Angled brow brush

An angled brow brush is a small, flat brush of short, stiff fibres, cut on a slant so that the head ends in a point at one corner and a straight edge along the cut. It is made for the two brow colours that need a brush, pressed powder and pomade. The point draws single strokes about the length of a brow hair; the flat, laid along the brow, presses colour into the gaps between the hairs or sharpens the lower edge. Stiffness is what lets it do both. A soft brush smears pomade and scatters powder, where a stiff one leaves colour exactly where its tip touched.

Its neighbours look alike and do other work. An angled liner brush is thinner, for a fine line at the roots of the lashes; an angled eyeshadow brush is softer and wider, for shading the lid. The spoolie, a small spiral brush, colours nothing: it grooms the hairs before colour goes on and softens the strokes afterwards. Most brow brushes are now sold with a spoolie at the other end, and that dual-ended brush has a page of its own. The single-ended brush suits anyone who already owns a spoolie, or who prefers one head on a full-length handle.

Start with stiffness, and match it to the colour. Pomade is waxy and sets fast, so it wants a firm, densely packed head that pushes colour through the hairs without splaying; powder is happier with a slightly softer brush that lays down less at a time. Makers usually say which they had in mind. Anastasia Beverly Hills sells its Brush 15 for powder and pomade alike, while Bdellium Tools gives its 764 wider, firmer bristles for filling in a bold brow. Then the width. A narrow head, a few millimetres across, draws the finest strokes and suits sparse or fine brows; a wider one fills faster and suits thick brows. Then the cut. A steep slant gives a sharp point for detail, and Rae Morris cuts her #16 to a subtler angle than most, for what she calls a more precise stroke.

Last, the fibre. Synthetic fibre is the usual choice. It can be cut to a more precise angle than hair, one brush patent notes, and made without pores, so it does not drink pomade or gel and washes clean; natural hair grips powder well but soaks up creams.^[1] A hair brow brush is best kept for powder. Hakuhodo, the brush maker of Kumano in Japan, still makes angled eyebrow brushes in several hairs, among them the K016 of hog, which it calls resilient, stiff and wire-like; hog is what painters simply call bristle.^[2]

Brush the brows up with a spoolie first, so the gaps show. For pomade, touch only the tip of the brush to the pot and wipe most of it off on the back of your hand; for powder, tap the brush into the pan and knock off the excess. Begin at the arch, where most brows can take the most colour, and work towards the tail in short, light strokes that follow the hairs. Use the point for single strokes, and the flat of the cut to fill wider gaps or run a clean line along the lower edge. Come back to the front of the brow last, with only what is left on the brush, and flick the strokes upward so that the front stays soft.

Hold the brush near the ferrule for control and further up the handle for a lighter touch. Brush through once with a clean spoolie to blend the strokes into the hairs, and set powder with a clear gel if the brows need holding. Clean the brush after every use with pomade, first with a little cleansing oil and then with soap and water: wax left to harden in the head stiffens it into a block that draws thick lines. After powder, a weekly wash is enough. Reshape the cut with your fingers and dry the brush flat.

The brush sold as an eyebrow brush was long a grooming tool. A beauty manual published in Chicago in 1901 wanted it “small and rather stiff and firm”, to keep the brows brushed and clean, and its author could not approve of pencilled eyebrows: a professional could touch them here and there, “but for the ordinary amateur it is better left undone”.^[3] Elizabeth Arden’s early eye make-up kept the two jobs apart, grooming the brows with an Eyebrow Brush and tweezers and colouring them with a Venetian Eyebrow Pencil.^[4]

Colour that was brushed on went on with the brush that came with it. In 1925 the producer and dance teacher Ned Wayburn told the students of his New York studios that “a very little mascaro must be brushed lightly on to the eyebrows”, from the cake that also darkened their lashes, which went on with “the brush that comes with the mascaro, or any fine brush”.^[5] That is the working ancestor of the angled brow brush: whatever small, firm brush came with the colour.

When a brow brush was first cut on a slant is not recorded in anything read for this article. The reason for the cut is plain from the way it is used. A pencil draws and a brush fills; a brush with a point at one corner and an edge along the cut does both, which is why brow powders and pomades so often come with one in the box.