When Should I Get My Brows Done?

Well, when are you free?

But seriously, here are some other things to take into consideration:

Your brow will be darker than usual after the treatment, for about a week before color softens by up to 50%.  And, pigment will peel which may result in an “awkward period” where they may be some visible patchiness (I say “may” because how much existing hair you have will affect how visible the peeling will be— if you have no hair, the peeling will be quite visible).  The peeling period may go from a few days to a couple of weeks.

Doing this for your wedding?  Plan ahead and let’s do the first treatment at least three months beforehand.  The Perfecting Session can be done in 6 weeks, so there is are additional 6 weeks before your wedding for the brow to heal completely and color to settle.  We want to add to the beauty of the day, and not a layer of stress!

Big event coming up soon where you have to be in front of a lot of people (my own private nightmare)?  Best to do it either three weeks before or wait until after the event before doing the Bespoke Brow treatment.  You won’t just FEEL everyone is looking at you, they actually WILL be looking at you!  Beautiful and not patchy brows should be the focus.

Vacation in the sun?  We need to do at least two weeks before you fly off.  Because for two weeks after the treatment you need to avoid swimming and sunbathing.  So, vacation in the arctic?  No problem, come anytime.

Botox?  Let’s wait two weeks after the injections to allow your facial structure to settle.

Pregnant?  We need to wait until after you give birth and finish breastfeeding.

Underage?  Let’s wait till you turn 18.  I’m gonna card you to make sure!

Any other specific considerations/ questions you might have?  Feel free to give us a call at the salon or shoot an email.  Better yet, come in for a complimentary consultation.  Technicians will not just draw on the perfect brow on your face, but also answer any and all questions.

— Ramon Padilla

AKA "Microblading"

… Is just another name of what we do at EverTrue.  Other nom de guerres: micropigmentation, 3D (or 4D, 5D, someone even calls it “6D”!!!) eyebrows, brow tattoo, brow embroidery, permanent makeup, and of course what we call it at EverTrue, Semi-Permanent Makeup.

Microblading is a term in wide use in Europe, where semi-permanent brow treatments are almost as common as facials!  And in Asia there are very creative names for it, including loosely translated: brows that have come back from the dead, haha.

We are happy to call it “semi-permanent makeup” in the USofA. 

What they all have in common is that it is all done by hand, with a tool that has tiny blades.  This makes it easily maneuverable, and if held by an artistic hand, very natural strokes that look like real brows can be created.

Natural and beautiful, in whatever language.

-- Ramon Padilla

No To Blue Brows!

Have you seen that person?  The one with the faded blue tattoo where her brow should be?  Or sometimes it is a red smear?

There are a couple of reasons why this happens, all of which are avoidable.

One reason is the type of pigment used.  The pigment needs to be stable.  Anything that is “natural” or “vegetable-based” is not an advantage with semi-permanent makeup, as their properties are more unpredictable and can result in color changes over time.

And it goes without saying, use pigments made specifically for semi-permanent makeup.  “Regular” tattoo pigments might be cheaper for a technician, but those are not made for your face (unless you are Mike Tyson LOL).

The second reason is that the colors were not mixed properly.  A good semi-permanent makeup technician also needs to be an amazing COLORIST.  They need to have be able to accurately read your skin undertones, and mix a pigment made specifically for you.  

The pigment interacts with your skin, so what translates as ash brown on one person may look completely different on another with a different skin undertone.  A good technician, like an artist, mixes in yellows, reds, and other pigments for the HUE that will work best with YOU.

(Do you have permanent makeup work that has changed color?  Not to worry, we can help there too.  Let my technicians take a look and we can come up with a solution!)

-- Ramon Padilla

So How Long Does The Bespoke Brow Last?

One of the biggest questions about our Bespoke Brow (and semi-permanent makeup in general) is… So how long do the results last??

The short answer is: Up to 18 months for brows.

But really, it could be less and it could be more, before the brows fade to become invisible to the naked eye.

Think of the Bespoke Brow as a beautiful bright shirt.  If you wear it once a year, in the middle of the night, indoors in the dark, then it will probably maintain it’s vibrant color for a LONG time.  But if you actually USE it, then the bright color (whether the fabric is cotton, polyester, neoprene, etc.) gradually fades.

It’s the same with semi-permanent makeup.  Exposure to the sun, most of all, slowly softens the pigment.  This is true whether you are on the beach, walking the streets of our busy city, or even just standing beside a sunny window.

Washing your face, exfoliation, facials, rubbing your brows when you wake up, face-palming when your boss says something ridiculous, all of this contributes to the gradual erosion of the vibrancy of the color. 

So, unless you are a vampire who never showers, the brow will fade.

But we don’t see this as a negative.  As we age our faces structure changes, and brow shape should adjust to take this into consideration. Brow styles also change (albeit they change slowly)— perhaps the flat brows so popular in Asia now will be all the rage in 2020 NYC.

