Quick & Easy Brows

 You can of course use any brow pencil. In this video I'm using the LimeLife Claim to Frame pencil - it's the quickest and easiest for me because it's micro-tipped with a great spoolie on the other end. 

The key to great natural-looking brows is small, hair-like strokes and to follow the natural shape

LimeLife Claim to Frame Pencil 

Soap & Glory Brow Archery Sculpting Pencil & Gel

Sometime it's like your children hate you. I have particularly, smug-makingly well-behaved children. They are pretty good sleepers. They are funny, polite and not bottom of the class. You see, smug. But sometimes they will do something that convinces me that they have been sent to derail my existence, and that they good behaviour is just to ensure that I not only make plans for them to destroy but will have no idea what to do with them as they set fire to the restaurant we are in.

So it was when I met the lovely PR team who not only represent Soap & Glory but, among others, Hourglass, makers of my beloved Ambient Lighting Powder. Ned must have been about 3 and Jim 9 months. Both well behaved and happy to watch the iPad, eat croissants and hang out. Having laid this stealthy groundwork they came with me to meet the lovely PR's in High Road House somewhere not hugely ok with kids. I batted not an eye lid at the thought of this. My children would be like adorable little bunnies.

Make-up Shaming

I keep seeing things about make-up shaming. I haven't read them in-depth as, well I haven't really had the chance to read anything apart from Hairy McClary for any length of time in the past few months but a brief skim and I get the point.

With the rise and rise of the statement brow, contouring and Instagram make-up there now seems to be the idea that people should 'stop make-up shaming' which I suppose means that those of us (yes me included) who think that sometimes make-up is taken too far and not applied how we would like to see it applied should stop being so judgemental.

Now this is a dangerous subject and I'm hesitant to write about it but... well I'm going to. Feel free to get involved in the comments section. The pictures are just to illustrate my point. I dashed upstairs on a whim during nap time and slapped this on. One side how I'd do my make-up for a job interview and one with the problems I see regularly. It's not perfectly done and it's basically all the problems I can think of in one go which you don't see that often. Usually the most full-on brows I see are on a basically bare-faced person which makes them even more bizarre. I used pretty much the same make-up on both sides of my face - I used a tinted moisturiser on the normal side and a more full-on on the other and just a brow mascara on the normal side and some brow powder (from a Dark Blonde palette!) on the more full-on side. Eyes, contour and highlight both from the same products. You'll notice the neutral lip... I rarely see a lip and think it was a mistake... it happens, but not often.

Everyday Guide to Brows

This is the first in my new series of Everyday Guides where I tell you the absolute basics of what you need to do for certain aspects of make-up. If you have something you'd like to see then let me know.

One of the questions I get asked most often is about brows and how to just 'fill them in a bit' or 'make them less crap'. Brows are still huge in the world of make-up but a lot of my clients want to know how to make the best of theirs, on a daily basis without looking like they've done anything to them at all.

I wanted this to be a short video but it's incredibly hard to cover everything - you always feel like there will be someone somewhere saying 'she didn't even mention... '. I can't mention everything. This is not a video on how to fill in your brows if they are really sparse. As far as I'm concerned Sam from Pixiwoo has covered that in the video I've linked to below. It's also not a tutorial on how to get really full, drawn-in brows that are so fashionable on Instagram now. That can seriously backfire when done in real life and is, I believe, the main reason I have so many women coming to me asking for brow advice. I am by no means queen of brows, I rarely do anything to mine. This is just the basics - what you can use, my favourite products and how to do it.

All products are listed below and products with a * that I haven't used but have had recommended to me from other make-up artists are listed under that. There are so many brands that do brow products now that again I may not mention ones that you use and love. Do feel free to mention them in the comments.  If anything is not clear then do feel free to leave me a comment either on here or on YouTube or send me an email.

Pixiwoo brows
Pixiwoo Microblading

Tools
Eco Tools Brow Shaping Set (I don't love the angle brush from brows but it's fine for smoky liner. The spoolie is worth the money on its own)
Louise Young brushes (specifically the LY22 spoolie and LY37 angle brush)
MAC 263 Brush
Barbara Carranza Tweezers (also great for applying false lashes) - http://bit.ly/2p2gDjT
Tweezerman Tweezers*

Pencils
Laura Mercier Brow Pencil
Anastasia Beverley Hills Brow Wiz
Hourglass Arch Brow
Tom Ford Brow Sculptor*
Nudestix Stylus Pencil and Gel*

Mascaras
Maybelline Brow Drama
Benefit Speed Brow
Illamasqua Brow Gel
Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel*
Diego Dalla Parma Volumising Eyebrow fixer*

Powders
MAC eye shadows (Omega, Cork, Charcoal Brown, Brun)
Louise Young Essential Eye Palette

Gels
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade*
Diego Della Parma Water Resistant Cream Brow Liner*