What Brow is What?

Which Brow Treatment Is For Me?

So if you’ve looked at all what possibilities are out there for your eyebrows, you’ll be surprised to see just how many different treatments you have on offer. Whoever thought they would be such a major event in our daily routine. If you’re like me and from the 90s eyebrows were seen as the devil must be removed, beyond all recognition, leaving these poor funny looking tadpoles to resemble some kind of eyebrow. But now we want them back and not just any old how!  Preened, defined, brushed up, laminated, glued, fluffy, full, dark, ombre, natural, long, thick. In fact, the more brow, the better. However, as you can see, it’s not long before fashions change and ultimately change again! Remember the big long pointed arch? Yes that wasn’t that many years ago! Who knows where it might lead to next time.

I never thought we’d be embracing the fullest brow possible.

But look, we really are!

The Right Choices

This is why it’s really good to make the right choices with your brows. Even if you’re not sure what to go with, do what you feel comfortable with, after all they are on your face. If you can’t decide your brow artist should be able to help advise what would work and what won’t, but you need to be as clear as you can with what you are looking for, see my previous blog.

If you are looking for something temporary but want some definition, you can go down the route of  HD brows. HD brows is a brand name for a series of processes carried out on your eyebrows which includes a full brow consultation to determine what is required and discuss what can be achieved with your final result. Its a combination of measuring, tinting, waxing, threading and tweezing for a precision finish with makeup, including showing you how to apply the HD brow makeup that we use in your treatment.

Another option is Henna brows which is carried out using natural henna dye, custom blended to the required tone.  A full consultation is carried out to establish the overall desired look. It doesn’t have to end up with the darkest brows known to man. This means we can create a blend to give you the natural or dark finish that you require.  The brow shape is mapped out to keep crisp, clean lines. The dye can last longer on the hair than a usual tint and the skin is also tinted, giving you longer lasting results. This is a good way of establishing your shape that we would be looking if you were thinking of a more permanent treatment like, microblading or machine brows.

Microblading is carried out using a hand tool with a small blade, the blade is made up of tiny little needles, which then create small cuts in the brow shape to create the look of eyebrow hairs. This is a highly creative skill that is practised religiously by good microbladers. The end result should be soft and mimic brow hairs, not have the appearance of picket fence posts or fishtail bones (inspect those portfolio photos carefully before choosing your artist).

A shape is measured, drawn and mapped out implicitly on your skin. This takes times to perfect.  Then a sequence of hair strokes, is created with the blade into the skin. The colour pigment is then placed in the hairstrokes  are then left to heal for four to six weeks. A second treatment is given to touch up any fine tuning of hair strokes that may have healed out.

This is a natural finish for filling in missing gaps of hair strokes and defining the shape.  Annual colour boost top ups are required every six to 18 months depending on your skin and daily routine.  Skin types that are not suitable for this treatment oily are skins with larger pores, due to the pigment healing in the skin, often blurring and spoiling the desired effect.

Machine permanent makeup ombre powder, or hair strokes with the machine. These are all terms for the same thing. They are applied using a semi permanent tattoo machine with a needle. It’s the overall end effect, that gives the names of ombre or powder.

This technique is what came about first many years ago, before microblading. The techniques to give different effects have now moved with the times and tend not to be so harsh as they were years ago. Ombre gives a soft pixelated appearance at the front of the brow and sometimes just above, with more definition towards the tail end of the eyebrow. keeping a really soft overall healed look.

A powder brow look lends itself to the appearance of being filled in with brow powder makeup. So if you were to draw them on and colour them in then it’s this kind of end result.

Permanent makeup or PMU hair strokes is hair strokes created in the brow using the machine with a super fine single needle and often shaded in between to create the look of depth, but given a more natural finish.

Things Change

When deciding what brows to choose every aspect is looked at of the overall end result you are wanting to achieve and ultimately what will work best in your skin for you.

It’s important to remember until we get into your skin, we do not know how it will heal. We work really gently and do want them to fade naturally.  Fashions change, you change, hair colour changes, skin tone, everything changes over time and so should your brows.

Even permanent makeup still requires some maintenance, even though this is far less than if you didn’t have any. You will still need a wax, sometimes a tint and other times a colour touch up, depending how things heal in his skin.

I’ve kept this in terms without using jargon, or technical terms to give you a nice simple way of looking at just what’s on offer and what they all mean. I hope it helps you in your choices and you can book a consultation for a test and a chat.

Please book online at or email me, for more information.

Love Karen x