This is dependent on many factors. We will break it down for you.
1/ The type of pigment used. For example, organic pigments lasts longer than inorganics. However, inorganics sit much softer in the skin. So the choice depends on whether softness or longevity is your priority. This will be discussed in depth at your treatment to ensure we make the right decision together for what is right for you. (See question: ‘What is the difference between organic and inorganic pigments for a more in-depth description)
2/ Environmental factors. The sun is the largest accelerator for pigment fade and stability. We recommend that you use an spf of at least 50 on your brows and lips to protect your investment. (See question: ‘How to protect my cosmetic tattoo/microblading/permanent makeup and make it last as long as possible’)
3/ Skin Type. Oily and combination skin will shed colour far quicker than normal skin types. We will discuss the ways that we can combat a speedier fade by choosing a specific style, using a particular technique to implant pigment and use a certain pigment type to offer a great longevity. (See an article one of our artists Pixie wrote on ‘What is a shaded brow and why should you consider it?’)
4/ Style of brow chosen. For example, a Microbladed brow will fade quicker than a digital hairstroke or combination brow. Ombre powder brows offer the greatest longevity.
5/ The depth and density of the colour chosen. A dark brunette colour will last longer than a soft honey blonde due to the ‘black load’ in the pigment.
6/ Treatment area. Brows, due to the skin type in this area and increased exposure to the elements tend to fade quicker than eyeliners and lips.
All these factors will be considered and discussed at your appointment to ensure we make the right decision together for your skin type, age, lifestyle, features, colouring and taste.
We recommend that you have what is called a colour boost carried out every 12-18 months. Colour boosts keep the colour topped up and fresh. They are carried out in just one treatment (Do not require the follow up appointment as in the initial treatments) They are priced at around half the price of the original treatment (£170 - £210) depending on the length of time from your initial treatment or last boost. If you keep within 2 years of this, then you only ever pay for a colour boost and do not have to go back to the full treatment price. If it has been over the 2-year time period, then the price is full treatment price less £50 for a returning treatment. Take a look at our Prices page where you’ll find a list of all the colour boost prices.
This depends on the area being treated and the style of the enhancement. It will range between 1 and 3 hours. We take the responsibility of performing our art very seriously. It will remain on peoples faces for many years and your artist MUST be thorough. The process for a brand-new treatment is as follows:
Skin type analysis
Discuss style and technique suitability
Discuss your taste and desires
Medical form and consent paperwork sign off
Numbing cream application
Thorough colour consultation and selection
Thorough cleanse process to treatment site
Pencil template illustration and consultation to ensure desired effect and shape will be delivered
Once agreed, the tattooing process itself will begin. This will vary between 1 and 2 hours depending on treatment area and style
Enhancement reveal
Post care advice, paperwork and healing balm provided
Complimentary fine-tuning appointment made for 4-8 weeks later
The complimentary fine-tuning appointment treatment is carried out after all initial treatments. It varies between 4 and 8 weeks post initial treatment depending on your age and technique used to ensure full healing is complete between the appointments. It can last anywhere between 5 minutes (for those where no further work needs to be carried out) to 1 hour for clients who would like more colour. The average time is 30 minutes including re numbing and adding a little colour here and there to perfect the look.
Annual Colour Boosts are advised to keep your enhancement topped up and fresh are carried out in 1 session. These appointments take around 1 hour 45 minutes.
Rest assure we allow plenty of time for your appointment. We will NEVER rush work on your face.
Please click on our ‘Prices’ page to see a full list of treatments and the time allowed for each specific treatment.
Right advice
Our first piece of advice is to look for an artist that offer both microblading and cosmetic tattooing/permanent makeup. By doing this you can rest assured that the right technique with the best outcome will be selected for you based on you skin type, age, and taste and not on the potential loss of a sale. Not all techniques are suitable for everyone. For example, microblading is not suitable for older skin or oily skin types. (Please see question ‘What is the difference between microblading and cosmetic tattooing.’)
Experience and skill
Experience correct and thorough training is everything in this field. Varying skin types and techniques used give such varied outcomes. You need to know that your artist has the skill, knowledge and experience to give you the very best outcome possible. I would therefore start by looking at where they trained? And who with? How long was their course? There are many microblading courses available that are 2 DAYS long! When our Creative Director Claire is training new artists, she spends 2 days on cross contamination, blood borne pathogens and colour theory alone! So be cautious.
Find yourself a specialist
In terms of experience, there are 2 factors at play here. Firstly, how long an artist has been performing their art. And the second and equally important, if not more is - are they a specialist? Claire Louise says of her experience during teaching:
‘The ones that specialise are in a different league to those who are performing a lash enhancement one moment, facials the next with some brows thrown in. It is too distracting. This is such a complex and involved process. Skin is complex. There is a fine art to producing beautiful results. It is only natural that an artist that focuses and specialises in their field will be able to produce superior results.’
