This is one of the most interesting and striking photoshoots I’ve ever seen with January Jones. She’s profiled in Violet Grey and you can see some of the additional (NSFW-ish) images here. The color shot with the red lips that I’m using as the header? To die for. My God, she’s so stunning. January also did a short, enjoyable, breezy little Q&A with the mag:
What is the single greatest night of your life and why?
The night my son was born for so many reasons.Do you think gentlemen prefer blondes?
I think gentlemen rarely have a preference but having been a red head and a brunette before, I will say I get more attention being a blond, it must have something to do with light reflection.At what age do you think men are at their best?
Somewhere between 30-80.Who do you most want to go to bed with, dead or alive?
Paul Newman or RihannaWhat do you really think of Jon Hamm?
I think he’s amazing. Very kind and generous, well read, very strong but easily vulnerable, very funny but also dark. My friend.How important is nail polish in your life?
It’s very important because I wear acrylics for Mad Men and am constantly changing the polish from work colors (frosty white, coral, classic red or pink), to a nude or light pink to disguise how long they are. And if I want to go bold, I love a deep red.What is the most important beauty product in your cosmetic wardrobe?
Face creams of course. I can’t live without Sisely’s Supremya night cream. It’s worth your rent money.Do you believe in plastic surgery?
Whatever helps a person feel beautiful and confident is fine with me. I personally am afraid of the procedures that involve anesthetic but ask me again in twenty years.What do you keep on your bedside table?
Books, water, hand cream, lip balm and photos of my family.What is the most important piece of beauty advice you learned from your mom?
She always told me that if I kept making so many weird and ugly faces my face would eventually freeze that way. Luckily I found a job where funny and/or frozen faces are encouraged. Also, to not over pluck your eyebrows, a strong brow makes you look younger.What items will you take from the Mad Men set when it wraps?
My Movado watch if I can, maybe some clothes and table lighters.Which book changed your life?
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.What is one thing in Hollywood that is overrated?
The entourage.What question have you received the most throughout your career?
If my name is real and if so, why am I named that.
January also says that her lips are her favorite body part and that December – not January – is her favorite month. You know what? I’ve actually never heard that about not overplucking eyebrows because bigger eyebrows make you look younger. I’m not sure if that’s true. Mostly I think big brows make a woman look unkempt rather than young.
As for who should we go to bed with… Paul Newman, for sure. But to say Rihanna in the same breath? Weird. I’m surprised January didn’t list a bunch of married men.
Photos courtesy of Ben Hassett/Violet Grey.
This is actually really good advice. Growing up in the 90’s having no eyebrows and painting/drawing them in was the thing and now I really regret it. Plucking at all really isn’t the greatest. Best to get the waxed once every couple of months and never the top hairs! I hope my daughter takes my brows as a cautionary tale.
Yes! Never the top hairs! I once had a rather inexperienced makeup artist try to pluck my top hairs and I nearly lost my sh!t on her, lol.
I have to do my top hairs or I’ll look angry for no reason.
I have to do top-brow, I think that’s what lends to the unkempt look Kaiser hates about thick brows. I’ve always had mine thickish cuz I have a round face- not good for the pencil thin look. This is actually a funny interview. She’s always come off as so boring, this was a fun read. The Rihanna part had me lol
I pretty much second this also. And ladies extend the face cream down to your decolletage. It is basically as fragile as the skin on your face.
Yes, my dermatologist told me to do this. She said it makes no sense to stop at your chin.
Young people have naturally thicker brows. As we age, our eyebrows get thinner and thinner. It logically follows that fuller brows give a more youthful appearance. I wish I could have my bushy nineties brows back.
I disagree, mkyarwood. I prefer plucking over waxing. Waxing just removes everything on its path. Also, with waxing, the hair grows back thinner.
Right, the idea is you only wax directly beneath your natural brow line. Not in the front, not at the end, not above etc.
I’ve heard this before, same with Light brows make your face look softer, Im an eyebrow freak of nature so i STAY on top of them but won’t overpluck like I did in my teens and 20s ever again
Also if you are ethnic big bushy browed pay no mind to that whole no top hair you MUST trim and brush in the hair direction and Pluck away… Or even better THREAD! (Less tugging on your tender skin than waxing or tweezing)
I don’t think I would be considered ethnic. My background is mainly English and Northern European. But I have fair skin and dark hair so I agree with all of your advice about brows! I have to pretty much pluck mine every other day. Once every couple of weeks I do the trim. I also use a brow pencil in my makeup arsenal. I agree about the threading too.
OMFG Ginger WTF IS THIS LIFE ABOUT?!? i gotta have tweezers and a spoolie brush with me at all times else it becomes UNMANAGEABLE!!
