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It’s 2017 and nobody has time (or patience!) for tragic brows anymore. The days of over-plucking and using black eyeliner pencil to create brow drama are long gone, tucked away in the horrific pages of your middle school yearbook. (Where they belong!) If you haven’t perfected your eyebrows yet, you’ve come to the right place.

Ignoring all those recent crazy eyebrow Instagram trends that make people feel viscerally uncomfortable, the key to dope brows a la your favorite celebrities is following your natural eyebrow shape. Filling in your brows goes a long way and when done correctly, can totally reshape your face. That’s why it’s important that you know what you’re doing when you dip your angled brush into that pomade.

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I swear I’m happier than I look in this 😜

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If you’re looking for a step-by-step tutorial on how to perfect your eyebrow routine, look no further. With the latest edition of Life & Style’s How To: Beauty Buzz, we’ll show you how to shape and fill in your brows using both powder and pencil. So let’s get started…

What You Need

Spoolie

Angled brush

Eyebrow pencil/powder/gel

Benefit Gimme Brow! gel

Clear brow gel

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Stephanie Osmanski

Before shot with nothing but moisturizer on.

Step 1: Comb through your brows

When it comes to mastering your eyebrows, the spoolie is a gal’s (or guy’s!) best friend. This simple little tool allows you more easily to comb your pesky hairs into the shape you want as well as cover as much sparse ground as possible.

Using a spoolie, comb through your brows until you like the way they’ve settled. I usually comb the beginning half of my eyebrow hairs up, then the rest out towards my hairline, following the natural shape of the brow.

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Step 2: Start at the arc of your eyebrow

When filling in brows, it’s best to always start at the center or the arc of the brow because it helps control how much product you’re dispersing throughout. Using short, gentle brush strokes, you’re going to fill in the sparse areas of your brows. (Make sure to tap any excess off the brush before applying it to your face!) Start with the top of your brows by drawing a very thin, gentle line on the border of your brows. Then work slowly underneath the line to color in your brows, putting most of your attention on bare areas where the skin peeks through.

Take care to use a very light hand. You can always add more definition, more powder or gel, but going in too harshly from the get-go and then having to take off the powder and gel will be more of a pain.

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Stephanie Osmanski

Step 3: Spoolie the excess

Back to the spoolie! Use the tool to more evenly disperse the product throughout the whole length of your brow. If you can see that certain areas are more concentrated than others, make sure to comb out those areas intently. It’s best to make sure you have the most product from the middle arc to the tail of the brow, with the least amount of product from the beginning to the middle arc of the brow.

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Stephanie Osmanski

Step 4: Fill in sparse areas with additional gel

Since using one type of product on your brows can appear harsh, I like to use Benefit’s Gimme Brow! gel to even out any areas where the skin is showing. The gel goes on very easily and doesn’t cake on too much. Use it at the start of the brow following the natural shape all the way up to the brow’s arc. You’ll want this additional product to be a shade or two lighter than the original brow product used, that way your brows won’t appear too dark, too harsh, or too overly-lined.

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Stephanie Osmanski

Step 5: Spoolie again to get out excess product

One last time, brush the spoolie through the brows to make sure you’re getting out any excess product that will make your brows too dark or too harsh.

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Stephanie Osmanski

Step 6: Hold brows in place with clear gel

The advantage of clear eyebrow gel (or clear mascara, should you want to be crafty!) is that it will keep the brows in place no matter what elements come your way — wind, rain, sleet, a lover who doesn’t understand that you have makeup on and shouldn’t touch your face. Comb the clear gel as you would comb your brows with a spoolie, paying special attention to unruly hairs that are sticking out.

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Stephanie Osmanski

And there you have it — the finished product! Extra pro tip: If you’re looking to grow your brows out thicker, you can take Biotin or vitamin E, both of which are natural supplements known for strengthening and growing skin, nails, and hair.