Knife Styles

Permanent Make-Up

Permanent make-up is a fast-­growing non-surgical cosmetic treatment that can deliver both beauty and medical benefits.

What is it?

Permanent make-up - also known as micropigmentation - can be likened to a form of cosmetic tattooing.

The technician uses a fine needle to insert colour pigments in the skin using a small hand-held electrical device. The needle penetrates the skin to a depth of a few millimetres and the new pigment is deposited in the dermal layer of the skin -just below the surface - to enhance and strengthen facial features.

What can it do for you?

Properly shaped eyebrows make the eyes look bigger and younger (brows sag as you age), but it's not easy to get the look.

Every day 70 per cent of women use a brow pencil to try to create a natural-looking eyebrow or to fill in sections where hair is missing. This explains why it's the most requested procedure.

Rather than creating a solid but artificial-looking brow, the aim is to create as natural-looking an eyebrow as possible, which means using a 3D hairstroke technique that mimics the look of real hair.

And it isn't only brows that can be transformed. The same procedure can be used on lips and also to add permanent eyeliner - ideal if you suffer from make-up allergies or watery eyes.

Cheeks can be given all-day radiance, too, with a hint of permanent colour infused into the skin.

As well as cosmetic benefits, permanent make-up is also used for medical conditions. Reconstructed nipples and areolas following a mastectomy can be incredibly successful.

Many types of scar can also be camouflaged by permanent make-up, particularly when the colour of the scar differs from the skin around it.

The procedure

A patch test is given to rule out any allergies, then shape and colours are discussed. The area is numbed and the procedure takes 1-11/2 hours to complete - clients have compared the sensation to feeling a lightly buzzing pen on the area. There may be slight discomfort in sensitive areas such as the lips.

How much does it cost?

Expect to pay on average £450 for eyebrows and lips and £395 for eyes.

Recovery time

Although there may be slight swelling and redness, this disappears within half an hour.

Lips can also feel dry for up to five days after the procedure. Initially, the shade of the eyebrows and lips will appear 30 per cent darker than when first applied, but this will fade within the first seven days as the skin naturally exfoliates.

You can expect to see the true colour around four weeks following the procedure.

What can go wrong?

Without proper training or with bad use of pigment colours, you could be left with a blue tinge in places where the procedure has been performed.

Misshapen eyebrows and badly drawn lips are another result of poor procedure.

If the needle is inserted too deeply into the skin, you may get bleeding, spreading of the pigmentation or damage to the hair follicle­all of which can lead to scarring.

How long does it last?

Although considered permanent, overtime colour pigmentation will fade and clients are recommended to have a 'colour boost' every 12-18 months. The longer you spend in the sun, the quicker the pigment fades.

 


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