Tap your face shape and how far apart your eyes are: where your brows should start, arch and end, drawn on a face, and the brow shape brow guides pick for your face.
Face shape: oval · eyes: in between
A soft, gently angled archAn oval face is already balanced, so almost any brow suits it; the guides’ pick is a soft arch that keeps it that way.
What the guides say
Brow shapes by face from L’Oréal Paris, Waxxpot, Nair, The Lash Lounge, StyleSeat and Headcovers; mapping from Maybelline, IT Cosmetics, jane iredale and Anastasia Beverly Hills. Checked 2026-10-02. Ours: the pick where guides split, and the drawing.
Quick answer: hold a pencil against your nose. Your brow starts straight up from the outer edge of your nostril, arches on the line from the nostril past the outer edge of your iris, and ends on the line past the outer corner of your eye. Round face: a high, angled arch. Square, heart and diamond: rounded. Oblong: straight. Oval: a soft arch. Pear: a medium arch with a long tail.
How to use it
Tap your face shape (the Face Shape Finder tells you if you are not sure) and how far apart your eyes are: look straight into a mirror and compare the gap between your inner eye corners with the width of one eye. The finder draws a face with the three pencil lines from the nostril and both brows on them, in the shape the brow guides pick for your face, and lists where each point goes, what the guides say and where they disagree.
Eyebrow mapping: where your brows start, arch and end
Every guide we read maps a brow with a straight edge held against the side of the nose, looking straight ahead into a mirror:
| Point | Where it goes | Guides that say so |
|---|---|---|
| Start | Straight up from the outer edge of your nostril. | Maybelline, IT Cosmetics, jane iredale |
| Arch | On the line from your nostril past the outer edge of your iris, looking straight ahead. | IT Cosmetics, jane iredale, Maybelline |
| Tail | On the line from your nostril past the outer corner of your eye. | Maybelline, IT Cosmetics, jane iredale, Anastasia Beverly Hills |
The guides split on the arch. Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Golden Ratio, Nair and L’Oréal Paris UK put it over the middle of the iris, a little further in than the outer edge, and Anastasia Beverly Hills also starts the brow above the middle of the nostril. The finder draws the outer-edge line solid and the middle-of-the-iris line dashed, so you can see both; which one is solid is our choice. Sources: Maybelline, IT Cosmetics, jane iredale.
The eyebrow shape chart for every face shape
Brow guides pick a shape that balances the face: an angled arch where a face is soft, a curve where it is angular, a flat line where it is long.
| Face shape | Brow shape | Why | Guides that pick it | Where they disagree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oval | Soft arch | An oval face is already balanced, so almost any brow suits it; the guides’ pick is a soft arch that keeps it that way. | L’Oréal Paris, Waxxpot, The Lash Lounge | Nair’s chart lists straight brows as the best for oval faces. |
| Round | High arch | A high, angled arch adds the structure a round face lacks and makes it look longer and slimmer. | L’Oréal Paris UK, Waxxpot, Nair, The Lash Lounge | — |
| Square | Rounded | A curved brow softens a strong jaw and forehead instead of repeating their angles. | L’Oréal Paris UK, Waxxpot, The Lash Lounge | StyleSeat picks high, soft arches for a square face and says to avoid rounded brows. |
| Oblong (rectangle) | Straight | A flat brow draws the eye across the face, so a long face looks shorter and wider. | Waxxpot, StyleSeat, The Lash Lounge | Waxxpot splits long faces in two: an oblong one gets straight brows, a rectangular one (long, with a square jaw) gets rounded brows. |
| Heart | Rounded | A rounded brow balances a wider forehead and a narrow, pointed chin. | Waxxpot, L’Oréal Paris UK, The Lash Lounge, StyleSeat | L’Oréal Paris (its US guide) picks a high arch for a heart-shaped face. |
| Diamond | Rounded | A softly rounded brow eases the angles of wide cheekbones and a narrow forehead and chin. | L’Oréal Paris, Waxxpot, L’Oréal Paris UK, The Lash Lounge, StyleSeat | — |
| Pear (base-down triangle) | Medium arch, long tail | A medium arch and a tail drawn a little longer widen the top of the face to balance a wider jaw. | StyleSeat, Headcovers Unlimited, The Lash Lounge | — |
Where the guides split, the finder shows the shape most of them pick and names the others, so the pick is ours. Sources: L’Oréal Paris and L’Oréal Paris UK, Waxxpot, Nair, The Lash Lounge, StyleSeat and Headcovers Unlimited.
