As far as we’re concerned, fellow Sephora staffer, Caryn, came to Anastasia with enviable brows. But, she seemed determined that they lacked volume and shape. Anastasia was happy to comply, as she is a fan of a thick, strong brow and immediately went to work evening out their length and thickness with her indispensable stencil.

Anastasia first brushed Caryn’s brows up with a Spooley Brush, then used a mixture of Brow Powder Duo in Golden Blonde and Strawburn to give her brows added fullness. The results were fantastic—there were lots of oohs and ahs. Caryn’s reaction sums it up, “My eyebrows were always very course and straight across with no shape. The more I had them threaded and waxed, the thinner they got...still with no shape. Anastasia filled in my brows, making them appear thicker than usual (which I love). She also created perfect arches that really frame my face. I couldn't believe what a difference the brows make!”

Since this is the last in our Beauty and the Blog series of amazing Anastasia brow makeovers, we'd like to thank the Brow Guru for her stunning work and her easy-to-follow instructions. Next time we feel the urge to pluck, we're going to straight to the Anastasia Brow Studio at Sephora instead!

Our fearless Beauty and the Blog leader, Laura, is next in line for a brow transformation. She complained of overly tweezed, too-straight brows. But, what Anastasia discovered was that one of Laura’s brows was higher than the other. A common problem, she explained, and an easy one to disguise.

Anastasia started with a quick stencil fill-in (strategically placed to give the illusion that Laura’s brows are at the same height). Using a bit of Brow Powder Duo in Ash Blonde and a swipe or two of Brow Gel, Laura’s brows looked full and shapely. An added step of applying highlighter Brow Duality just under Laura’s newly formed arches and she looked like she got an extra three hours of sleep. No joke!

Laura's reaction? "Before Anastasia set me straight, I always thought me brows were very thin and rued the day I first plucked them as a senior in college (I know, late bloomer!). But Anastasia made me realize that it was arches that my brows were missing - and a few strategic plucks took my brows from straight to almost voluptuous!"

Our fearless Beauty and the Blog leader, Laura, is next in line for a brow transformation. She complained of overly tweezed, too-straight brows. But, what Anastasia discovered was that one of Laura’s brows was higher than the other. A common problem, she explained, and an easy one to disguise.

Anastasia started with a quick stencil fill-in (strategically placed to give the illusion that Laura’s brows are at the same height). Using a bit of Brow Powder Duo in Ash Blonde and a swipe or two of Brow Gel, Laura’s brows looked full and shapely. An added step of applying highlighter Brow Duality just under Laura’s newly formed arches and she looked like she got an extra three hours of sleep. No joke!

Laura's reaction? "Before Anastasia set me straight, I always thought me brows were very thin and rued the day I first plucked them as a senior in college (I know, late bloomer!). But Anastasia made me realize that it was arches that my brows were missing - and a few strategic plucks took my brows from straight to almost voluptuous!"

In case you haven't quite mastered the art of eyebrow shaping, there's another solution. You've probably been coloring inside the lines now since you were about five, and celebrity eyebrow guru Anastasia makes it easy to achieve eyebrow perfection with her fool-proof reusable Stencils ($20). Using a brow pencil or brow powder with brush, ?ll in as needed and let the stencils guide you as you go. It’s as easy as that! The packet includes four shapes: High Arch, Petite Arch, Medium Arch, and Slim High Arch for a customized ?t.

For a more affordable version, try Ardell Brow Perfection Stencils ($3.19), which come in four varieties as well: Delicate, Elegant, Glamorous, and Classic. Well-cared for eyebrows really do make an impact on framing your eyes to create a completely re?ned look. Oh, how I wish I had had these templates during those overly zealous tweezing days.

The brow makeover of the day illustrates two of the most common complaints Anastasia sees in the salon—over-plucking and how to fill in a scar. Jess, our lovely redheaded writer, may have been a bit heavy-handed at her last DIY tweezing session and, as a result, her brows have shrunk. Also, she has small scar on her left brow from a childhood run-in with an errant baseball.

Anastasia suggested that Jess extend her brows on both ends and create more of an arch, in addition to filling in her scar. Sounded like a lot of work, but the stencil made it easy. She filled in Jess’s brows, first with the Brow Pen, followed by Brow Powder Duo in Strawburn. The overall effect was amazing—completely natural looking! Anastasia gently asked that Jess step away from the tweezers for awhile, so her brows could ‘stretch out a bit.’

Jess thanked Anastasia for her expertise, “I’ve never been able to find someone to teach me how to fill in the scar without it looking fake. You’ve killed two birds with one stone—you’ve covered the scar beautifully and made my brows look fuller in a natural way.”

Today's brow makeover belongs to...me. I'm incredibly self conscious and hate having my picture taken, so the only reason I agreed to participate is that an opportunity to be groomed by the Guru herself was just too good to pass up (and it's my job!).

My chief brow complaint is that I basically don't pay them any mind at all and every makeup artist I meet scolds me for not darkening them. The mantra usually goes something like this: They're too light! They blend into your complexion! Fill them in and your jawline will pop—this one really gets me as I have no jawline to speak of, only chubby cheeks.

I finally submitted to Anastasia and her bag of tricks:

The first thing Anastasia did was apply her trusty stencil to determine where my brows needed bulking up and paring down. She trimmed the top of my brows (a technique not recommended for amateurs!) and then, not surprisingly, exclaimed that my brows were practically invisible and needed more oomph so that they'd frame my eyes and face.

