Pluck Pluck
"Facelift Brows" Are The Celebrity Trick To A Sculpted Look
The straighter, more elongated shape has been showing up on everyone from Ariana Grande to Emma Stone.
Unfortunately for everyone who survived the skinny brow era the first time, beauty has decided it’s time to start messing with brow shapes again. Brows, it seems, are having another identity crisis. This time, though, the goal isn’t a razor-sharp arch. In fact, arches have basically left the chat.
Meet facelift brows: a straighter, more elongated shape that’s been showing up on everyone from Ariana Grande to Cardi B and Emma Stone. They’re not thin, not fluffy, and definitely not overly arched — just strategically lifted. Here’s what the trend actually is — and why your tweezers might need supervision.
What Are “Facelift Brows”?
If you’ve been wondering why celebrities’ faces have been looking a little more chiseled than usual lately, there’s a good chance their brows are doing some of the work.
“A facelift brow is really about lift,” says Joey Healy, celebrity brow stylist and owner of Joey Healy Eyebrow Studio in New York City. “It’s straighter through the body with a gently elevated tail, which creates that lifted, elongated eye effect.”
Compared to the laminated, brushed-up brows that dominated the last few years, facelift brows shift things horizontally. “Fluffy brows rely on volume and vertical lift — brushing everything up,” Healy explains. “This is more about refining the silhouette.” Instead of making the brows look bigger, the goal is to make them look sharper — a shift Healy calls “cleaner and more modern.”
In the most extreme versions of the trend, the arch disappears entirely — replaced by a nearly straight line with a subtle tail lift. But according to Healy, that’s not necessarily the goal for most people. “Arches aren’t going anywhere,” he says. “They’re just being softened. The shape still gives lift, but in a way that feels more effortless and wearable.”
Who Does The Trend Work For?
As tempting as it is to screenshot a celebrity selfie and start tweezing, facelift brows aren’t exactly a one-size-fits-all situation. “It’s all about working with your natural growth pattern,” says Healy. “The trend works beautifully on people who already have a relatively straight brow line or a lower, softer arch to begin with.”
That said, if you don’t naturally fall into that category, facelift brows aren’t totally off-limits. “We adapt with products rather than force the shape flat,” Healy says. In other words: less aggressive tweezing, more strategic pencil work.
More than anything, it all comes down to what you want your brows to do for your face. “[This trend is] great for anyone wanting to open up the eye area without adding heaviness,” Healy explains. The effect subtly shifts attention toward the cheekbones rather than the forehead.
How To Style The Look
Newsflash: You don’t need to pluck your brows into oblivion to get the facelift effect. According to Healy, a lot of it comes down to styling. “Brush the hairs slightly outward instead of straight up, and keep the front soft,” he says. “Then, when filling in, concentrate your depth of color through the middle of the brow and keep the arch area a touch more diffused.”
Tiny adjustments to the arch make the biggest difference. “I’m usually softening the actual peak of the arch first, not removing it entirely, just diffusing that high point so the brow reads straighter,” Healy says. “Then I’ll subtly extend or lift the tail if needed.” The result shouldn’t feel radically different from where you started — just refined.
The biggest mistake? Getting rid of the arch entirely. “People think straighter means flat, and that’s when brows start to look heavy or even droopy,” says Healy.
Another common misstep is overextending the tail, which can actually drag the eyes downward instead of lifting them. And, most importantly: Leave the top of your brows alone. “That’s where people get into trouble,” he says. “Over-tweezing above the brow to flatten it can collapse the structure and is very hard to grow back.”
Bottom line: facelift brows are the celebrity trick for looking more lifted and sculpted — without actually doing much at all. Just maybe keep the tweezers at a respectful distance.
