Brow Lift

Targets: Brow, corrugator, orbicularis oculiDuration: 60 secondsReps: 10 reps — hold 3 seconds each

A heavy or hooded brow is partly a function of skin laxity and partly a function of how much support the surrounding muscle is giving. The Brow Lift combines light finger resistance with a slow, controlled eye-close, so you practise moving the muscles around the eye deliberately and releasing them fully.

How to Do It

Put index fingers just under your eyebrows and gently lift. Close your eyes slowly against the resistance, then relax.

Why It Works

Working a muscle against gentle resistance, the same way a physical therapist trains a joint, can improve local muscle tone over weeks of consistent practice.

Benefits

• Works the muscles around the brow and eye with very light resistance
• Can help the eye area feel more awake and lifted
• Pairs well with an eye cream — do it right after application

Which muscles this works

Three muscles control where your eyebrow sits. The frontalis lifts it, while the orbicularis oculi (the ring of muscle around the eye) and the corrugator supercilii pull it down and inward. That is why a heavy-looking brow is rarely just a weak-muscle problem: skin laxity, fat loss and bone structure all play a part. This exercise adds light finger resistance to a slow eye-close, which trains you to control the muscles around the eye deliberately and to release them fully afterwards.

Step by step

1. Wash your hands and start with clean skin, or a thin layer of eye cream.
2. Place your index fingers just beneath your eyebrows, resting on the bony ridge above the eye.
3. Use only enough pressure to support the skin and lift it gently upward.
4. Close your eyes slowly against that light resistance, counting to three.
5. Release and relax the whole eye area, then repeat. Aim for 10 reps.

Common mistakes

• Pushing so hard that the brow skin tugs upward. Support, don't pull.
• Squeezing the eyes shut. Keep the closing slow and soft.
• Scrunching the forehead or nose. Keep the rest of the face still.
• Holding your breath. Breathe normally throughout.

When to skip it

Don't do it if you have an eye infection, conjunctivitis, a stye, or have had recent eyelid or eye surgery. Press only on the bone around the eye and never on the eyeball itself. If you've had botulinum toxin or filler around the brows, ask your practitioner first.

What to expect

Treat this as a way to make the eye area feel more relaxed and awake rather than a way to change brow position. Where the brow sits is also set by your skin, bone structure and genetics, so any visible effect is likely to be subtle, and it will not replace a surgical brow lift.

The best-known study of facial exercise followed 16 women aged 40–65 through a 20-week programme of 30-minute sessions. Cheek fullness improved and dermatologists rated them about three years younger on average (Alam et al., JAMA Dermatology, 2018). It was a small study, the authors noted the results may not apply to other groups, and the programme was far longer than a one-minute video, so expect gradual and modest change.

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