Permanent Makeup/Microblading Nightmares and how to find a good Permanent Makeup Technician
Watch interview with Lana Schluter on ABC 7 News
May 21, 2018, Channel 7 News
The Dangers of permanent makeup
It could be you in that chair .....
Cosmetic Tattoos are currently available everywhere and are not regulated. Anyone can take one day class and call themselves a permanent makeup expert on the very next day.
Most permanent makeup technicians have absolutely no medical training, not even an esthetician or beautician training .
Things to consider when choosing a permanent makeup technician:
- Don't pay much attention to portfolio that display most of their photos of immediately after and from the side view, upside down view or one eyebrow at the time in HD. Obviously they have something to hide since they can not show you the frontal centered view photos. Most likely those eyebrows are not even, or they do not compliment /fit client's faces.
- No one will ever examine your eyebrows one by one under the microscope, from the side or upside down, however, everyone will notice if your eyebrows are not even or if they do not make your face look better, younger or more symmetrical.
- Say no to big and bushy caterpillar eyebrows — they make most women look masculine and harsh, just like thin eyebrows make a man look more feminine.
- Pigment, not ink, is being used. Warning -many microbladers are starting to use body tattoo ink. Ask what product do they use. Do not buy into "European " products myth, since there is no way to know for sure where, by whom and from what was it made. If something were to happen in terms of infection or allergic reaction, you would not know who to go after because it was not made by a well-known company here in the US.
- Sterile (not reusable) needles are being used
- Large selection of good quality pigments made by reputable company with up-to-date expiration date.
- Up-to-date tattoo license (not the same thing as beautician, aesthetician or any other State issued license)
- Technician's verifiable experience of at least 5 years
- Many authentic, unfiltered unedited images on Instagram of healed work in frontal view only (do not fall for the side view trick)
- Look for photos of healed permanent makeup, not immediately after the procedure photos since permanent makeup, unlike regular tattoo, does not heal or look the same as it does immediately after the procedure Avoid businesses that mostly or only display photos taken immediately after, especially when it comes to microblading. For more information, click on "FYI microblading vs soft tap" page.
- Make sure most of the technician's portfolio is showing frontal view well centered photos of after their work is healed, to provide evidence of good and even design.
- Office disinfection practice in between customer's appointments. Many do not clean their office nor do they disinfect everything they touch during the procedure
- Client's medical history should be reviewed before scheduling that client for the procedure
- Because permanent makeup is art, you must consider your technician's aesthetic and cultural preferences.
- Will your technician be able to correct their work if they made a mistake ? Most will not have the experience, training or tools to correct permanent makeup and might leave permanent scars by trying to remove it by tattooing salt, saline and acid,
Other warning signs:
- Done at the nail shop or hair salon out in the open with dust and hair flying in the air right into your open wound, disregarding your safety! None of them are legal and would never be licensed by the Department of Health!
- Your technician is working for someone else or renting a room at the beauty salon, spa, medical spa, doctor's office. They will have very little to almost no experience.
- Permanent makeup done at the regular body tattoo parlor or vice versa regular body tattoo is offered at the permanent makeup salon.
- Absence of tattoo license issued by the Department of Health.
- No allergy test is offered 1 week prior to tattoo procedure.
- Your medical history information is not collected, no consent forms were signed, no home care instructions were given.
- No one asked you if you ever had cold sores prior to scheduling you for a lip line or full lip procedure. BIG RED FLAG, this one!
- Technician offered to come to you or someone else's home (non-office settings.)
- Out-of-town traveling technician (from different country or state) that is not there on the regular basis, using the same specific office that licensed by State's Department of Health.
- Overbooked technician who is unable to take their time to listen to customer and who can't spend at least 1 hr or more on choosing/mixing the right color and shape, until the customer is completely satisfied with their choice without being rushed to start with tattoo procedure.
- Technician that does not offer a wide variety of high-quality pigment colors.
- Most colors being offered look too bright, and none of them look natural.
- Technician that uses a stencil to make "one fit all" eyebrows without considering their client's facial shape and structure.
- Technician that recommended using black pigment for eyebrow's or eyeliner, or bright red/burgundy colored lipstick on Caucasian client -BIG RED FLAG this one!
- Always check and write down where and who makes pigments, along with expiration dates. Make sure that the pigment and not ink is being used. Ink is OK for body tattoo, but it is not acceptable for facial tattoo use.