“but won’t overpluck like I did in my teens and 20s ever again”
Oh, to go back in time and yell at my younger self to put down the tweezers! I have to fill them in, but I don’t think I’m doing them correctly. Does anyone know of a good tutorial on how to add a bit more depth to my eyebrows? They’re kinda thin and turning a bit lighter.
It’s more of an issue as you get older as brows start to naturally thin out. My mom is an esthetician and has always suggested that I do a bit of cleanup tweezing here and there instead of overdoing it and completely changing the look of my eyebrow. I was a teenager in the late 90’s when plucking them super thin was in and I’m really glad I followed her advice, unlike other good motherly advice I totally ignored. I have strong brows that work for my face and am hopeful they won’t get too thin as I age.
I plucked underneath but perhaps made them too thin and now combined with them losing color, what’s left is invisible. I have to pencil them on everyday. Halfway through the day they need reapplying. Waxing is not a good idea. It can damage the fragile skin under your brows and cause wrinkling of the skin there. The best is to yes, pluck, but only what you absolutely have to.
I always had thicker eyebrows, but not unruly and they never needed plucking so I never did. I never understood the thin brow thing. I think faces look better with eyebrows – they are a frame. And now that I’m in my 50s, they have thinned a little on their own and of course are going gray too lol. My colorist does my brows every 2nd color. They do make you look younger and as they lighten up with age, it’s nice to darken them up and not have to do it with makeup. Give me an eyebrow anyday. They take the focus off the wrinkly under brow area too. Ageing sucks lol.
It’s funny that on the main page, you see this headline on keeping a strong brow next to the headline and header photo of a scary Pam Anderson and her tiny line brows. Like it was on purpose, to drill the point home. Ha ha.
The eyebrow thing is pretty well known in beauty circles. I’ve heard it at least 15 times in the last 6 months. And yes I sport a thick but well groomed brow.
She’s right about eyebrows! I heard this advice many, many years ago when the waif look was popular. The real issue is that as you age, your eyebrows can become more sparse and if you’ve overplucked, it can give an irreversible harsh look to an older face. I don’t think she’s talking about unkempt eyebrows – just not too thin.
And I like her – I can’t help it!
Totally true. When brows are too thin it shows the musculature underneath where the hairs normally go, and this is tends to age people and look unflattering. Also strong brows are a biological signal of youth, and thinning brows as we age coincides with a drop in hormones.
I over-plucked my brows a few years ago bc I always wanted the generic ‘perfect arch’ so much. I used to have short but thick eyebrows (thanks Dad), and the thin eyebrow really made my Beluga whale forehead seem much bigger. I didn’t notice much back then…until I took selfies with my boyfriend and I noticed how thin my eyebrows are lol
I was lucky tho because my hairs on my body (excluding those on my head, of course) grow fast, so after 3-4 days of holding back myself from tweezing my eyebrows, they look normal again.
Plus as many people age their brows naturally thin out, so they have trouble keeping a fuller brow.
I am really starting to like her, too. I think her Instagram account was the smartest thing she’s done.
That’s so true about the eyebrows. Her interview is refreshing.
Wholeheartedly agree concerning the eyebrows, Pam Anderson from the other post is a good example of how overplucking can age you.
Some days all I do is fill in my brows and apply some mascara, good eyebrows can really transform the whole face.
I saw this headline then the Pam pic and couldn’t agree more.
Yup. The pic of Pammy is a prime example of the dangers of too thin eyebrows. Oof…
I naturally have more narrow eyebrows (and I’m a redhead so they’re super light blond) so I actually bulk mine up a bit with eyebrow pencil and even occasionally a little brown mascara. Never underestimate the importance of good eyebrows ladies!
Im surprised she didnt say “who my babydaddy is” when asked about what question she gets asked the most!
thats what I was thinking…lol
Don’t get her appeal…looks like every other blonde AMW…
NEXT!
Does anyone else find that JJ looks different in every picture…Not just the ones above…but when I see pics of her on celeb websites…sometimes, I don’t even recognize her…
She’s a perfect canvas — I don’t think she, alone, is striking but if you change a few things, she becomes a new person.
I don’t either. That can’t be good as a brand.
She looks gorgeous here.
I don’t know when I’ve seen her look better. Stunning.
She looks beautiful. I don’t agree with the big eyebrows, it depends on your face… My face always had nearly invisible brows, I wouldn’t even recognise myself with tattooed brows for example. Maybe what she says only concern entertainment people who constantly pluck their eyebrows (well their make up artists do that…).
