Ask The Expert: How To Perfect ‘Muted Brows’

In a world of eyebrow contour kits, brow highlighters, shaping, shading and lifting tools, you can get left behind with eyebrows – or any beauty trend – if you don’t keep up.

It’s very easy to walk into a Beauty Hall looking for an eyebrow product and get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things you are not doing to your face and leave bewilderingly holding a Tom Ford Brow Sculptor – sculptor, like Michaelangelo no less – that you paid €45 for and have no idea of how to use or what it might do.

Luckily, Katie Tiernan, Benefit Cosmetics’ National Brow Artist is here to help.

Congratulations to you, if you managed to get through the period of the last couple of years where we hailed Cara Delevingne as the eternal goddess of eyebrows, judged all brows on a spectrum of fleek and told everyone who removed all the eyebrows from their face in the 90’s to sprout hairs out of their bald foreheads.

READ MORE: Get The Look: Saoirse Ronan’s Critics Choice Award Make-Up

We are now living in a much more brow-positive world, with an emphasis on the muted brow as the next brow trend for 2018 – music to the ears eyebrows of anyone who has never had strongly defined brows that looked like sisters, but brows that looked like very distant cousins.

“Brows come in all shapes, sizes and textures,” says Katie Tiernan.

“Last year we saw a step back from the over-defined brows with a more softer, natural ombré look and in 2018, we will see this going a step further with a gentle, muted brow. How to achieve this no-brow-brow look is super simple.”

 
STEP ONE

“It’s all about the base and strong brow hair. Worn alone Browvo!,  €30.50 conditions and smooths brows. Worn as a primer it enhances and extends the wear of other brow products. The conditioning formula contains keratin and soy proteins, known to help brows look thicker, healthier and fuller.”

Benefit Browvo! Double Duty Eyebrow Primer €30.50

STEP TWO

“Brows need to be lightly defined but not coloured. Try an ultra-fine eyebrow pencil, for natural-looking, hair-like strokes. A few strokes of blendable colour will transform brows from shapeless and undefined to natural, defined eyebrows.”

MAC Eye Brow Pencil €18.50

Now you can have fleeky brows, too. Am I using that correctly?

BACKSTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON LLOYD-EVANS