Portfolio
Take a look through their images. People with artistic flair are able to take a good, clear photo. Do you like the style of their work? Can you find PLENTIFUL images of the particular style you are after? Then you’ll know they have experience in what you are looking for.
Look at their HEALED work. We cannot emphasise this enough! Fresh work is a combination of injury to the skin and pigment. As the healing process occurs, this flakes away (approx 5 days) revealing the true results of the work. This stage can lead to disappointment. Too shallow implantation and the colour flakes away to leave little to no colour in the skin. Too deep implantation can lead to the pigment migration and blur which can look a mess. Fresh work can look impressive, but HEALED results are the true measure of a good artist!
Taking images of what you like with you
NEVER take images of another artists work with you. This is not for fear of offending. Most of us are not quite that sensitive. However, if you cannot find an image of the work you desire on your chosen artists portfolio then it is unlikely that they will be able to meet your expectations. It would be like going to visit Audi and taking an image of a BMW that you want. Do, however, take images of how you normally wear your makeup. Maybe an occasion where it has gone particularly well for you and you have liked the look. Or of your chosen artists work, maybe of images you were drawn to, and even those that you were not, so they know what you are and are not looking for. This is a great base to start your conversations.
Consultations
Consultations should always be free in our opinion. So go and meet your artist. Let them draw an enhancement on your face. See how you feel about what they have produced. Get a feel for them.
Good Luck!
Eyebrows are one thing that you should not be concerned with on a big day such as a wedding. So having them professionally enhanced by a skilled specialist is one way of assuring that they’ll be in perfect condition all day long!
We regularly tattoo clients' brows ahead of their big day. But planning is essential. This is because there is a vital timeline between the start of the process and the completed and healed product. The timeline goes like this:
Week 1: 1st tattoo session
Week 6: Essential fine-tuning session followed by 2 weeks healing
Week 8: Finished product
This obviously is not taking into account potential waiting time to see your desired artist. Your brows are there to stay, so our advice is to begin to plan your treatment 6 month prior to your wedding and book in your first session at the very least 3 months before the big event.
Another factor to take into consideration is that there is no direct sun, tanning treatments, Jacuzzis, salt water, steam room, chlorinated water for 2 weeks after both treatments. This could be relevant for planning spa days for hen do’s and pre wedding treatments.
Yes, absolutely. Lip tattoos are a great way to restore definition lost through previous outbreaks. There is, however, a level of trauma to the lips. As we know, trauma is a great trigger for a cold sore outbreak. We insist therefore, that you seek the advice of a medical professional such as your GP or a chemist about the possibility of oral (not topical) antiviral medication. From our experience, topical application is not enough to protect you from an outbreak.
Your doctor will advise you on your suitability and dosage.
If you would like any further advice then please do not hesitate to call us.
We use topical numb creams for our client’s comfort. Providing sufficient time is allowed for the numb cream to work its magic, then it works a dream. Another reason to never rush a treatment. We allow 20 minutes for numbing during every appointment.
When asked to rate the level of discomfort between 0-10, 0 being no discomfort, 10 being very painful, most will rate it at a 3. Some clients fall asleep during treatment!
No! Absolutely not. We do actually get asked this question a lot. We are enhancers of brows, not replacers. Unless of course you have lost your brows due to treatments, medications, or medical conditions – then we are restorers!
Any brow hairs that sit outside of our design, we will take away for you during the treatment if that is what you desire. Leaving you with a clean looking brow. But please leave as many there as possible for us to play with.
Yes, absolutely. We advise that you wear your usual everyday makeup to your appointment. This is for 2 reasons:
Firstly, because we as artists will get an insight into how light or heavy your daily application of makeup is. This helps us to gage and advise which styles, density/softness will be best suited to your taste.
Secondly, your enhancement can look a little darker on the day of the treatment, a little makeup applied elsewhere will help to balance the initial sharpness of the enhancement.
Are you makeup free during the day, or any other time? The arrive makeup free as that is what we want to see. The real you on a daily basis. For you we will be looking for an uber natural restorative piece of work no doubt.
Consultation is a vital part of the process. However, it can be done at a separate appointment to the treatment, or at the start of the actual treatment itself.
If you are still a little unsure whether this is the right treatment for them, then to have a consultation beforehand is a great way to put your mind at ease. Ensuring you come to your treatment appointment happy, calm and excited about the process. Consultations are free of charge, so require no financial commitment.
