Step #8: Eyebrow coverage

Now for the fun part…the transformation!!

Start by removing all stray hairs from around your eyebrows. They are pesky, and will show up through your makeup. This goes for not only your eyebrows, but any other hairs you may have on your face or body (if you’re putting makeup on your neck and chest, check your neck and chest).

Proper eyebrow length and shaping guidelines.

This image should (may) also be used as a guideline

 for drawing on new eyebrows after erasing the face. 
(photo from Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin)

If you’ve never plucked your eyebrows before, here is a good rule. Grab a brush or pencil or some other straight long tool (insert dirty thoughts here) and make a line from the outside of each nostril to the corners of your eyes (picture on left). Where the line hits your eyebrow is where your eyebrow starts (1) or ends (3). You’ll notice this is also the ‘rule’ for drawing on new eyebrows, but we’ll get to that later.

If you don’t want the hassle of dealing with your eyebrows, you can always shave them off along with all that other hair.  You will just need to draw new ones later, but hey, you have to do that anyways!

Some queens (notably Courtney Act) like to keep a small portion of their natural eyebrow as a guideline for their drag eyebrow.  You can do this either by shaving off part of the eyebrow, or by simply gluing down the unwanted portion.   If you have thick bushy eyebrows like me, your best bet is to glue them down, cause that shit ain’t feminine.

If you’re keeping your eyebrows, this is where you start gluing.

Grab your stick of Elmer’s™ glue (or similar). If you buy coloured glue, you can see where you’ve applied it, and this will help with not missing spots!  The glue has a double effect. First it seals your eyebrows to your face, and second, it fills in the cracks between your hairs so that once covered your brow bones are smooth, and do not have visible lines from the hairs.

Start by applying copious amounts to your eyebrow (one at a time). Apply the glue in every direction, especially against the natural direction of your eyebrows to really coat all of the hairs.  When sufficiently smothered, grab a mascara brush or small-toothed comb and comb the hairs up your face. Your eyebrows naturally grow in an arc around your brow bone. Your goal is to brush each hair in the direction it naturally grows. This will have a starburst effect (see photo on right).

Once spread, wait for your eyebrows to become tacky (sticky but not wet), and press them into your face in the direction of the starburst. I personally use a spoon (Thanks to Trixie Mattel for this tip!) for this to get them as flat as possible, others use their fingers, just make sure you are pushing hard!! Get those buggers flat against your skin.

Wait for them to dry. And repeat the process (minus brushing step as your eyebrows should already be in the correct direction). Your goal is to get rid of the texture of your hairs using glue and pressure. I recommend doing this process 2x at minimum. If your eyebrows are thick, do this 4 times minimum. Yes, this is time consuming, but you really don’t want them visible.

On your last glue application, do not wait for tackiness to press down your eyebrows. Do this immediately. Take your setting powder (translucent or pigmented like your foundation) and press down your eyebrows with a powder puff. Again, use some force.  ALLOW YOUR POWDER TO DRY!! You can speed this up using a hairdryer, but you need to let it dry.

If your eyebrows are lightly coloured (blond, light brown) or thin, you can stop here. If your eyebrows are dark like mine, there is an extra step to avoid the colour of your eyebrows peeking through your foundation.

Take your darkest foundation (the orange you use for beard cover) and apply it to your eyebrows. Just enough to cover the eyebrow, you don’t need to spread it all over your forehead. Be frugal.  Allow for the foundation to dry a little, and then apply your setting powder again. You might be able to see the colour of the foundation through the powder, but once you cover your entire face with your skin tone foundation, this will disappear. And look!!

Congratulations!! Your eyebrows are covered J 

See below for some of my trials and tribulations before covering my eyebrows successfully. There are many things that can go wrong, and did go wrong before I achieved that "Mama took my eyebrows" look.

First attempt at eyebrow coverage. I only used two coats of glue, and you can clearly see the ridge-lines of the eyebrow hairs underneath the foundation as a result. Also, this was before I learned the wonders of eyeshadow primer.

Eyebrow is smoothly covered, and almost invisible under the shadow, but notice how I forgot to pluck a few stray hairs around the bridge of the nose. They picked up the shadow, darkened, and now they stick out like a sore thumb. You can also see the whitened crease of my eye, a trick I use because I have hooded eyes. That and the new dark hood give the illusion of a big eye. (The rest of my face is not covered, hence the skin tones).    

Perfect eyebrow coverage and the final eye (pre-lipstick/wig) :D