to, the outer edge of your iris. Where it crosses your top brow line is where your arch (the peak) should be. When in the correct position, your brow arch can instantly give the illusion of a brow lift. However, if your brows naturally arch either side of this ideal spot, don’t panic. You can easily re-establish your arch point with the help of the right brow product.
(c) To find the end...
Angle the ruler from the edge of the nostril to the outer corner of the eye. Where the ruler meets your brow is where your brow should end. This point is crucial because it stops your brows from being over-extended, which inadvertently makes you look sad or tired. However, if ending the brow at this point sacrifices your overall brow length, you may need to readjust your start point. To do this, marginally extend it by a few millimetres towards the centre of your nostril.
Important sidenote: there are some exceptions to the rules (and myths!) when it comes to locating your start, arch and end, but Lien covers these in full in her eBook.
HOW TO MEASURE YOUR BROWS USING THE BROW QUAD RATIO
This is what will give you the measurements for your ultimate brow shape. When measuring these points, use your ruler in reverse – it’ll make reading your measurements in the mirror a whole lot easier.An example of a Brow Quad Ratio would be: brow length = 4.6cm; arch length = 3cm; tail length = 2cm; thickness = 0.8cm.
OUTLINING YOUR EYEBROWS
Now that you’ve made the dot marking in your brows and written down your Brow Quad Ratio, you can connect the points and lines to see where it is that you need to grow your brows, remove hair to define the shape, and fill in using a brow pencil, pomade or powder (which is where knowing how to fake fuller brows comes in handy). Most women’s brows will not match this ratio exactly (read: there will be gaps and incorrectly positioned starts, arches and ends), because of over-waxing or incorrect shaping. Sadly, this is very common, however, using this ratio allows you to find what your ultimate brow shape is, and then begin the journey of correcting your brows at home by allowing your hair to regrow and be reshaped, and fill in to further enhance the shape.
eBook illustrations by Emma Tamaoki
*This article has been updated since its original publication date
Are you interested in finding out the ultimate brow shape for your face? Will you try and find your Brow Quad Ratio? Or are you brows already perfectly shaped?
339 Member Comments
I too need to shappen my brows so I will be doing some tweezing soon.
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I am in need of a brow makeover my eyebrows are shockingly scary rn
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I'd love to get my brows done
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Brings back memories of when I first plucked my eyebrows
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I went tweezer-happy in my teens and am suffering for it now. I got my brows tattooed last year and can say it was one of the best things I did for myself (right after getting my eyes laser-corrected and my laser hair removal on my legs and underarms). Life changing stuff!
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This article was really useful for me as I hardly have any eyebrows. The shape guide has helped me create better brow shape than I used to before. Thanks for this post!
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I used to spend more time on shaping my eyebrows when I was much younger. Now I just remove the more obvious stray hairs.
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My eyebrows have always been quite thin, I just pluck the odd stray hair when I see it.
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Gosh this looks complicated. I usually just whip out the tweezers and pluck whatever hairs at face value look like they shouldn't be there!
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Great article for everyone.
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I needed this article when I was younger. I like the perfection of maths, but my eyebrow shape is pretty much fixed now. I rarely pluck because I don't get many strays now.
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I only trust one person to do my eyebrows, and it sure isn't me this guide would be helpful in emergencies
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I've reported the post below by serial spammer sheilabenson908.
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my eyebrows are very light and thin so I tend to have trouble with them but these tips are interesting and I am going to take them into account next time I do my brows.
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I've stopped obsessing over my eyebrows. Once they are neat I am happy.
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I seem to have to pluck less these days
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Ok, the first image and guide make sense to me, but the whole quad ratio bit just hurt my brain.
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Overplucking as a teenager has resulted in terrible patchy brows I'm still so new to the brow game but I guess practice makes perfect and this article is so precise I love it!
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When I get my brows right, it really does make such a difference
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Don't do much with mine apart from pluck the odd stray one.
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Thanks for this :)
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Such a great and simple guide to follow!!! Thank you for sharing!!!
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Really interesting article and great tips
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My brows are naturally dark, dense and thick and I was self conscious about it so I used to over tweeze it. But since the brow trend I've embrace it but theres a patchy area in the inner corners that I have to fill in just a little. The worst part is that the rest of my brow is natural but people think I've drawn it in and darkened it when I've done barely anything to it.
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Now coming back - I need to to trace
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