The Wanderer Returns

The holiday was typified by amazing views such as this one over the sea from our apartment in Colombo

Yet another sudden absence, just when I thought I was getting the hang of this blogging lark I get out-of-sync again. At least this time I have a good reason, at the end of August I went to Sri Lanka on what was probably one of the most wonderful holidays I have been on.

And the other direction

I decided to visit the country as one of my friends' family is from there, although he grew up in England, and another has recently moved there for work. I have to admit that before deciding to go there it was a place I knew virtually nothing about other than flickers from the coverage of the civil war and the tsunami a few years a ago. However, as soon as I had got up the Wikipedia page that mentioned its status as a place of leading biodiversity and seen a few pictures I knew I had to go.

The brows have it!

Audrey and Viv knew good brow!

The thing I receive the most compliments about from women not related to clothes or accessories are my eyebrows. Although I plucked my eyebrows from about fourteen I only began to fill them in during sixth-form after seeing a beauty blogger say that she felt it was one of the most important parts of her make-up routine. I have to say that she was absolutely right and it is now something I wouldn't leave out in the morning (the other essentials for me are foundation, blush and mascara)! Eyebrows really frame your face and give your whole look definition, I like to keep mine strong and slightly tapered - I find the very drawn-looking, narrow brow very dated.

I've never had my eyebrows done professionally and found my shape through trial-and-error, initially I would make them way too thin but this doesn't really matter as they quickly grow back. I normally pluck mine and find Tweezerman tweezers to be best - yes they're a bit pricier but they are very sharp and come with a garuntee so you can send them off and get them sharpened. Always work from below when plucking to create a nice arch other than neatening a few stray hairs above. You can also wax by getting a bit of prepaired wax strip, if you hod this up to your brow you can see through it to draw the shape you want, when you cut it out you will have two symmetrical pieces to use for each eye.

Regarding filling in I prefer to use eye-shadow rather than a pencil as it gives a softer look and is very quick. Use a shadow that is similar to your hair and use an angled brush to fill in. If your brows tend to be a bit wild use some brow-gel or, if you're stingy like me, some hair-spray on a brow-brush to keep them in place.

Also, if you're in a hurry in the morning and don't have time to tidy up your brows a handy quick-fix is to use a heavy coverage concealer along the brow bone to hide regrowth!

Et voila - quick and easy brows.