The Tool: I never was very good at geometry, so when The Brow Buddy from Billion Dollar Brows made its way across my desk, I was skeptical of its compass-like shape. The Brow Buddy is a measuring tool that helps take the guesswork out of drawing in your brows. "The Brow Buddy allows you to shape your brows based on your facial symmetry -- your eye placement, the width of your nose," says Natalie Plain, co-founder of Billion Dollar Brows. "So many people say 'I want Angelina Jolie's brows. She has the perfect brows.' But that's not it. She actually has brows based on her facial symmetry, because she has a team of professionals to do that." For those of us who don't have those resources, who get our brows done at our local nail salon (this makes the hairs on the back of Natalie's neck stand up), the Brow Buddy is designed to guide you at home.

The Method: You start by placing the center of the tool at the base of your nose. Next, you open up the ends of the tool so they frame your outer iris and draw a small marking. Open up the tool even wider so that it's aligned with the outer corner of your eye and mark there as well. In theory, you should simply be able to connect the dots using a brow pencil and fill it in: voila, instant bold brows.

The Results: Unfortunately, my first attempt ended with me looking less like Cara D. and more like Frida Kahlo. My brows are so short that I had to draw in a good amount of pencil with the Billion Dollar Brows Universal Brow Pencil on both the inner and outer edges of my brows. Also, I would take the word 'universal' with a grain of salt. The deep brown was too dark for me, even though I have naturally dark brows and hair. As you can see, the results were more comical than supermodel-worthy.

The Fix: Not to be discouraged, I went back to Plain for some advice on improving my technique. "Don't just draw a line. Blend with quick, short strokes and feather the pencil into your natural hairs," she says. "Use a spoolie brush to go back through the line and give it a more natural finish." Also, if you have stubby brows like me, you don't have to follow the Brow Buddy's guidelines to an exact T (um, definitely good to know!). Start by drawing in a little further in or out on the edges and increase that amount as you continue to grow your brows out. At night, apply a brow-boosting serum like BDB Brow Boost. "When we're constantly waxing and tweezing, it makes the hair follicle weak and it doesn't want to grow anymore. Just like conditioning the hair on your head, a serum applied as part of your nightly routine (after you wash your face and remove your makeup) can help your brows grow and become fuller and thicker."

The Tool: Although I had picked up a few tips on filling in my brows, I still had no clue how to get any sort of arch in them -- or how to tweeze without looking like I took a weed-wacker to them. Thus I turned to The Queen of Eyebrows, Anastasia Soare (she's the woman responsible for Jennifer Lopez', Penelope Cruz' and other celebrities' perfectly plucked brows) and her Anastasia Beverly Hills Classic Brow Stencils. . I figured if I could connect the dots with the Brow Buddy, I could certainly color in a stenciled arch.

"A big concern for many women is growing their brows in without looking unkempt," says Soare. "While your brows are growing back, you can still tweeze the shorter hairs that you don't want, as long as you have the right shape in place. Also, if your new hairs are too short to tweeze comfortably, I use a good quality highlighting pencil to help conceal tiny stray hairs until they are long enough to pluck." Though I was using them to help create the right shape, the Anastasia Beverly Hills Classic Brow Stencils also allow you to create a tweezing guideline by tracing instead of filling in the line.

The Method: The brow stencils come in different arch variations, ranging from petite arch to full arch. To start, you begin by choosing the stencil that most closely resembles the shape of your natural brow. I chose the smallest stencil, petite arch. My entire brow fit inside the cutout and there was still way too much empty, brow-less space.

The Result: Even though they weren't the perfect fit, I couldn't resist trying the full arch stencil to see if I could unleash my inner Lily Collins. Disaster. The brows that look so fierce on her were very obviously, drawn-on caterpillars on my face

The Fix: Back to the drawing board I went for more expert advice. "If your brows are extremely sparse or over-tweezed, I suggest tapering your stencil use from the smallest size to your ideal size," says Soare. "For instance, on clients who have completely tweezed off most of their brows, or have very little naturally, I start them with the petite stencil. This way they have a more defined brow shape that is not an extreme change. As the brows grow in more and more and people become used to their new brow shape, I change them to the next stencil in the series." In other words there is no quick fix to thick brows unless you want everyone wondering how your brows doubled in size overnight. You still have to work your way up to the fullest shape slowly as you continue to grow in your own brows.

But in the meantime, I still couldn't draw on or fill in my brows with the too-dark pencils I've tried time and time again. For this, Soare recommends looking for a firm consistency and a slim tip to create the most natural looking hair-like texture. You should also look for a good balance between wax and pigment.

The Method: Although I really wanted to be able to create the perfect brows at home, I realize that most women put the care of their brows in the hands of a salon, rather than risking a botched job of their own. Walking into the salon, I explained to them my desire to grow out my brows. They nodded and listened and gave me the expert advice to "lay off the tweezers" ...