It seems like — almost overnight — the world has become eyebrow-obsessed. And, well, with good reason. Ask makeup artist James Kaliardos and he'll tell you that eyebrows are "the holders of expression," and should be valued as such.
"I’m always telling women, 'If you want a raise, go in and strengthen your brows first — it makes you [appear] strong,'" Kaliardos tells us. "Emphasizing your brow...is a really powerful thing to do."
Which is probably why many celebrities have told us that their biggest beauty regrets revolve around, you guessed it, eyebrows. More specifically, not taking better care of them — whether that involves over-tweezing or not tweezing enough.
As they say: You live and you learn reshape 'em. But that doesn't mean those often regrettable moments go undocumented. Ahead, we lay out some of our favorite celebrity eyebrow transformations. One note: The following ladies are stunning in both their before and their after shots, but there's no arguing how much a new set of brows can transform the face.
Before:
Adele first came into our lives with a larger-than-life bun in tow, no cat-eye in sight, and discreet brows.
Photo: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Fast-forward to today, and the singer has shouted a pretty booming "Hello, it's me" to bold, filled-in arches.
Photo: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Demi Lovato once told us in an interview that her biggest beauty regret was the varying shapes her eyebrows came in. "I've had stages where they’ve been so thick where people have asked if I got eyebrow extensions, and then so thin it looks like I just drew them on."
This stage seems to be the latter, but honestly, who hasn't been there?
Photo: Amanda Schwab/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
As you can see here, Lovato was eventually able to strike a (very flattering) balance.
Photo: Broadimage/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Young Drew Barrymore really took the '90s over-tweezed brow trend to heart — some might even say she was the thin-brow poster girl of the decade.
Photo: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Her brows of 2016, on the other hand, are definitely more on par with the Cara Delevingne-led trend of today.
Photo: Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
More than a decade before Kerry Washington and her Gladiators took over our screens, she was rocking a pair of barely-there brows.
Photo: Picture Perfect/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Today, the Scandal star's eyebrows are, without a doubt, some of the most perfected at the (small screen's) White House.
Photo: Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Gwen Stefani once divulged a fairly traumatizing bleached-eyebrow story to us that resulted in a trip to the emergency room and numerous chemical burns. Hard to tell whether her pencil-thin brows from the early aughts were the result of said event, but...
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/BEI/Shutterstock.
After:
Today, it's clear that her eyebrow preferences have changed.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Jennifer Lopez's back-in-the-day brows definitely weren't the thinnest of the bunch...
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock.
After:
But it's obvious J.Lo takes her brow game much more seriously now: her bold arches soften and complement her face beautifully.
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Lauren Conrad's angular brows and false lashes were peak early aughts — and basically her signature during her Laguna Beach and The Hills heyday.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
After:
The blonder the hair, the bolder the brows.
Photo: Cindy Barrymore/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Actress Tracee Ellis Ross got her big break as Joan on Girlfriends.(And her skinny brows came right along with her.)
Peter Brooker/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
The Black-ish star told her fans back in 2013 that she was on a mission to grow out her "face caterpillars," and we're pretty in love with the results.
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Naturally, the most unfortunate eyebrow mishap belongs to the one and only Madonna, who never does anything halfway.
Photo: Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Fortunately, that means she also has the best transformations. The pair she has now is giving us serious brow envy.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Before her Lemonade cameo days — in 2002, to be exact — Serena Williams was busy showing off thin, dark brows and blond hair.
Photo: MATT BARON/BEI/BEI/Shutterstock.
After:
Her brows have nearly quadrupled in size since, giving even Brooke Shields' set a serious run for its money.
Photo: MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale told us that her biggest beauty regrets is the over-eager tweezing habit she partook in when she was younger.
Photo: Charles Sykes/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Outside of a little help from Dior's eyebrow pencil, Hale told Cosmopolitan that today she implements a hands-off approach to her arches. "I don't really do anything to them. Because I've had horror stories where either I over-plucked them, or finally they grew back out and I let someone touch them, and it was a disaster," she said. "And it's been a couple of years now, and I've finally found the shape that worked for me, so all I do is fill them in a little bit. Long live the big brow!"
Photo: Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Jessica Alba's brows from 2001 are everybody's brows from 2001.
Photo: PETER BROOKER/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
The entrepreneur and actress eventually put down the tweezers and picked up an eyebrow pencil. The result: luscious, full arches.
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock.
Before:
Yes, this is a younger Megan Fox.
Photo: CHARLES SYKES/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
We may not know who her baby daddy is, but we do know we're grateful that she finally realized the potential of her eyebrows when left alone.
Photo: Chelsea Lauren/Variety/REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Even the first lady herself isn't safe from unfortunate eyebrow happenings. When Michelle Obama first arrived at the White House, she brought a set of intensely arched eyebrows with her.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Today, that arch has been decreased and the brows have grown in. Her pair also eventually evolved into a more boyish version, which we're also fans of.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Before:
Before Miley started experimenting with different eyebrow colors (including a bleached-blond bout), she was a simple country girl from Tennessee.
Photo: Peter Brooker/REX/Shutterstock.
After:
Allow Miley and all the other celebs to stand as proof: Sometimes less maintenance is more.
Photo: Andrew Walker/Variety/REX/Shutterstock.
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