Now that spring is firmly sprung – officially, at least – even eyebrows are bursting into bloom, in one of the season’s most enjoyable beauty trends. The “garden eyebrow” seems to have sprung from the verdant and very funny mind of Taylor R, a Canadian beauty vlogger and Instagram star living in Hong Kong, who treated her 822,349 subscribers to a little tutorial this month on how to bring a touch of longed-for greenery to your face. (Basically, wax or gel your brows, colour them with liquid lipstick, then add flowers.) There followed a poll: “#GardenEyebrows (butterfly emoji, flower emoji) Yes or no? (chin stroking emoji)”. With 36,190 likes, the results seem to be inarguably in favour.

A subtle garden design from hejitsjen. Photograph: @hejitsjen/Instagram

Taylor R is also credited as the inventor of #ChristmasTreeEyebrows (think tweaked hairs decorated with tiny gems and golden stars) and – a personal favourite – nostril hair extensions, by which, with just a few sprigs of false eyelashes, young women across the globe can achieve the nasal luxury of the late Denis Healey.

The_river_styx goes floral. Photograph: @the_river_styx/Instagram

Of course, the fashion for adorning your brows with a little of nature’s finest is not new. High society ladies in the 1700s are said to have attached pieces of mouse fur above their plucked-bald brows to give them that all-too-desirable look of aristocratic surprise. While Taylor R may have swapped rodent offcuts for green colouring and the buds of real flowers, the desire is the same: to beguile and delight. As Andrew Marvell might have put it way back in 1681: “How vainly women themselves amaze,/ To pluck the palm, the oak, or bays,/ And their uncessant labours see,/ Faces crown’d with several trees.”

There are, at time of writing, just 129 #gardeneyebrows blossoming on Instagram, but it is surely only a matter of time (and a sprinkling of Baby Bio) before the look is seen upon the face of every waitress, bus driver and financial ombudsman from Hong Kong to Harlesden. Viva la vida and power to your brows.