Growing up, I had a pretty serious unibrow. And a mustache.

I mean, technically I still have them both. It's not exactly something you outgrow, but these days I maintain control.

When I was about 14 years old (and like endless teens before me), I followed a questionable eyebrow shaping tutorial in YM Magazine that involved holding a pencil up to my nose and going bananas with a pair of Revlon tweezers. The result was two rather thin, short lines where two happy caterpillars had once lived peacefully.

I was convinced I looked goooood. In reality, the pencil I used for measuring must've been wide AF. I'm still trying to re-sod a patch of the eyebrow lawn on either side of my face where I over-plucked. I very much wish my mother had physically tackled me in that bathroom to prevent this eyebrow fail. Even if she had though, I'm sure it would've happened eventually. Because, the '90s.

Nowadays, my brow routine is pretty simple. Waxing rips my skin off (ouch), so I mostly tweeze and shape them myself (less frequently than I probably should...). Christina at Blink in Minneapolis is a goddess when it comes to threading, but I don't see her often because it is expensive.

On a day-to-day basis, I almost always "do" my eyebrows. I don't wear a ton of heavy makeup, but I fill them in a little. When I was in Iceland, I really darkened them up a lot because that's the style there. I loved it. I felt like Leandra from the Man Repeller, who has amazing eyebrows.

Essential Eyebrow Tools

• Tweezerman tweezers — these are fantastic.
• Brow powder — Benefit Brow Zings is great, but the NYX version is what I use right now. It's only $6 (!!) and it comes with a holding wax too, which is nice for special occasions or if it's really hot out. I also tried this Anastasia brow pen and I liked the ease of it, but the brunette color was too red on me.
• Brush — any ol' eyebrow brush will do. I brush after brushing on the powder, which helps to blend the color a little more so it stays natural.

DIY Natural Eyebrow Serum

I'm such a huge fan of beauty oils (I use this cleansing oil and this body oil daily). In my research of the topic, I came across a natural DIY eyebrow serum that I wanted to share just in case there are some other ladies out there trying to undo the over-plucking mistakes of their youth without weird, chemically solutions.

Best part? It's just one ingredient. Easiest recipe ever.
 

Ingredients

• CASTOR OIL, guys. Who knew?
• cotton swabs

All you do is dab a bit of castor oil on your eyebrows with a cotton swab after you've moisturized at night. You can also use it as an eyelash conditioning serum to help lashes grow thicker and stronger, but be careful not to get it in your eyes. If you're interested in trying this out, you can buy some super cheap, 100% pure castor oil here.

Do you have any eyebrow tips to share? I want them all.

adorable photo by Braydon Anderson