How to shape and tidy your brows at home

Planning an at-home brow shape? Kim O’Sullivan shares her expert guide to a DIY brow tidy, from mapping the shape to tweezing and tinting.

Multi-award winning brow guru Kim O’Sullivan (of The Brow Lab in the Brown Thomas Beauty Lounge and The Dublin Make-up Academy) whose clients include Pippa O’Connor, Louise Cooney, Erika Fox and more, shares her dos and don’ts for an at-home brow shape.

Do

– Ensure you’re make-up-free and that your skin and hands are squeaky clean.

– Make sure you’re sitting in an area where there is good natural light.

– Err on the side of caution. Less is more when it comes to the removal of hairs. If in doubt, leave it out.

– When tweezing your brows, only remove one hair at a time to ensure that you don’t over tweeze. And be certain that you’re removing the hair correctly — only tweeze a hair in the direction that it grows. If a hair grows upwards and you tweeze it down or out, it will not only hurt more but it will knock the follicle out of place and it may grow back distorted or unruly.

– Do sketch or map out the outline of the brow as a guide to ensure you don’t tweeze too much.

Don’t

– Tweeze too often. Every four or five weeks should suffice.

– Use an old blunt tweezer. Invest in a good sharp tweezer.

– Go near the beginning, the end or the top of the brow. Only remove hairs below the brow.

– If you opt to tint at home, less is more. Opt for two shades and mix them together, and where the tint may advise to leave on for 10 minutes, only leave it on for 6 for the first time.

– Always do a patch test 48-72 hours before tinting.