Get Ready To Start Accessorizing Your Eyebrows

It’s been nearly a year since Rodarte sent punk-inspired brow rings down the runway, but the buzz surrounding eyebrow jewelry has yet to die down. Lady Gaga transformed her arches into bold beauty accessories, Benefit released the Bling Brow kit, and rainbow brows are trending. It's safe to say that eyebrow experimentation is having a moment. And it's a big one. Makeup artist James Kaliardos, the creative mind behind the rings at Rodarte, stresses that brows are "the holders of expression" and should be highlighted as such. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then brows are the frame. "I’m always telling women, 'If you want a raise, go in and strengthen your brows first — it makes you [appear] strong,'" says Kaliardos. "Emphasizing your brow, and finding an unusual way to do it, is a really powerful thing to do." Whether your brow decoration of choice is grunge faux-piercings or glamorous bling, Kaliardos recommends adopting a barely there makeup look so as not to overpower the strong brows. "We did a super-natural, beautiful face [at Rodarte], and I think that contrast is really interesting," he says. "It’s like, you look sweet, but maybe you’re not...you don’t know what you’re going to get." Why is this look trending now? Kaliardos thinks it's a cultural moment as much as it is an aesthetic one. "I think a lot of girls want to look rebellious; they don’t want to look pretty, or pink-y, or like some 1940s movie star," he says. "They want to look how they feel inside, which is sort of questioning their femininity, questioning their place in the world, and being rebellious and not having to be the good little girl all the time. Finding ways to do that through makeup is really interesting." As for the future of brows, Kaliardos sees the adornments evolving to include real-gold and gemstone accessories, embroidered shapes done with fake hair, and "digital brows that change shape or form to convey different expressions for Botox-frozen faces." (Let's all hope it doesn't come to that last one.) Wherever this new trend takes us, if Kaliardos' predictions hold any sliver of truth, it definitely won't disappoint.