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Writer's pictureGranny Bonnet

Eyebrows


Elizabeth Taylor

My Auntie Lil used to pencil in her eyebrows I recall. Fine arches of dark brown that complimented her scarlet lips, and permed hair, a look I suppose inspired by the silver screen.

In her time, professional glamour shots of Hollywood actresses skilfully portrayed them as impossibly beautiful goddesses with perfect complexions, immaculate tumbling hair, incredible eye-lashes and perfectly arced brows. Think Vivien Leigh, Lana Turner and Marlene Dietrich. Conversely there were actresses with stunningly heavy eyebrows. Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn spring to mind.

For ordinary mortals of the non-theatrical persuasion, natural eyebrows mostly needed bit of tweaking with a pair of eyebrow tweezers, a smidgen of pencil and that was that. Strange then to witness the recent fashion trend for totally redefined brows.

Some people manage well and look gorgeous but without the steady hand of the professional make-up artist, hoards of women, girls (and some lads), now go about displaying what look like squashed caterpillars above heavily made-up eye sockets. I guess they must first have to shave off brow hair before applying cartoon make-believes. For those with a shaky touch, templates can be bought to aid the process in what has become a massive spin-off cosmetic industry in its own right.

Heavy brows demands heavy make-up, otherwise the eyes are diminished so, out come the heavy-brigade again. Eye shadows, liner, false lashes and mascara. The whole look is plastic and unnatural. What once passed as 'stage make-up,' has left the confines of dimly-lit auditoriums to become everyday but what looks good in front of a mirror is very often unbecoming in daylight.

Fashions evolve and will no doubt change once again and hopefully those brow-bold caterpillars will pupate into delicate butterfly wings that gently over-arch lightly-enhanced, sparkling eyes beneath.

Leslie Caron


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