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 make-up 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 new eBook, Ultimate Brow Shape. For it is this unique step-by-step measuring and shaping system that will help you find the ultimate brow shape for your face 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 tweezing will ensure you’re left with your ideal shape each and every time, and using 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 overpluck it.)
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
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 or powder. 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.
PS: for more tips, tricks and handy hints on how to trim, tweeze and fill in your newly shaped brows, as well as examples on growing out different types of misshaped brows (think thin, too angular, tadpole-like or overly rounded) download the full eBook at UltimateBrowShape.com.
eBook illustrations by Emma Tamaoki
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?
291 Member Comments
this is exactly what i’ve been looking for! brow shape is so important!
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Fantastic article, thanks so much!
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Loved this article! My eyebrows disappeared 20 years ago when I had chemo for breast cancer. Other hairy bits re-grew, but the eyebrows are quite pale and sparse. I need to give the above advice a 'go' and hope to get a good result! Thanks for the detailed instructions!
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I love this article but my brows are sparse and don't fit into any of the above! My eyebrows start in from my inner corner :(
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Wow, great article! I am going to give this a go at home, my brows definitely need some tidying. Tidy and correctly shaped brows enhance the face so much; I didn't know there was this much detail to it though! Thanks bh x
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Omg!!! Been looking for this article. Thank you beauty heaven.
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So informative but wow so much goes into getting the perfect brows than I initially thought haha
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I'll have to set aside some time and try this out. Very interesting.
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Excellent tips. I have always gone to a professional brow stylist though. Shu Uemura staff are always wonderful at doing that.
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Really love the illustrations that accompany this post! Definitely some very helpful visuals.
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This is a really helpful guide, I'm always struggling to shape my brows to the latest trends and I don't trust anyone else after a fail in the past!
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This was an interesting read, will see how this goes, but still want to maintain a natural brow
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Wow this was an incredibly helpful article! I love how informative the guide was. I'll definitely try this next time I do my brows.
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Hahahahaha you know what's hilarious? I haven't followed any of these things. A wise old person told me years ago at a time when everyone was overplucking "Don't mess with your eyebrows. You'll look like all my friends, who now have to draw their eyebrows on with a pencil. And trust me, when you're my age your hands get shaky".
She also told me that your eyebrows are made uniquely for your face. Just tidy them up a little - always pluck from underneath, never from the sides and rarely from above. I also learned to pull out any loose brow hairs once a week because they can change the shape of your eyebrows if they fall out after you have plucked out hairs nearby.
So I haven't messed with mine too much.
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Ever since my once bushy/full brows started getting sparse at the ends I'm terrified to take a tweezer to it! Luckily I don't mind the slightly unruly bushy look - pretty low maintenance brows!
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Excellent article. I remember when I was younger, thinner eyebrows were in style. Now, it's the total opposite. Thank heavens for brow kits.
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I've used this method before and it was so worthwhile to shape my brows, and ive saved a fortune in waxing.
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Wow, this is so helpful! I'll have to set aside a good hour to give it a go.
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This is such a great article. Brows are such a personal thing and it's so hard to get them right (especially at home on your own)! This is a great reference tool to get you started. I love it. Thank you BH!
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I am extremely happy that there is an actual instruction on how to find the perfect eyebrow shape as everyone is different. I went to a professional to get the best look for me and ended up with brows that were almost non existent. I have now grown them out and this looks like the perfect tool for creating a look that is right for me. Very excited!
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damn! this looks like serious science! I just leave mine to the professionals at the shops because mine are super thick and would take me ages to sort out on my own
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Fantastic article, the guide looks so helpful! I've only just started to embrace the brows and need all the help and advice I can get!
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I need to bookmark this page! I love how thorough and (hopefully) foolproof the instructions are. I usually stick to the first diagram aligning points the points of your nose and eye but didn't know the guidelines for the different lengths.
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I love this little guide! I am starting to get used to what my brows should look like thankfully! xx
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This guide is too old - When I learned professional makeup (which was more than 10 years ago) we were already taught that Point C should line up with the corner of the mouth instead of the side of the nose so that the brows do not look ridiculously old fashioned and long.
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