Meet the New Generation of Insta-Brows

Those of you who came of age in the 1990s and early 2000s will recall (with varying degrees of post-traumatic stress) a time when it was oh-so-chic to tweeze one’s eyebrows into ultra-thin rainbows (which turned, with one foolhardy pluck, into no brows at all). Then the tide began to shift — most markedly in 2011, when Cara Delevingne hit the modeling scene. Her preternaturally robust brows became instant fetish objects, the epitomizers of our highbrow hopes. Since then, we’ve entered a brow renaissance, a time of microblading, tinting, RevitaBrow, Boy Brow and all manner of brow-embellishing (Cara-replicating) techniques and eyebrow shaping products.

Which brings us to the question: now that our brows have reached peak fullness, how do we style that luxurious hair so as to stand out from the rest of the follicle-ly blessed crowd? Makeup artists and Instagram #influencers pose various solutions.

Barbed Wire Brows

Barbed wire brow

A post shared by @athenapaginton on Mar 10, 2017 at 8:05am PST

Makeup artist Athena Paginton suggests tapping clear gel onto your finger tips and parting your brows into zig-zags to create what she calls the “barbed wire” brow.

Feather Brows

so i’m starting this new brow trend please recreate it and wear it everyday and dont forget to tag me like and subscribe and hit that bell button ALL credits go to my muse @leevittu he came up with this whilst brushing my eyebrows last sunday brow: glue stick skin: @maccosmetics Face&Body foundation C1, @maccosmetics pro longwear concealer NW20, a lot of Fix+ for the wet effect highlight: @katvondbeauty Alchemist Palette (Emerald, Opal, Amethyst) eyeshadows: @lipsicosmetics lipstick on the lid and @maccosmetics matte lipsticks in Frosting and Matte Royal mixed for the inner&outer corners mascara: @maccosmetics in extreme dimension lash mascara in Hold For 10

A post shared by Stella Sironen (@stella.s.makeup) on Apr 8, 2017 at 10:46am PDT

Insta-beauty addicts didn’t realize the above post by Finnish makeup artist Stella Sironen was meant as a joke. Thus, the “feather brow” trend was born. To replicate the look, part your brows down the middle, using a glue stick (yes, you read that correctly) to hold hairs in place.

No Brows

red blue and yellabone

A post shared by ..:::..::..::jazZELLe::.::..:. (@uglyworldwide) on Mar 21, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

Of shaving her brows off entirely, model Jazzelle Zanaughtti told Vogue: “I used to bleach them, but then it started bleaching my skin underneath, so I just said, ‘Fuck it,’ and shaved them off. It’s 10 times easier, looks better, and makeup goes on a lot smoother.” Sans eyebrows, an ultra-dewy lid look really pops.

Tiger Brows

Badman

A post shared by @athenapaginton on Nov 1, 2016 at 12:02pm PDT

Fairly self-explanatory, also from the mind of makeup artist Athena Paginton.

Brushed-Up Brows

A post shared by Kate (@kateofficial) on Mar 24, 2017 at 9:57am PDT

Extremely wearable (and runway-approved), brushed-up brows require only clear eyebrow gel, an eyebrow or mascara wand and firm, upward strokes.

[ Next: Eyebrows Through the Ages ]