The Best Eyebrow Shapes to Flatter Your Face

Like haircuts, eyebrow shapes aren’t one-size-fits-all. Getting perfect brows really depends on the dimensions of your face—and knowing how to shape eyebrows based on your specific face shape can not only emphasize your eyes and make you look younger, but it can even let you get away with wearing less makeup.

“The right brow will help open up the entire eye area and work to improve the face’s overall symmetry,” says celebrity eyebrow stylist Joey Healy (Kyra Sedgwick is a client). “The perfect brow will make you look fresh, rested, young, healthy, and overall, more attractive.” Do we have your attention yet?

So how do you go about learning how to shape eyebrows? For starters, your unique face shape plays a role in determining which eyebrow shape works best for you. We asked Healy to break down the best brows for a range of different face shapes, so you can find your own golden arches.

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Square

A square jaw accents the angularity of your face, so softly rounded brows are the way to go. “Make sure your brows are not too angular,” says Healy. “But beware of making brows appear too round; you don’t want to over pluck and create rainbow-shaped brows!”

Round

“If your face is round you want to make sure your brows are very angular,” Healy advises. “Because there is a lack of definition in a rounder face, the perfect angled brow can bring out and define facial bone structure that is lacking or not present.” For round faces, a higher arch is flattering.

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Long

“A long face is characterized by features that are vertically stretched out,” Healy explains. “In this case, it is important to extend the tails of your brows east-to-west to really play up horizontal features.”

“I always suggest that the tails of brows extend beyond the corner of the eye, but a long face should make it a point for tails to extend a bit longer. It is important to beware when sculpting the tail, however, as allowing it out too far will drag the eye down and make it appear droopy.”

Heart

Sorry, aspiring Cara Delevingnes. “Although bold brows are in this season, a heart-shaped face will definitely want to steer shy of this trend,” Healy says. “ Because of the petite jaw line and emphasis on the upper portion of the face, it is important to keep brows well-manicured and exceptionally groomed. That being said, a thin brow is never in! The idea here is to create a shape that is controlled and never bushy. This tight brow on the top hemisphere of the face will serve to balance the smaller chin and jawline of the bottom half.”

Oval

A classic, balanced brow is perfect for this well-proportioned face shape. Just make sure you follow Healy’s three rules for all face shapes (see below).

All Face Shapes

No matter what face shape you have, there are three golden rules to follow when it comes to your brows, according to Healy.

1. The head of the brow should begin at the bridge of your nose. “This point can be easily found by vertically holding a pencil up to either side of your nose bone.”

2. The arch of your eyebrows should be about two-thirds of the way out, Healy says. “One of the biggest mistakes I see day-to-day is a centered arch. This gives the dreaded ‘rainbow’ shape!”

3. Don’t cut your brows short. “The tail should, at the very least, end on an imaginary line from the corner of the nose to the corner of the eye,” Healy says. “You can allow it to extend slightly further as long as that tail doesn’t end lower than where the head begins (this can make the eyes look droopy). Make sure your tails always taper to a crisp point to best lift the eye.”

Updated 7/5/2017.