The basic eyebrow shapes
Nair sorts most brows into four basic shapes: rounded, straight, arched and S-shaped. The finder draws the arched one three ways, because the face guides ask for three different arches.
| Brow shape | What it looks like | Picked for |
|---|---|---|
| Soft arch | A gentle, softly angled peak. | Oval |
| High arch | A higher, angled peak toward the outer third that lifts the face. | Round |
| Medium arch, long tail | A medium peak and a tail drawn a little past the usual end. | Pear (base-down triangle) |
| Rounded | One soft curve with no sharp peak. | Square, Heart, Diamond |
| Straight | Flat across, with little or no arch. | Oblong (rectangle) |
| S-shaped | A slight dip after the start, then the arch: a gentle wave. | None of these guides |
Close-set and wide-set eyes
If the gap between your inner eye corners is less than one eye’s width, your eyes are close-set; more than one eye’s width, wide-set (a plastic-surgery paper and Perfect Corp use the same one-eye test). For close-set eyes, Makeup and Beauty Blog moves the start of each brow a hair toward the temples and jane iredale moves the arch point out, and warns against over-tweezing between the brows to do it. For wide-set eyes, both bring the inner ends of the brows a little closer together.
Three worked examples
A round face, eyes about one eye apart: a high, angled arch. Start straight up from the outer edge of the nostril, peak on the line past the outer edge of the iris, end on the line past the outer corner of the eye; skip rounded or flat brows.
A heart-shaped face with close-set eyes: rounded, with a soft, low arch, started a little further out toward the temples; skip an angular or high arch. One guide, L’Oréal Paris, would give this face a high arch instead.
A pear-shaped face with wide-set eyes: a medium arch with a long tail, started a little closer to the middle, with the tail drawn a little past the line from the nostril.
Common mistakes
- Plucking between the brows to widen close-set eyes. jane iredale warns against over-tweezing that area; fill the start or the arch out with a pencil instead.
- Mapping with your head tilted or your eyes looking away. The arch line runs past your iris, so it moves when your eyes do: look straight ahead into the mirror.
- Treating one guide as the rule. The guides agree on round, diamond and pear faces and split on oval, square, oblong and heart-shaped ones; the chart names who says what.
More on Needle Style
Brow shapes to try, where each part of your makeup goes, clean girl makeup for brown skin, the latte makeup look and makeup for older women. Then find your eye shape for the liner and shadow.
Brow shapes by face from L’Oréal Paris, Waxxpot, Nair, The Lash Lounge, StyleSeat and Headcovers Unlimited; mapping from Maybelline, IT Cosmetics, jane iredale, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Nair and L’Oréal Paris UK. Every guide re-read word for word on its own page. Checked 2026-10-02.
FAQ
What eyebrow shape suits my face?
The one that balances it: a high, angled arch for a round face; a rounded brow for a square, heart-shaped or diamond face; a straight brow for an oblong face; a soft arch for an oval face; and a medium arch with a long tail for a pear-shaped face.
How do you map your eyebrows?
Hold a pencil against the outer edge of your nostril, looking straight into a mirror. Straight up marks the start; angled past the outer edge of your iris marks the arch; angled past the outer corner of your eye marks the tail. Join the three marks.
Where should your eyebrows start and end?
They start straight above the outer edge of your nostril and end where a line from the nostril past the outer corner of your eye meets the brow. Anastasia Beverly Hills starts them a little further in, above the middle of the nostril.
Where should the arch of your eyebrow be?
On the line from your nostril past the outer edge of your iris, say Maybelline, IT Cosmetics and jane iredale. Anastasia Beverly Hills, Nair and L’Oréal Paris UK put it over the middle of the iris instead, which puts the peak a little further in; the finder draws both lines.
What are the different eyebrow shapes?
Most brows are one of four basics: rounded, straight, arched or S-shaped (Nair). Arched brows run from a soft, gentle arch to a high, angled one.
What eyebrow shape is best for a round face?
A high, angled arch, which adds structure and makes the face look longer. Four guides agree, and two say to skip rounded brows on a round face.
How should I shape my brows if my eyes are close-set or wide-set?
Close-set: start the brows, or their arch, a little further out toward your temples, without plucking between them. Wide-set: start them a little closer to the middle of your face.