Find The Best Brow Shape For Your Face

Brow trends will come and go. But the most flattering shape for your face? That’s forever. You might prefer your eyebrows to be fluffy, bleached, dark or thin. Whatever the style, size or colour – you’ll want to start off by nailing the shape. Once you’ve found the ideal shape that suits your face shape, it will balance your features, make your eyes pop and help you look polished without a scrap of makeup on. Though any good brow technician will be able to assist you with this, if you’re lucky enough to have fast-growing eyebrows that don’t stay in place for long, it might be worth reading up on how to do this yourself.

How to measure your eyebrows

Brow artist, Lien Davies, has detailed her foolproof technique for measuring your eyebrows. The Brow Quad Ratio, which Lien details in her eBook, Ultimate Brow Shape, follows a step-by-step measuring and shaping system to determine your face shape and enhance your features. To begin? You need to firstly identify where your eyebrows should start, arch and end.

Step one: Find your starting point

Position a ruler so that it sits vertically up from the centre, or close to the centre, of your nostril and intersects with your top brow line. Once you’ve found this spot, mark it with a vertical line that matches your natural brow thickness and height. Eyebrows look best when they begin with a right angle.

Note: if starting at the centre of the nostril is too unrealistic for you, then move your start point to the outer edge of the inner nostril instead.

Step two: Find your arch

Position the ruler so that it sits vertically at, or close to, the outer edge of your iris. Where it crosses your top brow line is where your arch (the peak) should be. When in the correct position, your brow arch can instantly give the illusion of a brow lift. However, if your brows naturally arch either side of this ideal spot, don’t panic. You can easily re-establish your arch point with the help of the right brow product.

Step three: Find the end

Angle the ruler from the edge of the nostril to the outer corner of the eye. Where the ruler meets your brow is where your brow should end. This point is crucial because it stops your brows from being over-extended, which inadvertently makes you look sad or tired. However, if ending the brow at this point sacrifices your overall brow length, you may need to readjust your start point. To do this, marginally extend it by a few millimetres towards the centre of your nostril.

Important sidenote: there are some exceptions to the rules (and myths!) when it comes to locating your start, arch and end, but Lien covers these in full in her eBook.

Why it’s important to measure your brows

Measuring and outlining the shape of how your brows should look prior to any hair removal will ensure you’re left with your ideal shape each and every time. And the Brow Quad Ratio lets you personalise your shape without any guesswork.

The result of your measurements will resemble an irregular quadrangle, which can be repeated over time to ensure your brows are equal in shape, height, thickness and length. Oh, and applying the markings and measurements on your ‘better’ brow is a wise idea, because you will then need to replicate your measurement on your other brow to ensure they look similar. (Hint: your ‘better’ brow is likely to be the one on the opposite side to the hand you write with, as you’re less likely to have overplucked it.) 

How to measure your brows using the Brow Quad Ratio

This is what will give you the measurements for your ultimate brow shape. When measuring these points, use your ruler in reverse – it’ll make reading your measurements in the mirror a whole lot easier.

An example of a Brow Quad Ratio would be: brow length = 4.6cm; arch length = 3cm; tail length = 2cm; thickness = 0.8cm.

eBook illustrations by Emma Tamaoki

*This article has been updated since its original publication date

Main image credit: @bambilegit

Are you interested in finding out the ultimate brow shape for your face? Will you try and find your Brow Quad Ratio? Or are you brows already perfectly shaped?