Angry eyebrows... I should have kept my mouth shut!

I have this situation with a relative of sorts (I don't want to be specific, but we're related through marriage).

I love her dearly. She's a very smart, honest, compassionate person.

She is single and has mentioned several times how hard it is and how it can get lonely. She doesn't have a lot of confidence. She knows how capable she is, but it's pretty clear that her appearance doesn't give her much confidence.

The thing is, she has the makings to be very pretty - full lips, hazel eyes, pale skin and gorgeous, shiny, coffee-dark brown hair.

But she has these angry eyebrows that really don't do her any favors. She plucks or waxes, so they are very well maintained, but they end a little too soon on the outside and go down and in a bit too much towards her nose, so she looks angry (the harsh shape right now doesn't do her any favors).



I happened to have mentioned this to a mutual friend while we were discussing this person's confidence and how to help improve it. I mentioned the eyebrows, asking her if I should say something (I'm no beauty queen myself and my eyebrows aren't perfect, but that is mostly because I don't have enough to pluck into a perfect shape to start with so pretty much all I can do with mine are pluck the whopping four stray hairs that occasionally show up) and, if so, how to broach the subject.

If she knew how lovely she could look, she'd feel better about letting the rest of her wonderful qualities shine through also.

Anyway, in talking to this mutual friend, I decided not to share my opinion after all - her feelings are easily hurt and I didn't want to offend her.

Well, my hubby told me that this mutual friend told this person that I thought she had angry eyebrows and needed to pluck them.

Eeek! I mean, a part of me is glad she at least has the idea in her head, but on the other hand, I certainly didn't want to hurt her!

This really wouldn't be that big of a deal if our situations were reversed and she criticized some aspect of my appearance (she has before, and life moved on without my world crashing down). In my way of thinking, people have opinions and it is up to us whether or not to take their opinions into account in our own choices. But this person is VERY sensitive and easily upset.

And that she heard if from someone else instead of me is hurtful to her - as if I was maliciously talking behind her back, which I wasn't. I was discussing her with our mutual friend and we were talking about ways that she could find more confidence.

Sigh...

How should I handle this now? I want to make amends but am not sure how to go about it.