How To Effortlessly Fill In Your Eyebrows

Eyebrows are a tough feat to conquer. They’re sisters — but most of the time they look like distant cousins, friends or even neighbors. It’s easy to perfect the first one but then comes along getting the other one to match. Along with getting your brows to match, then it’s making sure you’re using the right product in the right shade for your brows.

The key to filling in your eyebrows is identifying the right product you need and perfecting the technique. If you have thick, bushy brows then you’ll probably need a gel but if you have thin, sparse ones then you’ll need a pomade to draw in more hairs. Once you find the right product, then you can move on to finding the right shape and perfecting your brows. Brows are an art but everyone can have good ones with the right products!

How to fill in your eyebrows

Most people dread filling in their eyebrows because it’s a kind of like applying winged eyeliner… Easy some days, difficult most of the time and usually hard to match. Currently, bushy, natural brows are in and I think they’re classic. The overplucked, 90s brows do not need to make a comeback! The natural, undone brow is easy and all about working with what your natural brows are. We love the low maintenance!

The most common way to fill in your brows is with a pencil or pomade followed by a gel to hold it all in place. As brows have become more popular, there’s tons of products to choose from and easily something for everyone to achieve their perfect brows. Here’s our list of 6 steps to achieving your perfect brows.

Step 1: Brush through your brows with a spoolie.

This is always a good starting point because then all the hairs are facing in the same direction and you know what you’re working with. If you’re using a brow pencil, some of them come with spoolies!

Step 2: Pluck any stray hairs.

If you have any stray hairs, pluck those before doing your brows.

Step 3: Choose the right color!

If you’re just starting to fill your brows in, color is so important! For dark hair, you always want to choose something 1-2 shades lighter than your brows. Pencils and pomades always look darker on your brows then they do in the packaging. If you have dark brown hair and have filled your brows in with a dark brown pencil they almost always look too harsh and even black.

If you’re just starting to fill in your brows, it’s going to be an adjustment regardless so picking a lighter shade is essential. If you have lighter hair and want to darken your brows, go for something one shade darker than your natural brows.

Step 4: Fill in your brow.

If you’re using a pencil, powder or pomade, you’ll want to use that first. Pencils or powders are good if you have a few sparse areas to fill in but still have a lot of hair. If you over plucked or have sparse brows, a pomade is good because you can create hairline strokes that look like hairs. They also make brow pens, kind of like eyeliners which are good for creating the hairline strokes.

When filling in your brows you always want to make sure you have the right tools. With any type of pomade or powder, you want a small and stiff angled brush to help create tiny, hairline strokes.

Step 5: Shape your brows.

Shaping your brows depends on your natural brows and the shape of your face. For a bushy, undone look, lightly brush the front of your brows up and follow the shape towards the end. When you’re adding in hair, you always want to use hairline strokes to appear most natural. Just filling in your brows without a shape will look harsh and dark.

Some people like to carve out their brow with a concealer. This means using a concealer around your brow to help perfect the shape for a more flawless, glam look. Basically, concealer just helps to clean up your brow area and define the shape. If you’re due for a brow wax, concealer can also help to camouflage the outgrowth.

Step 6: Set your brows with a gel.

If you have thick eyebrows, gel is key because they will keep your brows from moving all over the place. There’s clear gels as well as tinted gels to add some coverage to your brows. If you want to create a faux ‘brow lamination,’ a bar of soap is a really great way to hold your brows and give them a brushed up look. If you don’t use a brow pencil or have thick brows, a tinted gel can allow you to skip a pencil and go.

Our favorite products to help you get fuller eyebrows

If you’re looking for good brow products, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Benefit Cosmetics are known for their brow products. They have products for every type of brow and offer a variety of shades.

Here’s our favorite product to get fuller brows — we have options for thick brows, thin brows and cruelty-free options!

Benefit Gimme Brow Volumizing Eyebrow Gel

This brow gel is great for holding your brows all day and it comes in 10 shades! It’s so easy to use, quick and very beginner friendly. This is a good product if you want something easy, and don’t want to change the shape of your brows. You could also pair it with a pencil to add more hairs while holding your brows all day.

The beauty community loves Glossier’s Boy Brow, another brow gel that’s cruelty-free! It doesn’t hold quite as well as Gimme Brow but if you want something cruelty-free and a little cheaper, this is a good option.

Where to buy it: Amazon

ABH Brow Wiz

You’ll be pressed to find a beauty guru on YouTube that hasn’t raved about this product before! It comes in 10 shades and it’s dual sided with a spoolie. If you’re looking to fill in your brows and add some hairs, this makes it really easy. All-in-all this is a good product for everyone whether you’re looking to fill in a small spot or most of your brow.

If you have really sparse brows and a lot of hair to fill in, ABH’s Dip Brow is a more full coverage pomade that’s great for adding in hairline strokes.

Where to buy it: Amazon

Pears Soap

Soap is a great way to create a faux brow lamination at home because it holds the brows like no other. It’s perfect for creating bushy, fluffed up brows! Pears soap is super affordable and easy to use – just spray the soap with setting spray and use a spoolie to brush the brows up. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing option but it’s so cheap and works the best!

If you want to buy a nicer, more aesthetically appealing soap, Patrick Ta’s Major Brow Shaping Wax is soap for the brows in a pink compact. It comes in a clear and brown shade which is nice because soap is clear but it’s much more expensive compared to Pears with way less product.

Where to buy the soap: Amazon

Where to buy the brow gel soap: Sephora

Final Thoughts

Good brows can make a world of a difference for your face! If you’re still trying to figure out the right shape and look, I recommend looking up celebrities and beauty gurus with the same face shape as you. Then you can find your most flattering brow look and identify the right products from there.

Once you find the right brow product, you can work on perfecting the art so that you can effortlessly fill in your brows in minutes. Remember, the most important thing to look for when choosing a brow product is to look at color — always go lighter! Along with the coverage of the product in relation to how many spots you have to fill. With the right product your perfect brows are around the corner!

Frequently Asked Questions

I have red hair. What is the best color to use for my brows?

Anastasia Beverly Hills has a shade ‘Auburn’ in their Brow Wiz that’s a great option for red hair. If you want a more affordable option, Maybelline also has a brow pencil in the shade ‘Auburn.’ If you have light red hair or blonde hair, try a blonde or taupe eyebrow pencil. Fenty Beauty’s Brow MVP Pencil also has 3 shades for red hair.

Do soap brows last all day?

Soap brows is probably the best way to hold your brows all day. Why? The wet soap dries forming a perfect, invisible hold on your brow hairs. The only thing to worry about is rain since getting the soap wet will create suds!!

Pears soap is perfect because it dries clear so you won’t get white chunks of soap in your brows. Stay away from using a white bar of soap as your brows will look chalky.

My brows look too harsh when I do them. What am I doing wrong?

If your brows look too harsh, try going for a lighter color. That always helps! Another thing to note is to make sure you’re always using hairline strokes to fill in your brows. You never want to just fill in sparse areas with color. Remember, natural brows aren’t stripes of dark, opaque color on the face.

A pencil is a good route to go if your brows look too harsh. Using a pomade leaves a lot of margin for error because the product is so pigmented and you only need a very very little amount of product on your brush. People tend to fill in their entire brow with a pomade rather than adding hairline strokes and that’s when your brow can look harsh.