Aside from her white-blonde hair, Daenerys' most identifying feature is her dark eyebrows. Even before I watched Game of Thrones, I could recognize Dany cosplayers by their hair and eyebrows!
When I worked on my first Daenerys cosplay, I realized that her eyebrows are one of the biggest keys to looking more like her in costume. I'm a beginner at makeup, so even though I've learned a lot about makeup since I started cosplay, modifying my eyebrows to look more like a real person's seemed intimidating.
Luckily, I'm close friends with Liz, who is fantastic at makeup. She's done my Dany eyebrows for me each time I've cosplayed Daenerys so far. I've had a few people ask how she did it, so I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you to achieve Khaleesi-status brows.
I gathered lots of reference photos and noticed that while Dany has thick, natural-looking brows, they are fairly well-groomed. With almost no stray hairs, they are definitely shaped through plucking or waxing. In addition, Dany's eyebrows have almost no arch.
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| #NoMakeup! Just kidding, I'm wearing a ton of makeup. |
My own eyebrows are pretty sparse, but luckily that's easy to fix with makeup. I have almost no arch to my brows, and the overall shape is pretty similar to Emilia Clarke's eyebrows, just thinner/sparser. I actually grew my eyebrows out a little bit for my Daenerys cosplay so they'd be a little thicker (and look less drawn on).
If you have thicker eyebrows, you can either shape them to the same shape or use the glue stick trick to cover them up.
If you have thicker eyebrows, you can either shape them to the same shape or use the glue stick trick to cover them up.
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| Half on, half off - the power of makeup! |
Liz used Anastasia Beverley Hills Brow Wiz in Ebony to fill in my eyebrows. Brow Wiz is basically a mechanical eyebrow pencil that's super simple to use. Liz did a light outline of the shape she wanted, then filled the shape in the direction of my eyebrow hair. Finally, Liz used the brush end of Brow Wiz to comb the color through.
The most crucial part is getting the shape right, so use really light strokes until you get the shape you want. For Dany's straight eyebrows, start with the straightest line at the bottom of your natural brow. Follow the same line for the top of your brows. Try to keep the arch minimized. Look in the mirror and refer to your reference images frequently to make sure you're on the right track!
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| Khaleesi brows complete! |
Since this makeup is for photographs, I like to go a little bit darker than Emilia's natural eyebrows so it will show up better on camera. The general rule of thumb for cosplay makeup is to go at least 10% heavier than you would normally.
And there you have it! With a little practice, you too can have Daenerys eyebrows.
Have you ever re-shaped your eyebrows for cosplay or otherwise?