I feel lucky that I’ve had what I like to call a semi full brow thats a decent shape without plucking, very few stragglers and its not too dark and not too light, so over the past 25 years I’ve never felt the need to do anything with my eyebrows thankfully and I’ve never been a fan of thin eyebrows. Its only now as things get softer that I feel the need to start plucking here and there.
I’ve known and still know many women who through the 90’s plucked their eyebrows so thinly you had to wonder if they actually had any. Now nearly 20 years or so later when you see them their eyebrows are so thin from overplucking that it looks ugly im sorry to say. Even now when the fashion is to have fuller brows these same women and younger women too still pluck pluck pluck and they dont even have a shaped brow, its just this semi circle monstrosity and it ages them so badly. And no, none of these women are involved in the entertainment industry 🙂
Hiddles, are you blonde? I am and I have pretty full eyebrows but they’re so blonde you can barely see them. Sometimes I put a little darker blonde pencil on them, but you have to be careful with that, too.
I have one crazy eyebrow that curls backwards at the top of my right eye. I pluck it out, and it comes back. I hate it and I curse at it. It makes me feel like an old man and next on the list will be hair growing out of my nose or ears. Damn you, crazy eyebrow!
I agree with the eyebrow thing. I read an interview with Sofia Vergara and she said the same thing. I just pluck the strays if I have to and leave it at that. My friend said that she plucked they end of her eyebrows too much and now one part won’t grow back, so I’m nervous that it could happen to me.
I am so glad my huge eyebrows are back in style 🙂
Still not really a fan, but she’s looks beautiful in these photos. That top one is amazing!
She is really beautiful but I just cannot stand her.
She’s a stunning woman, absolutely gorgeous in motion on mad men – can’t wait for it to come back!
She’s SO beautiful its ridiculous. There is nothing special about her features but she photographs really well.
She’s dead right about the eyebrows. Mine are naturally sparse and I hate how I have to fill them in every day. When you have thick, dark brows you can go without makeup and not have people ask you if you’re sick or upset! Haha.
I hated her because she was in a movie, Unknown, with Liam Neeson playing his “supposed” wife, and they even had a shower scene together.
The bed photo is her?? Mind blown. She looks like a completely different woman.
Im with you here. She is gorgeous but I dont like her when she has bold make up on, to me she is much better suited to natural looking makeup.
The photo of her in the bed had me stopping to think who she reminded me of and if any of you have seen the Swedish / Danish (original) series of The Bridge then you’ll know who I mean 🙂 If not then its the lead female Sofia Helin http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/may/12/bridge-sofia-helin-saga-interview Theyre similar but not the same, both beautiful women but blondes are not my type lol
Looks like a slightly altered Nicole Kidman in the top photo.
I love the makeup and hair in this shoot, particularly the ones with the bold lip. It’s a very 90’s bombshell supermodel look.
Idk, Angelina Jolie and JLo look mighty fine. One time Angelina had her brows contoured to make it look fuller and she looked odd. With the right shape, a thin brow can frame the face perfectly. Thin brows only age a face if they are overly arched or have the wrong color.
Great advice! Mine are so sparse I have to connect the little hairs with a eyebrow pencil and somedays if I’m in a hurry I can look surprise or angry all at the same time. 😉 January is just breathtakingly beautiful, she and Jon Ham really do look like Ken and Barbie. (If Ken were a cheating bastard) 😀 Lol! Plus ladies use sunscreen on your HANDS! Very important.
Love that full eyebrows are in. Makes me feel less guilty with all the strays popping up all over the place.
She’s very pretty.
I’m one of those people who kinda stuck to the 90s eyebrow too. I like them thick. I also still like 90s makeup, hahaha it just looks good still, if done right. I just like it.
I overplucked a few times in my youth (despite my mother’s warning!), but mostly my brows are intact. My eyebrows in my h.s. senior pic are gloriously bushy though lol! I agree the fuller the better, I wish I had the fullness at the outer brow I used to. Of course tweeze the unibrow if you have one. Mostly I do my own now. I used to wax, tried threading and hated the shape, am a bit sceptical of the brow bars absolutely everywhere now and have yet to find a good one. Big ugly brows (nicknamed “Scouse brow”) in Britain were in vogue here for awhile, that look scares me though I do like to define my brows with powder.
I really want to try the new Benefit brow zing, a bit pricy but sounds like it really helps brow thickness, has anyone tried it?
I like January, I know she gets a lot of flack but I have always thought she was so pretty and enjoy her on Mad Men.
She’s gorgeous,i would sleep with rihanna too.
Never thought much of her looks but she looks gorgeous in this shoot.
