We Chat With Kelley Baker About How to Achieve Your Best Brows Ever

Kelley Baker’s brows are on the cover of Forbes. Well, they’re not actually Kelley Baker’s brows–they’re Kylie Jenners–but Baker is the one responsible for making sure they looked on point. “It’s pretty fricken amazing,” she says, of seeing her work on the cover. But her celebrity clients don’t stop at Jenner; she’s also worked with Ariana Grande, Kourtney Kardashian and Zendaya to name a few.

Baker started out in the beauty industry 13 years ago doing makeup for clients. Many of them noticed how great she was with brows and began requesting whatever it was she was using. In fact, popularity grew so fast that she realized she should just start making her own brow products instead. She worked tirelessly setting up her brand. “I would never sell anything that I think kind of works, ever. I’m a total perfectionist and my team loves me and hates me for it,” she says.

From all of that hard work, Kelley Baker Brows was born and now, with almost 650,000 followers on Instagram and a salon in Venice Beach, it’s safe to say that the company is a success.

Now, the LA-born brow queen is focused on making the world a better place, one set of brows at a time. “It’s my weird fun art,” Baker says. “And the reactions… Everyone’s so different. It’s always happy, of course, but some people actually start crying.”

From doing red carpet makeup for the cast of Game of Thrones, to perfecting Kourtney Kardashians brows for her beauty campaign with Kylie Cosmetics, Baker’s job has taken her to some really cool places and allowed her to meet some pretty big stars. “It’s such a fun thing to be able to make women feel pretty and feel good about themselves,” she says. Who does she want to do next? Sophia Vergara, Oprah and Michelle Obama.

Baker’s products are sold at Toronto’s Lac + Beauty, where she’s trained employees on her signature technique. It was here that we sat down with the makeup artist to talk all things brows and she gave us some of her top tips.

Embrace your natural shape:

“Try to keep your brows as close to their natural shape as possible,” says Baker. “Don’t try to give yourself something that just doesn’t belong to you, because we can always make what you have better, clean them up, and add extra definition. You want to try to be real to what your natural shape is.”

Use a pencil for easy application:

Baker has preferences when it comes to products and formulas. “Absolutely powder and pencil. I have both in my own line but I’d say pencil is probably most popular. I’m not really a fan of pomade. I feel like it’s a little too harsh and I’m more into a natural brow look.” At the end of the day, she says it’s all down to personal preference. “I used to be a powder girl but I do actually think that the pencil is easier because then you can get it right where you want it,” Baker adds.

Don’t touch your brows in between appointments:

“I typically always recommend clients come in once a month to a brow professional,” Baker says. “Let us do the work and don’t touch them in between–this is huge. It really does make a huge difference. And then every time you come in, they get better and better.” This means avoiding trimming and plucking in between. Baker notes that trimming your brows too short can create little holes and that people often over-tweeze the area in between their eyebrows which can take away from the actual shape of the brow.

Wax for a more precise look:

From plucking to threading, it’s all about what suits you best. “I personally always wax unless someone asks me not to, and in that case it might be because they use a retinol or are on Accutane or something,” says Baker. “But I love waxing because I feel like it gives it a cleaner look and it gets all those little baby hairs, which actually then makes your brows look fuller and keeps them clean longer.”

When it comes to microblading, just say no:

Microblading has been all over social media lately but Baker hates it. “I think it’s the worst trend ever. Anyone can do it, you yourself can take a course and be a certified microblader in a day,” she says. “It’s been totally exploited because people are just trying to make a buck because you can charge so much money for it. They say it’s semi-permanent which is a lie, it’s 100% a tattoo and it does not go away. I wish I could tell the whole world, ‘Don’t do it’–and you can quote me on that.”

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