Lady Gaga’s Eyebrow Evolution, According To Her Makeup Artist Sarah Tanno
The star's Haus Labs Edge Precision Brow Pencil drops soon.
Few artists have seamlessly transitioned from look to look—and era to era—quite like Lady Gaga. And like her style, hair, and makeup, Gaga's brows have had just as much of an evolution over the years, largely thanks to her makeup artist Sarah Tanno. “She lets me go there and she has so much fun with it,” Tanno says of collaborating with the multitalented star, with whom she’s worked for over a decade. “She's not afraid of makeup. She's not afraid of transformation. Often when we're doing a new look or starting a new era, the brow is a big part of the conversation of what the makeup style is going to be,” says Tanno, teasing, “We have a project that we're working on right now, the brow is a major topic.”
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Like her mega-famous client, Tanno is a strong proponent of a statement brow. “To be honest, a lot of times I work the entire look around the brow,” she reveals. “After I prep the face and moisturize it, I actually shape her brow first because that will set the tone for the makeup.” The same is true even for the rest of us, especially in the age of the face mask. “The brow does even more for us and it's a way of expression,” she says. “It's the one thing right now that I'm doing, even when I'm in my house or taking meetings. Every day, if I'm wearing no makeup or a ton of makeup.”
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Tanno is also the Global Artistry Director for Gaga's makeup line, Haus Laboratories. So when it came time to create the brand’s first-ever brow product, the Edge Precision Brow Pencil (launching March 9 on hauslabs.com and Amazon), it had to be glorious. “We have 13 shades. We worked really hard on the shades to test it on all different skin tones, and all different hair colours,” she shares. “We just tried to make something very straightforward, utilitarian, and easy to work with so it doesn't take an expert or a makeup artist to use.”
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In honour of the new launch, Tanno walks us through some of Lady Gaga’s most iconic brow looks. And although the level of drama varies from look to look (as you’ll see below), the attention to detail remains constant. Keep reading to see them all.
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This article first appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR US
Gaga went full Old Hollywood—with a brow twist—to celebrate her role in AHS: Hotel. “It was really about this haunting vampire, fashion-inspired character that was slightly inspired by Daphne Guinness,” explains Tanno. “So we wanted something really fashion.” And although it’s obviously a statement look, it also gave the duo even more room to be creative. “When you take the brow away, you really have so much room to experiment with your eyes. You can really take a lot of eye makeup.” For maintenance, Tanno says she would bleach the brows every two weeks, and tone them with a drugstore favorite: Shimmer Lights shampoo.
In a look only Gaga would dare attempt, the singer wore long gold fringe brows for a Shiseido commercial. “We were shooting with [photographer] Ellen Von Unwerth, and we really wanted to show the versatility of the power of makeup,” she explains. And of course, that included a statement brow—crafted by Tanno herself. “I took little chains and glued them on to a pierced strip, and then just glued them onto her brows so it hung over her eyes."
The singer’s brows were still bleached, but that wasn’t quite enough drama for her tour look. “We wanted to do something really young and fun for the stage,” says Tanno. “I would only get a few minutes in between the quick changes to change her makeup while she was changing in between songs. So I reached out to Face Lace and I had [designer Phyllis Cohen] help me to design crystal-studded brows that we would put on really quickly.”
The beauty of the performance look is that, thanks to the distance from the audience, it can be even more dramatic. “Just adding that simple sticker really framed her face differently, and looked like a massive change," adds Tanno.
“We wanted something that felt really soft and beautiful and not too defined,” Tanno says of Gaga’s Oscar glam. “So I half-bleached [her brows], I got them to a place where it starts to get a little bit orange, and then we would just tone it.”
The pair went low-key and glam for this particular red carpet. “I really drew out the lines to frame the face, and extended it out towards the temples,” Tanno explains. “Back then we didn't brush the brows up as much. We just left it natural.”
It was back to blonde—along with bold red eye makeup—for Gaga’s memorable National Anthem performance at the 2019 Super Bowl. To shape the brows, Tanno says she uses the “old school” trick of spraying a spoolie brush with hairspray to “really push them up so they look very Bambi,” for an almost laminated effect. “I know the laminated brow is so in [right now], and I think that's because it really helps to show each brow hair," she says.
For the Haus Labs launch, a slight tweak to the shape of the brow made a major difference. “We wanted the brow to be very defined, also very filled in. But instead of doing a typical arch, like we usually do on her, we went with straight so that the eye makeup was the thing that lifts. Just by brushing the hairs a different direction really can change her face,” notes Tanno.
The pair revisited the bleach as Gaga began promoting her sixth album, Chromatica. “We wanted to do something that felt really futuristic and very pop and fashion at the same time,” explains Tanno. “So I just asked her, ‘Can we take the brows off again? It's been a while.’ I love her with bleached brows. It's like a playground as soon as they take them off because there's no limit.” Plus, Tanno adds, “I can draw them back on wherever I want.”
“We wanted to do just a really beautiful, wearable red carpet look that was still part of Chromatica but felt a little bit more approachable, and just really gorgeous,” Tanno explains of her most recent red carpet look. Gaga also secretly wore the not-yet-released Haus Laboratories Brow Pencil for the occasion. “We used the pencil in Dark Brown and really filled in the brow,” Tanno shares.
For the launch of the newest Haus Labs product, the focus is on—what else?—Gaga and her immaculate brows (in a blend of shades Auburn and Dark Brown, to be exact).
And for Tanno, it’s the miracle product she’s been waiting for. “In the ‘90s, I waxed my brows a lot and the whole end of my brow does not grow back,” she explains. “So I need something that fills in the brow, but also lays down on the skin and doesn't look too waxy like a makeup product. And that's what I love about this pencil. I'm able to achieve something that looks very natural, and if I want to do something bold, the payoff is there.”
Available in 13 shades, the Edge Precision Brow Pencil mimics the look of natural hair in an easy-to-use pencil. Brush through your work with the attached spoolie for the most seamless effect. It's available starting March 9.