She brushed the hairs up with a spooley brush, then darkened them with her magical Brow Pen. (See photo of me with only one brow done. Yikes!) Next she used Go Brow, her highlighter pencil, on my light blond stray hairs so she could see exactly where they were, but also noted that the highlighter can be used to conceal any short, dark stray hairs that you don't have time to tweeze.

When I looked the finished product, I was shocked to see two nice looking friends hovering above my lashes, giving my face a more angular feeling! Thanks to Anastasia, I've seen the light (um, dark) and I'm ready to commit to regular brow enhancement.

Meet Anastasia Soare. She's the ultimate brow guru; based in LA all (and we mean all) of Hollywood relies on her to create the perfect brows for their features. When offered brow makeovers that would appear on Beauty and the Blog, lots of Sephora’s NYC staffers said, “Pick me!” The Brow Guru herself agreed to fly in from Beverly Hills and grace us with her tweezers. We, the brow-challenged, consider ourselves very, very lucky.

After completing architecture school, Anastasia left Romania in 1989 for the sunnier climes of Los Angeles. She then applied her creative energy to cosmetology school in the U.S., and ultimately developed a talent for giving fabulous facials, which is how she discovered that American women were ignoring two of their most impactful assets—their brows! Out of this revelation her empire was born, and well-groomed arches would eventually become the next de rigueur part of our beauty routines. Each day we’ll be posting a new brow makeover, illustrating Anastasia’s solutions to the most popular brow challenges.
















Today, we’re starting with Stacy (pictured above), a staffer who felt that there was too much space between her brows. Anastasia agreed and explained:

“Your brows should always start right above the inner corner of your eye.” She started by marking the beginning, middle and end of each arch and then using one of her goof-proof Anastasia Beverly Hills Classic Stencils to generate the basic shape of the brow.

Any hairs that fall outside of the stencil area can be tweezed or waxed, and any sparse areas on the inside of the stencil can be filled in with the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Mini Duo Angled/Spooley Brush.

The results were truly transformative. “I felt like my brows really highlighted my face shape, and gave me a more youthful, radiant expression, “ says Stacy.

Last month, I asked three brave Beauty & the Blog readers to enter Brow Rehab and sent them each an Anastasia Tweezers Anonymous Brow Kit to start the recovery process. In the name of healthy brows, the tweezing addicts have decided to come clean about their over-plucking past. Meet the rehab-ers!

Cinthia, Plainfield, NJ
"Hi, My name is Cinthia, and I'm a tweeze-a-holic. I was born with beautiful, full eyebrows, with a little unibrow (hated it), but now I want to go back to those days! My eyebrows are so thin, and everytime I look at magazines/Sephora models, I crave those full, beautiful eyebrows that they have. I pluck and pluck but never seem to find the shape that is right for me. I need Anastasia to lead me to the eyebrow heavens and teach me to shape my eyebrows in the best way to flatter my face. Please help me reach eyebrow nirvana!"

Kelly, Tallahassee, FL
"I fell prey to the magnifying mirror. At 10x magnification, I thought I could make my brows perfect. Naturally full, I just wanted to fix the arch. My left brow, outer edge… it was always just a little off. Just a little. So I took tweezers to it, florescent-light highlighting every hair in the 10x reflection mirror. Pluck. Pluck. Pluckpluckpluckpluckpluck! I stopped, flipped the mirror over to get the view of my newly perfected brow, and then I saw… I had completely over plucked my arch! Now I have two mismatching brows. I don’t want to pluck the other to match because it’s too skinny for my taste. I could use this SO bad! The Brow Enhancing Serum could help me grow in the bald spot and, in the meantime, use the Duo Brow Wand to make my eyebrows symmetrical."

Louisa, Rocky Mount, NC
"I am not only tweezer-happy, but I admit to purchasing the electronic handheld mini-shaver with the eyebrow attachment, so I could nick every little unwanted browhair in sight. I should have stuck to the tweezer, because at least I could target the individual hairs. But no, the idea of tweezing my hair so quickly fed my addiction, and there I was about 20 seconds later with half my eyebrow cut off. Keep in mind that this was all in high school. So for the next couple of weeks I drew on the little sucker. Well since I was lacking on one side of my brow, I had to even out the other side, so I tweezed away until the whole thing was even in width. I ended up with an eyebrow as thin as a thick piece of thread. Although I am now a freshman in college, my brows are my worst facial feature. To top it all off, my eyes are huge. I have never seen celebrities or models with the shape of eyes like mine so I left my eyebrow shape up to my imagination. I have no clue how to shape my brows or stop myself from tweezing the life out of them, because I convince myself that the next little pluck will produce the perfectly shaped eyebrow. Yes..I think its time to get help."

Stay tuned! I'll be posting updates on their paths to plucking recovery soon!

Hi. My name's Mari, and I was once an over-tweezer. Luckily, I felt the repercussions of tweezing abuse during its early stages and have since weaned myself from the painful life of obsessive plucking. (I swear!) But my brows continue to pay. Specifically, the inner end of my right brow. It's partially bare! In my tweeze-happy state, I disregarded my knowledge of the optimal brow shape in favor of pulling. Unfortunately, many of those brow hairs never grew back. Thankfully there is still hope! Anastasia—the world's most lauded brow guru—has sent me her savior of a set, Tweezers Anonymous. I'm putting it to the test to see if I can replenish my arches.

Do you have a tweezing problem? If so, you could join me in brow rehab. Leave a comment telling me why you need full furrow rehabilitation. I'll check in three plucking addicts and send them their own Tweezers Anonymous Brow Kit. (Make sure to leave an email so that I can contact you.) They'll be responsible for following the set's 12-step program and updating me on your progress. Remember, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem! Put the tweezers down and leave a comment!