Why can't I cover your old permanent makeup?
10:35 a.m. I just got off the phone and after the conversation I've had with a potential client I decided to write this blog post.
Here are some pictures I found in literally 2 minutes with women that either asked me for advice on removal, wanted an appointment for eyebrows/lips or actually made an appointment, but I had to refuse working on them after meeting them.
Please note I have never worked on any of the clients in the pictures bellow.
Please note I have never worked on any of the clients in the pictures bellow.
Going back to the phone conversation.. let me try to reproduce part of our discussion. For the sake of this dialogue, I'll call her Emma.
(...)
Emma: Oh, I wanted to mention I had this done a year ago. Can hairstrokes be done on top of it?
Alexandra: Well, you could send me an email or a message with a picture of your brows and I'd be able to tell if your brows are saturated with color or not.
Emma: I think it would be fine. The shape is quite skinny, so that would help, wouldn't it?
Alexandra: If it's skinny or not, doesn't matter that much. (of course we prefer skinny over thick) What we care about is that the skin is not filled with pigment. Think of it as a storage box: it can only fit so much. Tattooing is not like drawing on paper.
If I have a client who's never had permanent makeup in the past, she could potentially have up to 90% retention; that means, 90% of what I tattooed is underneath the skin after the healing process.
On the other hand, if I have someone who has tattooed them numerous times in a short span of time, by someone obviously very heavy handed and other adjectives I'll refrain from using .. , the skin will have at most 5-10% retention.
Emma: Okaay.. I'll send you some pictures.
(The more the conversation progressed, the more disappointment I heard in her voice.)
3 hours later. 1:24 p.m.
Just got home and planned on finishing this blog post, when I see a Facebook message from our so-called Emma.
Emma: Okaay.. I'll send you some pictures.
(The more the conversation progressed, the more disappointment I heard in her voice.)
Newsflash!
I'm not a magician. And I say it in the most honest way possible.3 hours later. 1:24 p.m.
Just got home and planned on finishing this blog post, when I see a Facebook message from our so-called Emma.
I won't be making any comments, because it's not the purpose of this blog post, but let's just say my stomach's a bit upside down now. Gorgeous woman, brute technician.
Every time I get pictures of permanent makeup with unacceptable colors/shapes or too much pigment in the skin, I will recommend you to remove it.
Makes me sick seeing these "artists" who call themselves correction specialists. Yeah sure, add some orange on top of blue brows. Like that's gonna work! And if it does, for how long will it? 3 months? 5 months? If you'd be sincere to yourself and your client you'd send her off to get some removal and maybe in the future you'll be able to create something better on a cleaner canvas.
I will not give you unrealistic expectations. If I tattooed over Emma's eyebrows in the state they're now, her brows would be pretty much the same after healing. I could not go to bed knowing that I gave her false expectations and that the money she spent on "nothing", she could've spent on laser removal.
Once again, main reasons why sometimes I just CANNOT correct old permanent makeup:
1. too much color underneath the skin
2. too dark of a color underneath the skin
3. lots of scar tissue present
and again. Why did I refuse you and the technician across the street accepted correcting your brows?
1. Because I don't care about your $. My sleep at night is more important. If I'm not confident I can give you decent work, why would I even work on you?
All this being said, it doesn't mean I cannot correct any permanent makeup. If the color is fairly light (at most light-medium), and it doesn't seem like there's a lot underneath the skin, I'll be happy to give it a go. I don't want to fall in the other extreme and have people think that I just refuse them altogether if they've done it before.
Choose wisely, or as I always say.. better to buy a $21 Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow pencil, than get crappy permanent makeup.
Fun fact. Did you know Anastasia Beverly Hills (aka Anastasia Soare) is Romanian (like half of myself )? Met her July of 2015 at a makeup class and she's one of the sweetest people in the beauty industry.
-Alexandra
Every time I get pictures of permanent makeup with unacceptable colors/shapes or too much pigment in the skin, I will recommend you to remove it.
Makes me sick seeing these "artists" who call themselves correction specialists. Yeah sure, add some orange on top of blue brows. Like that's gonna work! And if it does, for how long will it? 3 months? 5 months? If you'd be sincere to yourself and your client you'd send her off to get some removal and maybe in the future you'll be able to create something better on a cleaner canvas.
I will not give you unrealistic expectations. If I tattooed over Emma's eyebrows in the state they're now, her brows would be pretty much the same after healing. I could not go to bed knowing that I gave her false expectations and that the money she spent on "nothing", she could've spent on laser removal.
Once again, main reasons why sometimes I just CANNOT correct old permanent makeup:
1. too much color underneath the skin
2. too dark of a color underneath the skin
3. lots of scar tissue present
and again. Why did I refuse you and the technician across the street accepted correcting your brows?
1. Because I don't care about your $. My sleep at night is more important. If I'm not confident I can give you decent work, why would I even work on you?
All this being said, it doesn't mean I cannot correct any permanent makeup. If the color is fairly light (at most light-medium), and it doesn't seem like there's a lot underneath the skin, I'll be happy to give it a go. I don't want to fall in the other extreme and have people think that I just refuse them altogether if they've done it before.
Choose wisely, or as I always say.. better to buy a $21 Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow pencil, than get crappy permanent makeup.
Fun fact. Did you know Anastasia Beverly Hills (aka Anastasia Soare) is Romanian (like half of myself )? Met her July of 2015 at a makeup class and she's one of the sweetest people in the beauty industry.
-Alexandra