- The technician does not open a sterilized needle in front of you. Technician who does not wash their hands before they put gloves on. Gloves are not changed after the technician had to leave the room or touch something other than the client or equipment used during the procedure.
- Listed above are just a few of many warning signs to be concerned about.
Are you thinking about getting permanent eyebrows ?
Say NO to face and eyebrows measuring,,
Say YES to free-hand free-style eyebrows drawing technique
Say NO to Golden Rule ratio
Say NO to eyebrows measuring tools and techniques
Say NO to Microblading, say Yes to Soft Tap instead
Say NO to thick eyebrows tattoo, unless your own eyebrows are naturally thick
Do not trust anyone who design their customers' eyebrows by using an eyebrow measuring "Golden Ratio" rule or any other kind of facial measuring devise or mapping technique. The main two reasons why face measuring does not work are because our faces are not symmetrical and also because it does not take into consideration the light and an optical illusion effect our eyebrows have on the rest of the face. For example, improperly positioned eyebrows can create an optical illusion of nose being bigger or wider, eyes being smaller or narrower, face being longer or rounder and much more ... To test an optical illusion theory, simply have someone else take your picture and then compare your mirror reflection with that photo... Can you see the difference?
Eyebrows should always be drawn and designed free-hand without any tools or mythological "Golden Ratio" rule. The eyebrows measuring "Golden Rule" is nothing more than just a marketing myth, a very utopian concept invented to sell an eyebrow products and services and to train makeup artists and permanent makeup technicians who have no talent, vision and, therefore, are unable to design their customers eyebrows free-hand.
Keep on reading to learn more
3 days training is what most permanent makeup /microblading technicians have had. Some of that training is even offered online. Most of that training is done by people with very little experience who very recently just completed their own training. They all use very strange eyebrows measuring devices and techniques, resulting in very unflattering and uneven eyebrows shape.
So who can you trust with your face?
Over the last 2 years the demand for permanent makeup services had tripled, which unfortunately triggered an explosion in numbers of self-appointed permanent makeup "experts" who after merely attending a 3 day microblading class, some offered only online, went back to their beauty shops and salons to practice their "craft" on unsuspecting victims. As a result, more and more people are now desperately seeking for permanent makeup removal and correction services. More clients than ever before are contacting me with the photos of unevenly microbladed eyebrows, uneven and migrated eyeliners and uneven and blue lip liners. Please, please do your face a favor and do plenty of research before allowing anyone to touch it. Verify all the facts before you sign up for something so permanent and practically not removable. Yes, it is not removable! Permanent and semi-permanent makeup is a tattoo, regardless of whether it was microbladed or implanted manually or with the tattoo gun. Make no mistake, it is a tattoo and once it is implanted under your skin it is not completely nor easily, if at all, removable.
Regardless of what your technician, their salon or their website are telling you, do your own research. Every day, I see more and more inexperienced permanent makeup technicians and businesses pushing their websites to the top of the Google search pages via paid advertisement and paid search engine optimization thanks to their webmasters and computer technology guys, which unfortunately has nothing to do with their permanent makeup tattooing experience or quality of their work. They all sound very reputable, and they all sound like they have tons of experience, and yet in reality they are neither. Many do not have a required tattoo license. Every facility in Illinois and in most other states where tattooing is being performed must have a tattoo license issued for that specific facility, with their address written on that license. Microblading is classified as tattoo, therefore, every facility where microblading is being done must have a tattoo and body art license issued by Illinois Department of health and posted yearly on their wall issued for that facility with that facility's address. It can not be just any other license such as for example salon, beautician or aesthetician, doctor, nurse or clinic license.
Try to avoid going to any newly opened (under 3 years) microblading "mass production" permanent makeup salons, since their main purpose is not to benefit their clients but to quickly get in on the microblading trend and to make as much money as possible. I predict that most of them will be out of business, as soon as their customers start getting permanent scars and permanently lose their real eyebrows hair from constant scratching and cutting of their skin.
