Arched Eyebrow Shapes

If you’ve been dreaming of the perfect arched eyebrow shape, this post is for you. Having an arch to your brow can open up the eyes and refine your features. That said, it can be hard to figure out how to shape your arches. 

Where should your eyebrow arch start? How can you create arches if your brows aren’t keen to curve? In this post, we’ll cover it all, and help you figure out the best arched eyebrow shape for you. 

Table of Contents

• Types of Eyebrow Arch Shapes
• Determine the Best Arch Eyebrow Shape For You
• How to Shape the Perfect Eyebrow Arch
• Conclusion

Types of Eyebrow Arch Shapes 

First, let's cover the different types of arched eyebrow shapes. 

Soft Arch

A soft arch is lower and often more rounded. It tends to give the face a softer look but there’s still some lift. 

Medium Arch

Having eyebrows with a medium arch is almost always flattering. It’s a little higher than a soft arch, but still not too high. A medium arch can be a little more curved for a softer look or it can be sharper for a fierce look - that’s totally up to you. 

High Arch 

An eyebrow with a high arch elongates the face but it can also look a little intense. High arch eyebrow shapes are best if your eyebrows naturally lean in that direction, although you can add more height with an eyebrow pencil.  

Classic Placement

In addition to height, there’s also a question of how centered your arches are. The classic arch placement is just a little off-center towards the tail, but not by much. As a result, it opens up the eyes nicely. 

In eyebrow mapping, you identify this placement by measuring from the nostril through the center of the eye. 

Modern Placement 

The modern placement, also known as a tail-arched brow, is an arch eyebrow shape that begins a little closer to the tail. It’s incredibly modern and chic, often giving the face a bit of a lift without the need for a high arch. It pairs well with soft and medium arch heights. 

To identify this placement, measure your brows from the nostril to the outside of the iris. 

Determine the Best Arch Eyebrow Shape For You

Your best eyebrow arch shape will almost always be a more refined version of your natural arch. 

It’s generally not a great idea to make big changes to the height or placement of your arch, because it’ll require too much tweezing and filling in. It may also mean your brows won’t line up nicely with your bone structure. 

That said, you can make small tweaks depending on the kind of impact you want your arches to have on your face. 

Tweezing a little bit from below the arch can help if you find that your eyes are shadowed and you have very little lid space, for example. On the other hand, you can fill in your brows generously from below the arch to create a softer look. 

How to Shape the Perfect Eyebrow Arch

Once you’ve determined what kind of eyebrow arch you’re going for, it’s time to start shaping. 

• Always start with eyebrow mapping, to mark out your areas of interest, like the front, arch, and tail of your brows. We explain how to do it in our full eyebrow shape guide. 

• Next, consider what changes you want to make to your arch. Resist the urge to just tweeze it from below. It won’t make your arch seem higher - it’ll just make your brows thinner. 

• For big changes, it’s best to start by filling in to adjust the shape:
  - For example, create a higher arch by filling in from above, directly at the point where you want to give your brows a lift based on eyebrow mapping.
  - To soften your arch, fill in from below. This will lower your arch a little without forcing you to tweeze from above.
  - You can slightly modernize a classic arch by extending it towards the tail, which will also give you a little more height. 

• Use an eyebrow pencil to fill in the sides of the arch from above, to make sure it lines up nicely with both the front and tail. 

• Once you’re happy with the look of your arch, you can now carefully tweeze away any hairs that don’t belong. Be careful to remove hair row by row rather than trying to take a chunk out of the space below your arch. 

Conclusion 

The arch is probably the part of the brow people focus on the most when shaping. After all, it has a major impact on the rest of your features! 

When shaping your arches, we’d like you to leave with two main takeaways: First, it’s easiest to refine what you already have. Second, it’s always better to add more than to take away, especially if you’re hoping for a shapelier arch.