Did anyone see the pictures of Aaron Paul’s wife at the Need for Speed premiere…Her eyebrows were huge (the article said its the new style) but I thought they looked horrible…
Great photoshoot! And the eyebrow thing is a FACT.
That last pic in the bed is really confusing. Where is her right foot…? It looks like it should be where her left hand is,..? How are her legs bent? Please help!
Thank you! I am more taken w/ that photo because i can’t figure out the pose thing going on there its odd-back to stare at it..
She is beautiful
She is so beautiful and the photos are amazing . Love that red lip. She also has great taste in books. And in Paul Newman, one of the handsomest men ever.
It is true about the eyebrows. Plus, I don’t think she is saying that women should have unkempt bushy brows, she is saying women shouldn’t tweeze them too thin.
This May sound silly, but if you look back at most animated Disney Princesses, they all have fuller brows, some of them less arched also, which can be aging. Them look at all the wicked Queens/stepmothers/etc, and they all have thin/highly arched brows. There is a reason the animaters drew them that way.
My eyebrows are a mess – plucking reasonably thin for years (thanks 1990’s) – I’ve been trying to grow them back this year and…well, it’s a mess. My eyebrows aren’t getting any thicker, but I have a nice mess of grown-back eyebrows underneath. I guess I’m gonna have to wait a good year or more before anything of any form starts to appear.
Am loving this shoot.
…no wonder they say angular faces- rectanguler and square- photograph best.
I’m in love with strong brows. Kiera Knightley and Lourde(Madonna’s daughter)have the best brow on any female celeb at the moment.
My brows tend to grow all Andy Rooney-ish so the best trick I learned was to take a teeny tiny brush at the end of my eyebrow pencil, brush the hairs straight up then clip the shaggy ends off. Boy does it make a difference, it makes your brows look really neat and polished.
I had no idea January was this hot. Damn.
Where was this advice 25 years ago?? I overplucked, overwaxed and now I have to give my eyebrows lots of help. This is advice my mother (who has perfect natural eyebrows) never shared with me. Something I will strongly advise my daughter to do: stay away from the tweezers (mostly).
So I’m cruising along reading the headlines…the pic of January and the pic of Pam are right next to each other. OMG! Point proven without even reading the article…I will forever have thicker brows.
I agree. I remember I loved Sharon Stone’s thicker, dark eyebrows. She was stunning in Basic Instict, and the thicker, dark eyebrows really worked with her blonde hair. I had noticed for years she went lighter and thinner with her eyebrows and I didn’t think she was as striking. Eyebrows can not only make you look younger by not thinning them out too much but also frame your eyes.
The trend that started happening with women in their forties and fifties overbotoxing all around that area, which makes their eyebrows look odd and/or doing browlifts they all had these abnormally high, arched eyebrows like it would make them look younger. LOL Girls in their 20s don’t have high, super arched eyebrows, so why did they think it would make them look younger. That surprised look was awful. I remember Marie Osmond with her eyes arched so abnormally high from where your brow naturally is, but frozen and she looked scary. I noticed they are more normal these days.
I have determined that women who listen to plastic surgeons and/or dermatologists in the face business, especially as far as latest and best are just selling you the next thing to make money and women are like sheep. They do it. A little plastic surgery goes a long way. A lot of plastic surgery and/or fillers and botox and things like that just give an unnatural look.
Jerry Hall gave a great interview at 56 about these women being frightening looking and how she will never do plastic surgery and just wants to look really good for a woman her age, not trying to be something that is gone and can’t be gotten back with all the filler and botox in the world. She kept her eyebrows too.
Pamela Anderson’s eyebrows are awful, pencil thin, I don’t get why she did that,
And January isn’t saying not to pluck. She’s saying don’t overpluck. I always liked the lady that does Jennifer Anison’s eyebrows. She does a great job, not overdoing it, but they have such a nice, clean line to them.
I still think she looks most striking in Mad Men with her hair and makeup done up 60’s style. Otherwise I think she looks pretty but ordinary.
She forgot to add that thin eyebrows also makes you look trashy and porno-ish. Apparently she’s a difficult person (see Zach Galafanikis dispute and the comments by the kid who used to play her son). She seems really serious and measured. Apparently her instagram account gave her rep a real boost. Why the heck did she date Ashton? She and Josh Groban looked perfect together.
A very slight trim and even slighter pluck, and women look gorgeous. I have never found a highly plucked, thin brow to suit a woman’s face.
She’s right about the overplucked brows. Just take a quick look at the pics of Pamela Anderson on this site today and you see what she’s talking about. All you need is a little tweeting and grooming to keep the shape crisp, nothing more. And she dies look amazing in these photos.
This woman is exquisite. Her editorials are just divine.