The complete brow guide

• Brows, like your hair colour, tend to suit your skin tone best when at their natural shade. But if colouring your hair, follow this rule of thumb: if you have fair hair, have brows tinted so they're one or two shades darker than your hair colour. If you have dark hair, have your brows a shade or two lighter.
• Ever heard the rule, "Don't tweeze from the top of the brow line"? Pfft. Provided you don't over-tweeze or wax, it's fine to remove brow hairs from any part of the brow necessary.
• The most flattering part of your brows should be the arches. Keep them neat and tidy and when applying make-up, go one quick step further and subtly highlight your brow arches with a little pale eye-shadow or eye pencil.

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• The best way to get great-shaped brows is to head to a brow expert. Once you've had your brows properly shaped, keeping them looking good should be easier — just tweeze stray hairs as they return.
• If you find you experience break-outs after brow waxing or tweezing, use an alcohol wipe over the area. It will sting a little, but will also kill bacteria and help stop blemishes from popping up.
• Sparse brows? Missing patches? Use a brow pencil or shadow to fill in the gaps. For a natural look, find a shade that matches your brows exactly, and don't go heavy-handed.
• Long, unruly brows? They may need a trim. This isn't something that's easy to DIY, so if in doubt, head to a beautician who can do it for you, and show you how to do it yourself.
• The biggest brow no-no is making your brows too thin and too narrow. Only ever remove a few hairs at time, then step back from the mirror and observe before repeating.
• The gap between your brows looks most flattering if it's no wider than the inner corners of your eyes.
• The outer tips of your brows should line up with the diagonal line from the tip of your nose to the outer corner of your eyes.
• Brow gel makes all brows — even short, sparse brows — look polished. It doesn't take any longer to apply brow gel than it does to swipe on some mascara.
• If you're struggling to get great-shaped brows, and would prefer not to head to a pro, give brow stencils a go. Brands such as ModelCo make them.
• Tweezers can be tricky to master. Fine-pointed tweezers will allow you to pull out the shortest of brows, while tweezers with wider tips are good for gripping stubborn, thick hairs.