The perfect eyebrow shape has the power to transform your entire face—lifting the eye area, enhancing your natural features, and giving you a more youthful appearance. The secret to discovering your most flattering brow shape lies in understanding your unique facial geometry and using the right styling techniques to work with it.
Need some brow-spo? Here’s a comprehensive guide to finding the best shape for your face, with expert tips to help you flaunt perfectly sculpted brows with confidence.
Identify Your Face Shape
First things first, identifying your face shape is key to finding the perfect brow.
Round: Your face is widest at the cheeks, creating a soft, circular outline.
Oval: Your forehead is slightly wider than your chin, with prominent cheekbones and a gently tapered chin.
Long: Your face has equal width across the cheekbones, forehead, and jawline, with a narrow, oval chin.
Square: Your cheekbones, jawline, and forehead are all the same width, with a strong, square jawline being the defining feature.
Heart: Similar to an oval face, but with a chin that tapers to a point, creating a heart-like shape.
Diamond: Characterised by angular features, this face shape is widest at the temples, with a shorter forehead and a narrow chin.
Now you know your face shape, let’s carve out the perfect silhouette.
Perfect Eyebrows for an Oval Face
Oval faces are often considered the ideal face shape because of their balanced proportions and soft contours. This symmetry gives you the freedom to experiment with a variety of brow shapes. However, to enhance your natural harmony, a classic high arch with a soft angle is the most flattering choice. This shape subtly lifts the face, adding dimension without overpowering your features.
How to Achieve It: Start by using the Imitations Micro Brow Pencil to define the start, arch, and tail of your brows with gentle marks. Focus on creating a high yet soft arch that subtly lifts your face. Fill in your brows with light, hair-like strokes, gradually building up the shape. To achieve a naturally diffused finish, use the spoolie end of the pencil to gently blend the color, softening any harsh lines and ensuring your brows look full yet natural. This approach will beautifully frame your eyes and complement your balanced facial proportions.
Pro Tip: While oval faces can pull off many brow styles, avoid going too thin with your brows. Over-plucked, pencil-thin brows (hello 90s!) can disrupt the natural balance of your face. Stick to a fuller brow that accentuates your eyes and perfectly frames your face.
Perfect Eyebrows for a Round Face
If you have a round face, where the width and length are roughly the same, your goal is to create the illusion of length and add definition. The best way to achieve this is by lifting the brows to create a high arch. This shape helps elongate the face and adds structure, giving your face a more oval appearance.
How to Achieve It: Begin by filling in your brows with Imitations Micro Brow Pencil, using a slightly darker shade at the arch. This will emphasise the high point and draw attention upwards. To set your brows and maintain the shape throughout the day, comb Alias Brow Lamination Gel through the hairs. These simple steps will not only create the desired arch, but also help elongate and slim down your face.
Pro Tip: Avoid rounded brows that mimic the shape of your face. Instead, aim for an angular, high arch to contrast the roundness and bring more definition to your features.
Perfect Eyebrows for a Long Face
For those with a long face, where the length significantly exceeds the width, your focus should be on balancing the proportions. The ideal brow shape for you is straight and horizontal, which helps to visually shorten the face and add width.
How to Achieve It: Avoid creating arches, as they will only emphasise the length of your face. Instead, extend the tail of your brows toward your ears using Creamades Brow Pomade, ensuring that the brow line remains straight. This elongation at the ends helps break up the vertical lines of your face, making it appear shorter and more balanced. When filling in your brows, stick to a softer colour to maintain a natural look.
Expert Tip: To further soften the length of your face, avoid over-darkening the tails of your brows. A gentle, well-blended fill will keep your brows looking natural while achieving the desired effect.
Perfect Eyebrows for a Square Face
Square faces often have strong, angular jawlines. The goal here is to soften these angles with your brow shape. You have two go-to options: either create a brow with a defined arch to mirror the strength of your jawline or opt for a softer, slightly rounded brow to balance and soften your features.
How to Achieve It: To create a strong, defined arch that complements your bold jawline, enlist the help of Imitations Micro Brow Pencil to draw in precise, sharp strokes to define the arch and give it a clean, structured look. If you’re aiming to soften your angles, use the pencil to gently round the peak of the arch, blending the strokes with the spoolie end to keep the lines fluid and natural. This approach lets you tailor your brows to either emphasise your features or create a softer, more balanced look.
Expert Tip: Play around with both brow shapes to see which one complements your features best. Some days you might feel like emphasising your bold angles, while other days, you might want a softer look.
Perfect Eyebrows for a Heart-Shaped Face
Heart-shaped faces are defined by a wider forehead and a more pointed chin. To balance these features, a rounded brow shape is the most flattering. This shape softens the angular areas of your face, particularly around the forehead, creating a harmonious look.
How to Achieve It: To create a low to medium arch with a gentle curve, use Creamades Brow Pomade to outline the shape of your brows, focusing on the natural curve. For a balanced look, especially if you have a prominent chin, keep the arch subtle and smooth. If your face is longer, keep the arch low to maintain harmony, and for shorter faces, lift the arch slightly to add some vertical length. Use light, controlled strokes with the brush to blend the pomade seamlessly, ensuring a natural, polished finish.
Expert Tip: Avoid brows that are too angular, as they can add unnecessary sharpness to your face. Instead, aim for softness and curves to enhance your natural beauty.
Perfect Eyebrows for a Diamond Face
Diamond-shaped faces are unique and often feature a narrow forehead, wide cheekbones, and a pointed chin. The key to flattering brows for this face shape is to soften the natural angles and create a more rounded appearance.
How to Achieve It: Start by sculpting a curved brow with a soft, rounded arch using the Imitations Micro Brow Pencil. Use gentle, feather-like strokes to define the shape, focusing on creating a smooth, rounded curve that lifts your face and softens angular features. Finish by applying Heist Brow Soap for a more natural appearance. Brush the soap through your brows with an upward motion, setting the hairs in place for a lifted, voluminous look.
Expert Tip: Since diamond faces already have strong angles, avoid sharp, defined brows. Stick to softer lines that complement and soften your features.
Brow Tips from Brow Code Founder, Melanie Marris
For the most flattering results when carving out your optimum shape and expressing your individual style, Melanie recommends a method called brow mapping.
- Start by identifying the ideal starting point for your brows by aligning them vertically from the sides of your nose. A brow brush or mapping string can be helpful for this.
- Next, determine the arch by positioning the mapping string or brush from the corner of your nose to the center of your eye.
- Lastly, find the endpoint of your brows by angling the mapping string or brush from the corner of your nose to the outer corner of your eye.
- The final step is to fill them in using the measurements as a guide of where the product should begin and end.
Unlock Your Signature Brows
Remember, brows are the frames of the face, so you should make sure yours are totally bespoke to you and your features to complement your overall look.
Whether you’re shaping, filling, or setting, Brow Code has you covered with our full range of DIY kits, cosmetics, and brow care essentials—everything you need to take your brows from arch enemies to lovers in a few simple steps.