FASHION DO IT YOURSELF: BLING BROWS

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Two of my life's great obsessions are eyebrows and Arizona Muse. At the age of four, I decided that I wanted very thin, arched brows (I probably thought they looked nice on a friend's Mum or teacher) and so I took a pair of nail scissors to my room and hacked off my bushy, blonde, baby hair  brows thinking it would create the desired look. It did not, of course. I looked like I had eyebrow-specific alopecia. But there began the many incarnations my brows have gone through before I decided not to pluck them-apart from the middle bit to stop monobrow- for two months when I was travelling two years ago. I came back with thick, long brows which I have been complimented on ever since. 

Arizona Muse is a more recent infatuation but no less close to my heart. I want her hair, her body, her face and, of course, her eyebrows. I like how hers are the same colour as her hair- mine never will be as  blonde is the only colour in my hair comfort zone. All this makes me realise how foolish I was as a four year old to think that beauty might be achieved from the slim, over plucked arches I saw around me. From Cleopatra to Jennifer Connelly via Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, history tells us that a statement brow is a key indicator of beauty. They are also, in my humble opinion, the most effective way to change the way your face looks without succumbing to toxic injections and surgery. Of course, beauty trends are just as quick to change as fashion trends but it seems that the thick brow has pervaded all the style tribes now from the super groomed Middleton-brow to the dramatically dark, thick and made-up 'scouse brow'.

Audrey Hepburn's perfect brows (image from audrey-hepburn.info)

The parameters of brow glamour were reestablished by Chanel for AW12; the most memorable images of their show were the close-ups of models' faces with bejewelled strips above their eyes. It's no longer enough to have a well-groomed  set of hairy caterpillars, it's time to experiment with bedecking them in jewels or colouring them in. 

Chanel's divine embellished brows from their AW12 show (image from anothermag.com)

Of course, I would be saving up for the Chanel bling brow strips but sadly the press office inform me that they won't be going on sale. So, one rainy afternoon a few weeks ago, me and my friend Harriet (who has beautifully dark brows to match her hair) messed around with some DIY brow decoration. We used eyelash glue to stick the huge diamond sequins to Harriet's brow zone. For my look, we scattered sequins onto the sticky side of a length of sellotape then stuck the strips on with the glue. We've vowed to recreate the our homemade embellished eyebrows for a night out soon and it certainly comes in a whole lot cheaper (if less slick) than the Chanels would have done. Just beware the anxiety of pulling them off and all your carefully grown brow hair falling out- mine didn't but I was worried I'd look like my four-year old self all over again. 

 Harriet and I doing homemade Chanel