Can You Draw On the Perfect Eyebrows? Watch Carly Severn Create the Ultimate Faux Set

 

When Carly Severn lost her hair to alopecia at the age of nineteen, she took a precautionary measure: Knowing her eyebrows were probably next, she began searching for online tutorials on how to draw a believable set. “I thought it was better to be prepared,” says Severn—who was surprised when she came up empty-handed. Intent on developing her own smudge-proof trompe l’oeil effect, she set to work practicing on herself instead. “I learned that pencil alone looks really fake, powder doesn’t work either, and when your eyebrows are too thick or too shiny, it’s a dead giveaway.” For believable 3-D texture, she found that approximating the shape first with eye shadow, then layering tiny “hairs” over it with pencil was the best technique. And her research paid off: Within three months, when her real eyebrows disappeared, she was an expert at sketching them in. “It gave me the ability to take control of a situation that was taking control of me,” she says.

Now 29 years old, Severn has spent the past ten years perfecting her product arsenal (and blogging about it). “Any powder eye shadow, as long as it’s the right color, will work [as a base],” she says, although she’s partial to the cocoa shimmer contour shadow in Benefit’s Big Beautiful Eyes kit. For feathering on individual hairs, her “absolute nonnegotiable” is Rimmel London’s dark brown eyebrow pencil. “I buy ten at a time—the pencil is not too hard or smudgy.” If she needs a fully waterproof option, on the other hand, Kat Von D’s Tattoo Liner looks just as realistic and an afternoon in the water is no match for its long-lasting properties. Finally, to seal the look so that it can withstand a wipe of her hand or a sweat-inducing workout, she pats over the area with a translucent powder (any will do), then paints on BGDL’s Brow Sealer. With five products and a mere four minutes, Severn can create perfect feathered, gently rounded arches that will hold up to whatever the day may bring—and that’s nothing to raise an eyebrow at.

The post Can You Draw On the Perfect Eyebrows? Watch Carly Severn Create the Ultimate Faux Set appeared first on Vogue.