For many years, I was paying about 30 dollars a month to get my eyebrows groomed professionally at salons. When I did the math and realized that was 360+ dollars a year, I couldn't allow this wallet-massacre to keep happening. I invested in a few good pairs of tweezers and decided to groom my brows from that point forward.

In the following steps, I will describe how I retain a natural shape for my brow, and clean them up to get that salon look.

Step 1: Materials

I use the following items when shaping my brows:

Tweezers
- broad tipped set
- as well as fine tipped set (see photo)
Rubbing Alcohol and Cotton Pads (for occasional cleaning of tweezers)
Brow Pencil that matches your brow color
Brow Brush
Small Scissor
Highlight Pencil or White Eyeliner
Brow Gel

Step 2: A History Lesson & Helpful Tips

The best thing you can do for your face shape is to go with your natural brow shape. I know I have a full brow, and it would look pretty strange if I suddenly thinned them out a bunch. I work with the shape that my genetics gave me, but just clean it up a bit with scissors and light tweezing.

Some of the most historically sensational eyebrows have been on the faces of movie stars. If you look at the grid, you'll see that most of these starlets brows appear natural and full. The ones that are thin are drawn back in with dark pencil. For a natural look, you barely use an eyebrow pencil at all. If you have to use a pencil, it is to fill in sparse spots. (I have a small scar on my left eyebrow that I often gently dust with an eyebrow pencil)

Eyebrow pencil is not as waxy as eyeliners and other makeup pencils, it is more of a powdery pencil that requires a light touch when applying. Use sparingly.

Step 3: Brush and Trim

Most of brow grooming happens in this step, its amazing how much better they can look after a quick trim.

Using the brow brush, I brush all the hairs upwards, and then gently trim the scruff to perfect the straight line at the top of my brow. Work your way from your inside to the outside of your face on each brow.

Step 4: Mark and Tweeze

Using the white highlight pencil, I trace out the natural shape of my eyebrow. I make four marks initially: each end, and then the top of my arch, as well as the bottom of my arch.

After I have those points, I basically just connect the dots. You may have to stretch your skin a bit to get the lines right.

Don't be afraid of using too much, it is actually much easier to see your dark hairs on the white pencil.

When it comes to tweezing, do most of the work with the broad tip tweezer, and then go back in with the fine tip tweezer to clean up your lines and arches. Keep alcohol handy when you are tweezing, the oil in your hairs builds up on the tweezers, making them less grabby.

When done tweezing, wipe away all the white highlight pencil with either make-up remover or water. You may also want to do a quick alcohol swipe on your brows at this point to wipe away any oils that may have built up when you were handling them.

Step 5: Fill

Clean up your brows as best you can before you start filling back in with pencil. I mentioned it in step 2, but I try and use as little pencil as possible, it is just to fill in the areas where the hair doesn't really grow - in my case its a scar.

When your brow looks full and neat, use a clear brow gel to set them. I normally go about this by brushing the part closest to my nose straight up, and the arch part towards my hairline. By using a brow-gel you are setting the pigment as well as the shape - I have had my brows last for two days by styling them this way!

Lastly, take your white highlight pencil again, and draw a wide line under your arch. Gently blend it in with your finger until you can't really tell it was there any more. You should be left with a bright highlight under a clean brow line.

If they look a little dark, or bold, try dusting them with power that matches your skin-tone.

Voila! Beautiful, salon-free brows that really brighten your face.