Guest Blogger: Eyebrow Masterclass by Katy

Now if you haven't heard of  Make-up by Katy please let me have the pleasure of introducing her to you. Katy has been a make-up artist for for over 13yrs working both as a trainer and an international artist. Make-up has taken her all over the world and you can tell that she loves the stuff. She wouldn't be doing it for a living if she didn't! So today's post is from Katy herself on eyebrows. Y'all know I'm borderline neurotic about my brows so this is the perfect post! Head over to her blog to read more fabulous posts! Enjoy xxx

Hi Girls,

Anyone that knows me will tell you, eyebrows are very important to me. Mine, yours, his, hers, newsreaders on the telly. They all become the focus of my attention at some point.

I am a fan of full, groomed, well made-up brows. I have a deep running hatred of badly waxed brows. Not the owners mind, the therapists that massacre them!

I am going to attempt to take you, step by step, through how I create my brows.

My brows are far from perfect. They are naturally sparse in certain areas and extremely different from eachother. That isn't unusal. Have you ever heard of the expression,

"Eyebrows should be sisters, not twins."

You may laugh, but it's true. We as humans are hugely un-symetrical. My tip for brows is, pick which brow is your better brow, fill that in first and then match the other one as closely as possible.

These are my eyes and brows totally un-defined. I of course have concealer on. I'm not a sadist!

 It really shows best the areas of sparseness. For me, it's on the inner corners. This isn't through overplucking, that's the natural shape I was born with. I'm also patchy underneath. That is from over plucking and I strive to fill that area in with make-up.

I'll start off by showing you the guide to where a well proportioned brow should start and finish.

Starting point. Aligned with the nose. This can be varied in cases of wide/close set eyes and wide/narrow noses etc, this is just a basic guide.

This is to mark where the brow should end. Wider brows can slim down a square jaw. Brows that are too short can have the opposite effect. Going lower than this point can drag the eyes downwards.

Here I'm marking where the peak should be, the highest point. It's done by taking a brush from the corner of your nose through the centre of the iris.

The basic shape is then built from here. as a rule, the inner corner should be at the same level as the outer tail or slightly lower. The width should be the same thickness from the inner corner, through to the peak where it should taper out. The most flattering, classic shape is to keep the line straight, as opposed to rounded.

I used an RMK Brow Pencil today, the shade is Grey Brown. I'm very specific about colours I use on brows, both on my own and on my clients. I will almost always lean towards an ashy, grey toned shade. This prevents getting that red toned look that brown brow pencils can give.

The brow pencil has a more traditional flat edge. This is great as it enables me to draw hair-like strokes in as opposed to thick pencil lines.

My first step with the pencil is to draw in some hair on the inner corner. I try and follow the direction of the hair growth. The key is not to have a sharp line at the beginning. Our brows don't start suddenly.... they gradually fade in, so I always brush over this part and pat in in with my finger.

Next, I take the pencil along the top of my brow where I fill in the hairs along the arch. Note how I'm keeping the lines parallel to eachother? Take a look at the next picture to see the stage I'm at after these 2 steps.

Hurrah! I'm getting a shape! Now to address the over-plucked arch on the underside. (I do believe tweezers should be illegal until at least 25).

I took the pencil and drew along the underside of the brow to lower my arch and even out the width . I am conscious of having the dreaded tadpole shape! If you have a naturally large brow bone like I do, be sure that you don't take your arch too high.

Take a concealer brush and tidy up any uneven edges, this is also handy to sharpen a line if you're inbetween your brow shaping sessions.

And the before and after...

I know which one I prefer!!

Thanks for reading!

Yours, arched and ready

Happy 2010!!!

Happy New year everyone!!! I hope you had a fantastic celebration wherever you are in the world and that this year will be even better than the last!

My new years was rather quiet. No big parties or celebrations and it was good. It was good to look back on the epic year that has been 2009.

Dvoradivine has come a long way since it's humble beginnings. She's just over a year old and I can say it's been a fantastic journey so far.

I've learnt so much this year. I saw the revolution of my eyebrow. Now for some I know it may not sound like much but for me, it's been quite an eye opener [literally :)]. Where I live, I quickly found that there aren't many threading or tweezing specialists in the area. At one point in time, I was getting my brows threaded in London whenever I visited my mom and then trying to maintain them till the next trip. It was hard work. Then one day, after being fed up for far too long,  I looked up a few tutorials and dealt with it. And now I am content! It's been a skill I've been able to use on my clients too. I now understand the brow!

There were many products that stood out to me. The infamous Sleek palettes did mighty well, giving me my favorite FOTD of the year. Grimas is the underrated brand that showed me that matte eyeshadows have a definite place in the world of professional make-up. Professional brands such as Mehron, Ben Nye, Graftobian and Cinema Secrets proved that expensive doesn't always work better in many cases such as the Battle of the Brush Cleaners. And finally, the drug store is where it's at with so many products these days. You can have a million dollar face that cost you a fiver! We have Superdrug and Boots to thank for that!

I have several aspirations for 2010. One of which is to update my blog a whole lot more than I normally do. I realise that it is a matter of better time management but I'm working on that already. I hope that this will be a year when my business will grow and I hope to take you guys with me. I hope to still give you a unique blog where you can always enjoy the content I put out there for you guys. Thank you again for staying the journey. It means a lot to me. Let 2010 be the year of BIG THINGS!

Stay blessed! xxxx

In pursuit of a Lavender Lipstick.

Hi ladies,

I've been on a lavender search of late. I tried the Barry M palest lavender but it just wasn't working for me. I wanted a dupe for Lavender Whip and I've picked up a lipstick from ebay by Christian Breton in a beautiful purple/lilac colour called Speak Easy. Anyone heard of this brand Christian Breton?

It is so swexy and bright! I have never had so many comments about a lipstick in my life and it honestly lasts FOREVER and a day. I reapplied once during the day and even then the colour was VERY evident on me. The pigmentation in this is off the chain. I wore it with Mac's Magenta Lipliner. Check it out!!! Anyone care to tell me if they think it looks Lavenderish enough or ifI should try again?

*I wasn't wearing any foundation in this pic. Just my eyebrows filled and this banging lipstick*

Has anyone ever tried an orange lipstick on a woman of colour? I'm secretly fiending for one. Is it possible? I'm sure it is, it's just the right colour orange. I don't know why I want orange I just think it would look cool somehow. Help a sister out...

And guess what? I did my own eyebrows! I got fed up of not having anyone out here I trust enough to touch my face and so I went ahead and shaped them myself. What thinkest you? The pics above are clickable if you wanna take a look. They aren't perfect but I think for first time round pluckage I think I did alright! Drop me some tips on how I could do better.

Right I am at my wits end with my pc right not. I recorded a tutorial but for some reason I can't save the videos to upload them to Youtube. Zucherro and I spent most of saturday night week trying to load the program on his pc to see if it would work only to find that there was no sound. Can any one help?? I'm gonna try again tomorrow and if it fails I'm throwing this pc out the window. [Ok not literally but pretty close] I really wanna show you guys what I did and it would be a shame to let it go to waste! So if you can help a sister, please let me know!

Stay Blessed!