Photo courtesy of Kate Berry
The goop Guide to the Best Brow Artists
Beautifully groomed brows can really change the way you look, accentuating your bone structure and playing up
your best features—you may even find you need less concealer after a great brow shaping. Here, a cross-country
guide to our favorite experts in the field—plus their tips for shaping, tweezing, trimming, and taking care of
your brows, whether at home or in a salon.
THE EXPERT:
Jimena Garcia
KNOWN FOR:
Super flattering, near-perfect arches and organic vegetable dye–based brow tinting.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Garcia works out of Chanel’s SoHo atelier and her salon in the Broome Hotel in
Manhattan, as well as in Paris and LA. She also does brilliant virtual appointments.
BEST TIPS:
1
“Exfoliate, massage, and condition, just the way you would your skin,” says Garcia. “Exfoliating your
brows helps stimulate hair growth and slough away dry and dead skin, creating a smoother, more receptive
canvas to apply creams, oils, or makeup—and it helps with ingrowns.”
2
“Use your fingers or a gua sha stone, along with a little face oil, to massage your brows to keep them
soft, silky, and abundant looking.”
THE EXPERT:
Kristie Streicher
KNOWN FOR:
The trademarked Feathered Brow, and the Brow Lift (the latter is a two-step keratin treatment). She can
also transform overplucked arches with a unique brow-training program (clients show up to the first appointment with six to
eight weeks’ worth of untouched brow growth to start).
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Striiike Salon in
Beverly Hills, California, a full-service hair, makeup, and brow studio that Streicher co-owns with her two
sisters Ashley and Jenn.
BEST TIP:
1
“Avoid too-frequent tweezing and overtweezing. Tweeze in natural daylight while looking into a regular
(nonmagnified) mirror and fill in your desired shape with a pencil first, then tweeze away any hairs that fall
outside that shape. After tweezing a few hairs, step back from the mirror periodically to gain perspective and
prevent overtweezing.”
-
Westman Atelier
Bonne Brow Pencil
goop, $38SHOP NOW -
This kit contains the highest-quality (it makes a difference) scissors and tweezers, and the spooley brush
Streicher has been using for over 20 years to shape clients’ brows.
Kristie Streicher
Essential Eyebrow Grooming Kit
goop, $225SHOP NOW
THE EXPERT:
Kelley Baker
KNOWN FOR:
Incredible waxing, trimming, and tweezing skills that leave brows beautifully polished. Her signature
not-a-hair-out-of-place shape is precise and intentional but natural looking.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Kelley Baker
Brows in Venice, California, where Baker also develops and tests her own products and teaches brow
master classes.
BEST TIPS:
-
1
“Use a highlighter beneath your brow line to mask errant hairs—it also really makes your eyes pop.”
Ami Cole
Light Catching Highlighter
goop, $22SHOP NOW
2
“Be up front with your brow specialist about what products you use regularly. You can’t
have your brows
waxed if you use retinol or Accutane, for example—it can tear and damage your skin.”
THE EXPERT:
Alixandria Capparelli
KNOWN FOR:
A signature microblading technique (that she named “brow fluff”) that creates full, soft, graceful brows.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Hairy Little
Things in Newport Beach, California, and West Hollywood, California.
BEST TIPS:
1
“If you must tweeze your brows in between appointments, be conservative—only tweeze hairs visibly outside
your brow shape.”
2
Her trick for finding those hairs? “Take something flat, like a business card or makeup brush, against your
brow (either above or below, depending on where you’re plucking) and remove only the hairs that fall outside
that line.”
THE EXPERT:
Michele Holmes
KNOWN FOR:
The best natural-looking brow shapes in the Bay Area, and her much-obsessed-over Rye Beauty Brow Grooming
Serum.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Michele Holmes
Studio in San Francisco, California—it feels like an open, airy, modern living room.
BEST TIP:
1
“Skin and follicle health are the building blocks of healthy brows—so treat the entire brow area instead of
just the hair. Apply sunscreen to avoid sunspots; use moisturizer on the skin under and around your brows;
apply a little hair conditioner to your brows once a week during a shower; use a great brow gel to shape, set,
and nourish; and properly wash off brow makeup at night.”
