There isn’t anything more technical in beauty than the perfectly arched eyebrow. Our quest gets a little help from brow expert Hilary Foote, of Benefit’s Brow Bar…
What’s your advice for someone doing their eyebrows at home—should they wax or tweeze?
Tweezing; never wax your own brows! If you have to do it at home, leave the wax alone…Step away from the wax. It’s just too easy to mess up. Your eyes have to be closed when you wax your brows and if you’re not trained you can completely mess them up. If you can’t go in once a month and have them done professionally, splurge once and then use your tweezers to follow their line as best as you can.
How often should I get my brows done?
Once a month if you want to make sure that they look perfect and that they stay looking great. I do it every three weeks because my hair grows really fast and it’s dark, so it does depend on your hair growth.
What about general upkeep after you get them waxed?
Try not to touch them, honestly, just fill them in. You can use brow make up, we actually have a flesh tone pencil called Highbrow that’s really good for covering up the little hairs when they start to grow back—or at least camouflaging them a little bit. The best advice is to try not to tweeze; just leave them alone.
Sometimes when I pluck my eyebrows, I get ingrown hairs. How can I avoid this?
Use a really good Alpha Hydroxy cream or an exfoliant once a week, but when you tweeze you do run the risk of having ingrown hairs. If you wax, you won’t.
What’s the biggest eyebrow mistake you see people make?
I think mostly what people do, is take their brows way too thin. Or they try to make them even, and brows will never be even. They’re sisters, not twins.
Hilary Foote has been arching brows for over 30 years and has been with Benefit Cosmetics for over 7 years. She is now the Vice President of the recently launched “Brow Bars” and is loving every pretty minute of it!