I used to have meticulously sculpted eyebrows — so sharp and angled, they could slice a wedge of gouda. But I admit it, as my work life has gotten hairier, well, so have my brows.

In an attempt to clean up my act, I headed over to Valerie Beverly Hills, the tony makeup and brow studio where owner Valerie Sarnelle has frosted, plucked and concealed hopeful faces for the past 15 years (she was in a neighboring outpost for ten years before that.)

The straight-talking beauty maven recently renovated her space on Canon Dr. from top to bottom — adding huge, flouncy curtains, massive marble counter tops and dreamy white leather treatment chairs.

Though she admittedly has way more fun doing makeup than brows (she has her own line of high-end makeup, Valerie Beverly Hills), Sarnelle’s known for her brow prowess, which she achieves via a mixture of plucking and waxing.

Despite my unruly above-the-eye assets, Sarnelle lamented the lack of thickness in my brows. Unfortunately, I entered her shop fully grown in — and lopsided. “Your eyebrows are uneven, but it’s no big deal,” she said, “everyone’s are.” Then she cleaned up all the errant hairs with tweezers, waxed the tops and bottoms and filled the whole area in using a pencil, a dark brown powder and a sticker stencil based on the arch of Brooke Shield’s famously fluffy brows (“powder gives fullness and pencil shapes,” she noted.)

I ended up with fuller-looking, shapely brows that felt slightly retro — very Mad Men. As a special treat, Sarnelle also gave me some seriously smoky eyes, layered with silvery powder and topped off with individual lashes. Look out.

During the journey, Sarnelle dropped these pearls of brow wisdom:

** Straighter brows (instead of big arcs) are more youthful looking. “By giving someone a big arch, you’re aging them.”

**Don’t cut your brows so short, they stand up in a line. You will look like “an evil demon.”

**Too-thin brows look dated, but “people are still obsessed with them.”

**Don’t be scared to bleach or dye your brows — they really should match your hair color.

**There are no hard-and-fast rules about where the brow arch point is — it depends entirely on the face.

Valerie Beverly Hills, 460 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-274-7348.

Photo: The smoky results of Sarnelle’s handiwork; Sarnelle at work.