Colour Corrections for microbladed eyebrows - Why are my eyebrows orange, red, purple ect?! 😱
Colour Corrections for microbladed eyebrows - Why are my eyebrows orange, red, purple ect?! 😱
So far in 2021 I have had a huge influx of new clients coming to me for corrective work, removal and cover up's of old permanent makeup (PMU) so I thought I'd write a blog so that the information I can provide is easily accessible to everyone who needs it.
I am super passionate about my job and I care deeply about how my work will look over time. I'm disappointed when I hear about clients flitting between different artists because 'no one can do it exactly how they want.' I want my clients to stay with me long term - for life! I want to consistently create natural, beautiful permanent makeup that lasts well and keeps looking good for as long as possible. I am also completely accountable for how my own work ages over time. My passion has driven me to get as much training as possible and I am constantly updating my knowledge with what's happening in the PMU industry.
The main things that have an influence on keeping permanent makeup looking great in years to come are:
Needle depth during the procedure (a really steady hand!)
Needle selection - Smaller the better for hair strokes and microblading. Nano needles are the best!
Pigment selection - The thing I believe makes the biggest difference.
Today I'm going to talk about the pigment selection as I feel it's the biggest reason clients come to me needing corrective work and/or cover up's a year or two after they have had pmu done with another artist.
Brow symmetry is another important factor but I'm going to be writing a whole separate blog on that one!
There are two types of eyebrow PMU pigments - inorganic and organic. Inorganic pigments are widely used in the permanent makeup and microblading industry. It is with these inorganic pigments that you will see eyebrows fading to unwanted colours. Warm tone pigments fade to pink, orange and red. Cool tone pigments fade to purple, green and blue. When this happens it no longer resembles anything like natural eyebrows. Organic pigments stay true to colour for a much longer time. They fade to a lighter, softer shade of the same colour that was originally selected. This is the reason why I only use organic pigments for all of my pmu procedures.
I get asked a lot 'so why doesn't everyone use organic pigments then?!' great question and this was my thoughts exactly when I learnt the information I'm sharing with you in this blog! Organic pigments are hugely more expensive than inorganic. Think £1.50 vs £70+ per 10ml pot of pigment and you need a wide colour selection to suit all skin and hair colours. There are less brands and colour selections with organics. Saying that, they are on the rise quickly in the PMU industry. All big brands are either working on their organic pigments or have already released their organic pigment lines. I'm hoping that the colour problems that I see time and time again will gradually become less common as the organic pigments take over, resulting in much better quality results. PMU artists need to have this information though otherwise not much will change!
Another reason why I feel organic pigments aren't used enough is that I feel there is a lack of knowledge in this area with many artists. When I ask a new client why did you not go back to your previous artist? And the answer often is 'she doesn't do it anymore!' The PMU industry is a highly sought after career and lots of people invest heavily to try and get into it. With a lack of constant new clients flowing through the doors and needing to do way more (expensive) training than the basic start-up courses to have enough understanding to do well in this career, I see lots of people giving up and finding this is not the job for everyone! During my research, I learned that pretty much all starter packs have inorganic pigments as it's much more cost effective to start with. I hold my hand up 🙋🏼♀️I used inorganic pigments when I first started out and doing my case studies, until I took an advanced colour theory course and realised the difference! From the start I always want to be doing what's best for my clients so as soon as I had the knowledge, I made the switch to organic pigments. Since then, I've never looked back as the result is far superior. My clients come back for their yearly colour boost with still a great set of brows. I rarely see this result from a new client who has old PMU done somewhere else and when I do I feel so pleased that there are other great artists out there doing great work! As I sometimes feel I'm the only one using organic! 🙄😂😅
Important note - Sun exposure speeds up the colour fading massively for both types of pigment so if you have had PMU or are thinking of it please consider this. If you are a regular sunbed user you'll need to stop exposing your face to uv rays if you want to have a perfect set of microbladed brows!
The potential problems with corrective work - If a client who has orange, faded eyebrows from inorganic pigments goes to an artist to 'colour correct' using another inorganic pigment the artist will have to select a cooler toned pigment to balance the warm tones. Remember earlier I said cool tone pigments fade to purple, green and blue? Well the next thing this client will have in a year or two is 'rainbow brows'! 😩 This is extremely difficult to remove. Then this client will either have to go darker in colour to cover up the old pigment or start the removal process before starting her brows again.
Organic pigments are best used for any kind of colour correction or cover up as it won't add to the problems with the colour. However, saying that, every time pigment is added to the skin it is diluted by whatever pigment was used before. So even if organic pigment is used to correct the old colour, it will still eventually show through again once the sun has faded the vibrancy of the colour again. This is why I suggest a course of removal treatments and starting again is often the only way to proceed with orange or purple brows. If the skin is too saturated with unwanted colour, no amount of pigment will ever cover that up. Even if it looked perfect at the end of the treatment, it won't hold the colour during the healing process. These cases I will say removal is needed and I won't even attempt to cover the old colour as I'd be wasting my clients money and time and neither of us would be happy!
I use Finishing Touches Group True Brows organic pigments and I have never been let down by the results of these products.
So if you are reading this after googling why are my eyebrows orange? Please find an experienced PMU artist who will be able to help you with either a course of removal treatments or a colour correction using organic eyebrow pigments.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have after reading this blog. I could go into more depth on this subject, so if you would like me to please get in touch with me. I don't want to confuse my clients by getting super technical in my blog and I hope I have managed to answer a few questions here. 😁👍