If you have your consultation at the start of their treatment you will have booked the treatment itself, so therefore will have paid their deposit. In this instance we will need to send you a medical questionnaire and a patch test via the post ahead of your appointment. This ensures we have tested for sensitivity and established if there are any medications or conditions that require a doctor's consent to proceed with the treatment.
Whether you have your consultation at the start of your treatment, or an earlier date, rest assured it will be an incredibly thorough process:
Skin type analysis
Style and technique suitability discussion
Colour consultation, taking into consideration undertones and taste
Pencil template illustration to ensure desired effect and shape will be delivered. All considering bone structure, age, features, natural asymmetries and taste.
Medical form, consent paperwork and patch test issued, all to be completed at home (This will have been dispatched via post, pre appointment for those who are having their consultation that will flow straight into treatment)
Our 1st advice here is to obviously research you artist IN DEPTH. (Please see our ‘How to choose your artist’ question) Never bargain shop for something that could last for years on your face.
Those for whom this advice comes a little late……
This is very dependent on what it is that is undesirable about the work. We really need to see you in person to give you our professional advice. Please start the process by taking an image of the area. Front on, full face, looking straight ahead, and one close up of the area. In good natural light. Send these images to us with a summary about what you are unhappy with, and ideally what you would like to achieve.
If, for example, you do not like the shape, we may recommend that we carry out a series of partial or full removal sessions. To the areas that sit outside of our desired shape. Removal is a process. And success cannot be guaranteed within a certain number of sessions. And at least 6 weeks must be left between each session, ensuring full healing has taken place. Failure to do so may result in scarring. It is also highly dependent on the content of the pigment. I.e. organic pigments are much tougher to shift than inorganics. Some sessions create a good fade in 2 or 3. Some, where the pigment is very dense, may require 6-8.
We see clients with other issues such as colour change. Sometimes this is easily remedied with a session or two of colour correction to neutralise the imbalance. Then we can go on to start the new brow process, working on a nice neutral base to create what is truly desired. This is of course dependent on the severity of the colour correction required. In extreme circumstances, partial removal may be required before beginning this process.
We are sorry that you have had a bad cosmetic tattooing experience. It should be so positive and transformative! Come and see us and we will help in any way that we possibly can.
All initial treatments should be followed up with what we call a re-touch appointment. It is usually carried out 4-8 weeks after your initial treatment. It is an opportunity for yourself and your artists to examine the healed results together. You may decide that it is perfection, and no further treatment is required. You may decide that a little fine-tuning work is needed here and there, where you may have lost a little pigment. Sometimes, if you were a little nervous of the outcome at your initial treatment, your artists will have been cautious with the amount of pigment implanted. This is an opportunity to add depth of colour if that is what you desire. At Brow Design Studio, we are perfectionists, so it is important to us that you attend this appointment, so that we get an opportunity to go over the enhancement with a fine-tooth comb. We may notice something that you have not.
There is a very thorough process that we go through at each appointment.
When you arrive, you will notice that there is parking at both Weymouth and Poole Studios for you.
Both locations are dedicated Cosmetic Tattoo and clinical Aesthetic environments. They are both calm and private studios unlike a busy salon.
Here is a summary of the process to expect at your appointment:
Skin type analysis
Style and technique suitability discussion
Medical form and consent paperwork sign off
Numbing cream application
Colour consultation and selection
Thorough cleanse process to treatment site
Pencil template illustration and consultation to ensure desired effect and shape will be delivered
Once agreed, the tattooing process itself will begin. This will vary between 1 and 2 hours depending on treatment area and style
Beautiful Enhancement reveal
Post care advice, paperwork and healing balm will be provided
Your complimentary fine-tuning appointment will be made for 4-8 weeks later
Each stage of the process is designed to ensure your tastes and desires are combined with our expertise and experience to produce the absolute best outcome for you. We never rush an appointment. For us, the devil is in the detail.
Pencil template illustration and consultation to ensure desired effect and shape will be delivered
Once agreed, the tattooing process itself will begin. This will vary between 1 and 2 hours depending on treatment area and style
Beautiful Enhancement reveal
Post care advice, paperwork and healing balm will be provided
Your complimentary fine-tuning appointment will be made for 4-8 weeks later
Each stage of the process is designed to ensure your tastes and desires are combined with our expertise and experience to produce the absolute best outcome for you. We never rush an appointment. For us, the devil is in the detail.
Absolutely!
We will ask a few important questions like,
How long has it been since your last treatment?
Do you like your current shape?
We may even ask to see an image of brows as they are now, without makeup or filters. This is so we can determine the condition and make an assessment on time and cost.
It is likely that we will ask you to come in for a complimentary consultation to assess further and advise further.