What does it take to make a beautiful face truly iconic? For me, it's a pair of stonkingly good brows. Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Cindy Crawford, Audrey Hepburn and a gazillion more were known for their geometrically perfect faces, but it's their brows that still sing out at me. 

The presence of a sturdy set of brows dresses the face in the same way a tuxedo jacket dresses the body, meaning very little make-up is needed, meaning the woman in question always looks indefatigably chic. And by sturdy, I mean brows that have been allowed to flourish with everything they can muster - that might be a feint etching of ash blonde hair, or big and strident warrior brows, that have managed to stare off every pair of tweezers they've come into contact with. 

Naturally, there's a lot of contextual biology at play here; well-shaped, luscious brows spell health, health spells fertility, fertility implies sexuality and so on. But all that's rather superfluous, really. Characterful brows are just bloody brilliant to look at. 

Of course, so much of our brow performance simply comes down to genetics. I inherited not my mother's implicitly Delevigne-handsome brows but something far more sparese, further up the lineage. Which is why I am never without a little tube of Mac Brow Set in Beguile, £12.50 (my favourite ever MAC product by miles), you see, like all things, you can always enhance and adapt what you've been given, should you wish to.

But where to take your brow shape, now? Click the gallery for the 9 most prominent brow shapes that define our times.

And remember, it's all about adding brow this season - not taking it away.