-
Rye Beauty
Brow Grooming Serum
goop, $42SHOP NOW -
Alpyn Beauty
PlantGenius Melt Moisturizer
goop, $60SHOP NOW -
Grown Alchemist
Strengthening – Conditioner 0.2
goop, $49SHOP NOW -
goop Beauty
GOOPGLOW Cloudberry Exfoliating Jelly Cleanser
goop, $28/$25 with subscriptionSHOP NOW -
Supergoop
Mineral Sheerscreen
goop, $38SHOP NOW
THE EXPERT:
Josh Beeler
KNOWN FOR:
Custom brow tinting, and a signature treatment called the Multeye: a brow wax, a tint, and a few
strategically placed microblading strokes throughout your brows, plus a lash line enhancement (where he adds
semipermanent ink to the spaces between the lash follicles), for full, lush-looking brows and lashes.
WHERE TO FIND HIM:
Shen Beauty in Brooklyn,
New York—the cool-girl clean-beauty boutique and facial emporium.
BEST TIPS:
1
“Be consistent with brow appointments or at-home brow-grooming sessions,” says Beeler. “Your regrowth cycle
will start to sync up after about three months, and once that happens, maintenance gets easier.”
2
Beeler uses a brow pencil and brow gel together for the fullest-looking brows: “A pencil draws realistic
brow hairs—it’s the easiest and most natural-looking way to fill in sparse areas. Then the gel grooms brows
into shape.”
THE EXPERT:
Delphine Breyne
KNOWN FOR:
Restorative microblading. Rather than addressing the full brow with microblading, her special technique
places a few detailed strokes throughout, which leaves brows with a look that is natural and
ultraflattering.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
The chic, Paris-inspired Delphine Eyebrow Couture on NYC’s Upper East Side.
BEST TIP:
1
“Understand what brow shape works for your unique facial shape,” says Breyne. “A style you
think looks good
on your friend or a celebrity may not be what’s best for your bone structure. Work with your brow technician
to find the most flattering shape for you, and keep in mind how much maintenance you’re willing to commit to.”
THE EXPERT:
Courtney Allen
KNOWN FOR:
Full and defined eyebrows created with her exactness in brow shaping and waxing.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
The brow and facial salon Esthetic Haus in the Wicker Park area of Chicago, Illinois.
BEST TIP:
1
“Hygiene is crucial when it comes to brow maintenance. Make sure your brow artist uses freshly cleaned
tools. At home, make sure the brow area is clean before you pluck or wax to help prevent irritation and
breakouts.”
THE EXPERT:
Constance Mack Latham
KNOWN FOR:
Restorative brow microblading, waxing, threading, and tinting (her nickname is BrowMaven).
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Brow and beauty studio Maven Esthetics in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
BEST TIP:
1
“Always ask questions and discuss your end goals before you start a service,” says Latham.
“No trained
professional will ever feel offended by you asking questions or showing concern.”
HOW TO READ THE MENU AT THE BROW SALON
Microblading or Microfeathering
What it is: A semipermanent tattoo technique used to create the illusion of fuller,
more-defined brows by creating tiny, hairlike strokes throughout the entire brow. Microfeathering, a
technique developed by Kristie Streicher, is similar to microblading but uses iron oxide pigments (they
are considered the safest semipermanent pigments to use on skin) to fill in sparse areas, not the entire
brow.
How long it lasts: Eight to twelve months.
Lamination
What it is: A process of straightening and lifting the brow hairs using a chemical
solution, which gives the hairs more flexibility to move and shapes them to appear fuller and fluffier.
How long it lasts: Five to eight weeks.
Waxing
What it is: A hair-removal treatment where warm, soft wax is applied to the brow and
hairs are pulled out with a paper strip.
How long it lasts: Four to six weeks.
Sugaring
What it is: Similar to waxing, this treatment gently removes hair from the root using a
room-temperature or warmed-up paste made of lemon, sugar, and water (and occasionally essential oils,
honey, or salt), plus a paper or cloth strip.
How long it lasts: Four to six weeks.
Threading
What it is: A technique where a single thread coated with antibacterial wax is twisted
into a mini lasso shape and used to pull hairs from the root.
How long it lasts: Four to six weeks.
Tinting
What it is: A custom dye treatment to temporarily darken brows and enhance fullness.
How long it lasts: Three to six weeks.
Henna
What it is: A form of eyebrow tinting done with plant dye derived from a henna plant.
(Henna, unlike some dyes, contains no ammonia, lead, or peroxide; however, it should be noted that
so-called “black henna” dye contains PDP, the same toxic compound that’s found in many hair dyes.)
How long it lasts: One to six weeks.
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