While beauty queens have been busy arguing over whether big brows are still “in” for 2023, or if the pencil thin eyebrow trend will get vomited back up along with everything else y2k, we have let a far greater evil slip in through the net.
Octopus eyebrows. Yes, you read correctly.
The trend, which started on TikTok (where else?), sees an individual parting their brows through the middle — but wait, aren’t middle partings out? I can’t keep up — and separating sections of the eyebrow into chunks, then curling them in different directions like tiny little octopus legs.
Luckily, TikTok isn’t necessarily totally convinced by the trend either. The original video has gone down a treat, sure, with 11.5M views and over a million likes, spawning millions of copycats and duet videos where others attempt the brows, to varying levels of success.
So yes, this might be the next big brow trend, but it’s not something you should wear out of the house without perfecting the technique first. To try it out yourself, you’ll need a substantial brow gel (or brow soap) and a spoolie eyebrow brush. To be extra careful, you can use a tweezer or toothpick to get those octopus legs reallyin line.
Responses to the brows have been mixed, with comments on videos ranging from: “Respectfully, no thank you,” to “I don’t want to give my eyebrows a middle part, thanks,” to “This is one of the most ridiculous things ever but I can definitely imagine this on a Balenciaga runway.”
Given that Balenciaga has sent models out with neon brows before, this commenter might not be far off. Or take bleached eyebrows, for example, which we initially thought were a brief nightmare, yet went on to become one of the hottest eyebrow trends of 2020-2022. Stranger things than Octopus Eyebrows have happened, after all.
And, moreover, “ugly beauty” (a la Balenciaga as well), is one of the biggest beauty trend predictions for 2023. That means disregarding the male gaze and traditional makeup looks in favour of messy eye makeup, smudged lipstick (see: Doja Cat) and... who knows, octo-brows, could be the norm for the year ahead.
So don’t go bleaching or shaving off your brows to draw them back on just yet - you might need each and every single one of those hairs to make octopus legs. Or for whatever comes next, which is probably going to be “centipede brows” for all we know.