OK let's go back to our discussion on learning how to choose the best, the safest, most talented and experienced permanent makeup technician. Let's say you are trying to do online research and every permanent makeup website is telling you that they have many years of permanent makeup experience and this and that and blah blah blah... Well, is it true? It is very simple to check - Google their name, Google their technician's name. See what info you can find online and how far back does their record and the record of their permanent makeup work goes. Check out their Facebook page to see how far back their permanent makeup pictures and posts go. Note that I did not say to check how far back their general beauty service posts and photos go on their Facebook page. I specifically mentioned their permanent makeup work pictures? Are they telling you that they had been doing permanent makeup for many years, but they don't have any record of online presence beyond 2015? No permanent makeup Facebook posts older than 2015? Big red flag ! Are all their google and yelp reviews, including yelp's not recommended reviews written within last 2 to 3 years, with nothing older than 2015 - an even bigger red flag. Make sure to look for the permanent makeup and not for the other salon services related reviews. Ask to see the photos of their clients' full faces taken centered and while they are not smiling with their eyes open, because this is the only way you can tell if someone's eyebrows are asymmetrical. Ask for to see the photos of their work after it is fully healed, since none of those microbladed eyebrows ever look the same after they heal. While the hair lines look nice and crispy immediately after the microblading, they never do heal that way. And last, but not least during the initial consultation ask your technician to draw your eyebrows and see if they use any sort of measuring techniques or devices then run and don't look back because you will end up with the eyebrows that, instead of complimenting your face, it will make your eyes look too close, nose look too big or too long and already long face look even longer, narrow eyebrow bone look narrower, deviated nose look even more deviated and asymmetrical and overall make the whole face look more asymmetrical than ever before. That is what traditional eyebrows measuring does- it underlines all the imperfections that people wish they could hide.
So who can you trust with your face?
Over the last 2 years the demand for permanent makeup services had tripled, which unfortunately triggered an explosion in numbers of self-appointed permanent makeup "experts" who after merely attending a 3 day microblading class, some offered only online, went back to their beauty shops and salons to practice their "craft" on unsuspecting victims. As a result, more and more people are now desperately seeking for permanent makeup removal and correction services. More clients than ever before are contacting me with the photos of unevenly microbladed eyebrows, uneven and migrated eyeliners and uneven and blue lip liners. Please, please do your face a favor and do plenty of research before allowing anyone to touch it. Verify all the facts before you sign up for something so permanent and practically not removable. Yes, it is not removable! Permanent and semi-permanent makeup is a tattoo, regardless of whether it was microbladed or implanted manually or with the tattoo gun. Make no mistake, it is a tattoo and once it is implanted under your skin it is not completely nor easily, if at all, removable.
Regardless of what your technician, their salon or their website are telling you, do your own research. Every day, I see more and more inexperienced permanent makeup technicians and businesses pushing their websites to the top of the Google search pages via paid advertisement and paid search engine optimization thanks to their webmasters and computer technology guys, which unfortunately has nothing to do with their permanent makeup tattooing experience or quality of their work. They all sound very reputable, and they all sound like they have tons of experience, and yet in reality they are neither. Many do not have a required tattoo license. Every facility in Illinois and in most other states where tattooing is being performed must have a tattoo license issued for that specific facility, with their address written on that license. Microblading is classified as tattoo, therefore, every facility where microblading is being done must have a tattoo and body art license issued by Illinois Department of health and posted yearly on their wall issued for that facility with that facility's address. It can not be just any other license such as for example salon, beautician or aesthetician, doctor, nurse or clinic license.
Try to avoid going to any newly opened (under 3 years) microblading "mass production" permanent makeup salons, since their main purpose is not to benefit their clients but to quickly get in on the microblading trend and to make as much money as possible. I predict that most of them will be out of business, as soon as their customers start getting permanent scars and permanently lose their real eyebrows hair from constant scratching and cutting of their skin.
OK let's go back to our discussion on learning how to choose the best, the safest, most talented and experienced permanent makeup technician. Let's say you are trying to do online research and every permanent makeup website is telling you that they have many years of permanent makeup experience and this and that and blah blah blah... Well, is it true? It is very simple to check - Google their name, Google their technician's name. See what info you can find online and how far back does their record and the record of their permanent makeup work goes. Check out their Facebook page to see how far back their permanent makeup pictures and posts go. Note that I did not say to check how far back their general beauty service posts and photos go on their Facebook page. I specifically mentioned their permanent makeup work pictures? Are they telling you that they had been doing permanent makeup for many years, but they don't have any record of online presence beyond 2015? No permanent makeup Facebook posts older than 2015? Big red flag ! Are all their google and yelp reviews, including yelp's not recommended reviews written within last 2 to 3 years, with nothing older than 2015 - an even bigger red flag. Make sure to look for the permanent makeup and not for the other salon services related reviews. Ask to see the photos of their clients' full faces taken centered and while they are not smiling with their eyes open, because this is the only way you can tell if someone's eyebrows are asymmetrical. Ask for to see the photos of their work after it is fully healed, since none of those microbladed eyebrows ever look the same after they heal. While the hair lines look nice and crispy immediately after the microblading, they never do heal that way. And last, but not least during the initial consultation ask your technician to draw your eyebrows and see if they use any sort of measuring techniques or devices then run and don't look back because you will end up with the eyebrows that, instead of complimenting your face, it will make your eyes look too close, nose look too big or too long and already long face look even longer, narrow eyebrow bone look narrower, deviated nose look even more deviated and asymmetrical and overall make the whole face look more asymmetrical than ever before. That is what traditional eyebrows measuring does- it underlines all the imperfections that people wish they could hide.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
This is what microbladed eyebrows really look like after they heal! Those were all done by industry's top microbladers, This is not something you will ever see on their websites or social media thanks to multiple Instagram photo filters and the fact that they almost never post healed photos of their work.
EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE!
Done 4 years ago at some nail shop in Gurnee IL shopping mall for $100, had uneven shape and turned blue 3 months later...Poor client had to live with it for 4 years, while she didn't know it can be corrected, but then she found my web site and decided to go ahead and try to correct it. Well.. we did it!!!!
EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE AND HAD BAD AND UNEVEN SHAPE
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EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE AND HAD BAD AND UNEVEN SHAPE
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ANOTHER ACTUAL CLIENT WHO HAD HER EYEBROWS AND EYELINER DONE AT THE VERY WELL ADVERTISED PERMANENT MAKEUP PLACE LOCATED IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO . CLIENT HIRED ME TO REPAIR IT. IT TOOK US OVER 6 MONTHS AND MORE THAN $2000 TO CORRECT IT!
An ACTUAL CLIENT WHOSE EYELINER WAS DONE AT SOME BEAUTY SALON IN CHICAGO ...CLIENT CAME TO ME REQUESTING AN EYELINER CORRECTION. ..AS YOU CAN SEE IT WAS DONE COMPLETELY IMPROPER WITH AN INK THAT TURNED BLUE AND MIGRATED UNDER THE SKIN MAKING CLIENT'S OUTER EYE CORNERS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE BRUISED. ..JUST AN FYI, IN PERMANENT MAKEUP TECHNICIANS ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO USE BODY TATTOO INK. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO USE A SPECIAL PIGMENT THAT DESIGNED TO BE USED FOR FACIAL TATTOO DUE TO FACIAL SKIN BEING MUCH THINNER THAN THE SKIN ON THE REST OF THE BODY.
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Badly and unevenly done "Cat Eyes" eyeliner done in Wilmette, Illinois...
unevenly and badly shaped eyebrows that turned green
Unevenly done eyebrows that turned orange
Badly , unevenly done "cat eyes" style eyeliner .
Lip liner that was tattooed way below the actual top lip line.
POORLY DONE UNEVEN EYELINER TATTOO.
Uneven, badly shaped eyebrows that turned purple
Eyebrows that were uneven , badly shaped done by using so called hair stroke technique that looked more like "hairstick technique ...
Many thanks to John Hashey for giving us permission to post his client's "before repair" photo for educational purposes. As you can see on this picture client had a lip liner done that perhaps originally it was meant to be a burgundy color that later on turned into a purplish black. You can also see that this person's lips were badly scarred.
Looks like this person's eyebrows were previously repaired with color that later turned very purple. Badly done and totally uneven eyeliner that goes deep inside the inner corners of the eyes-big no no!
Tattooed lips liner and lips. Looks like it migrated (spread) all over the place. Perhaps it was done with body tattoo ink instead of a pigment that should be used by all permanent makeup technicians. It also could be related to low quality tattoo machine or wrong needle length or improper technique when using a tattoo machine or use of tattoo machine that was not made for a permanent makeup application. The color turned purple blue due to wrong color selection. Selected color was too cool ...
The hair stroke technique went wrong. Here is the reason I don't believe in eyebrows done with hair stroke technique. It does not look like ran real hair unless person already has hair to cover the so-called hair stroke technique. It looks more like a hair sticks. In permanent makeup, because we use pigment instead of an ink, it is almost impossible to draw hair thin enough to look like a real hair. The lines are too thick, and the real hair do not grow like that. Well, it doesn't help that they turned entirely blue/purple perhaps due to technician's poor color selection or poor quality of their pigment or ink.