And by the way, you can always come in every so often for a Tune-Up, to restore the vibrancy of a newly-created Bespoke Brow (and visit us too!).

— Ramon Padilla

Why Are My Brows So Dark Right After The Treatment?

There’s no escaping it. For about a week after your initial Bespoke Brow treatment, your brow color will be a few shades darker than your target color.  Even in this time when bold, dark brows are super on-trend, it can be a little jarring especially for those who are not used to having brows at all!

Don’t worry because this is expected and natural!  The color will soften up to 40 - 50% in about a week.

Here’s what is happening:

Immediately after the treatment your brow area is slightly irritated and this contributes to the appearance of a darker pigment color.  When the irritation subsides after two or three days, the color will already start to appear softer.

Also, there is excess pigment “trapped” near the surface of the skin.  As your skin heals, this excess pigment sheds (this is the peeling that we told you about) and so lightening the overall appearance.

In addition, new skin cells form OVER the pigment that is embedded in the skin, with this “veil” of new skin further contributing to the softening of the brow color.  

For some clients, a LOT of new skin cells form in the brow, so much so that some areas of the Bespoke Brow seem to disappear— the pigment is still there but hidden behind the new skin cells. Our therapists track this so that they can deposit a little more pigment during the Perfecting Session.  We want to be sure every beautiful stroke shines!

Once this awkward week is over you will WANT people to stare at your brows.  And they will, because they will be beautiful.

-- Ramon Padilla

Picking A Semi-Permanent Makeup Practioner? Read This!

When Michelle and I were interviewing estheticians to join our team, we met one lady who referred to herself as a “Master”, which in our industry is a term usually reserved for those with the most advanced level of skill and experience. Alas when we studied her portfolio, she turned out to have done only 30 brow treatments in her entire “career”, yikes! 

In New York City, all one needs is a tattoo license to practice permanent makeup.  The license can be acquired after a 3-hour infection control seminar, a test, and a $100 fee.  With such low barriers to entry, it’s no wonder that there are results that are a little cringe-worthy.

Here’s are some really good suggestions on How to Choose a Technician, from the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals:  http://www.spcp.org/thinking-of-getting-a-cosmetic-tattoo/choosing-a-permanent-cosmetics-technician/ 

For our team, when we interview we look for three things: a steady hand, an eye for symmetry and color, a pleasant personality.  Then we start training… two months of training just for our Bespoke Brow!

First our trainees draw brows, hundreds of them, stroke-by-stroke.  They draw them for eight hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks; using a pencil then a blade, on paper and then on various surfaces: leather, mannequin heads, and yes, even bananas!  We critique each stroke, each pair of brows.

When they are ready, they start to see training models, two or three a day, for another month.  We give them a variety of model clients: skin and hair color, skin elasticity and tone, brow shapes.  

And even after they graduate, Michelle and I review their work daily, providing on-the-job feedback and additional training when necessary. Working together keeps our standards high!

There are a good number of semi-permanent makeup practitioners in NYC whose work we respect.  They freely share samples of their work with potential clients, and operate with high levels of professionalism. 

So, do your research, ask questions, come in for consults.  And then, do the treatment!  With the right practitioner, you will love the results.

(That being said, Pick us! LOL)

-- Ramon Padilla

Face Mapping And Brows

Michelle texted me a mysterious picture last night: A crudely drawn face with words like “Popularity”, “Career”, “Health” written in various places.  Words above the brow line included: “Siblings”, “Travel” “Fortune”.

Here’s a link to a picture: http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/

It is supposed to be a map of the face according the principles of feng shui.  I guess some people read hands and some read faces?

(Side note: I’m not a big believer in feng shui or the horoscope or anything that predestines our lives but hey, it can’t hurt to cover ourselves, JUST IN CASE right?)

Of course I wanted to know more about how the brows feed into this.  Apparently a brow with a drooping tail encourages “Fortune” to slip down your face and out of your life.  Brows that are “dark, thick, long, smooth, orderly and located high above eyes indicate affection, calmness and courage. If they look sparse, thin, pale, short, or chaotic, or too close to eyes, or marked with a scar, you could be tormented by your own physical or emotional states.”

So here's another reason to get the Bespoke Brow: to avoid being in a “tormented” state haha.

-- Ramon Padilla

From The World to NYC

The semi-permanent makeup industry is still in its infancy in the USA, with a vast majority of people unfamiliar with the treatments and how these treatments can transform their beauty regimens.  I guess that maybe 1 out of 100 Americans have heard of semi-permanent makeup, and fewer still know anyone who has had it done.

Compare our country with Asia and Europe,where the popularity of semi-permanent treatments has exploded over the past decade,

In Europe where treatments are also commonly known as “microblading” (sounds a little scary to me, to be honest), established “masters” and training schools produce hundreds of high-quality practitioners every year, to the benefit of happy clients from London to Moscow.

And in Asia, it’s almost difficult to find a person who lives in a major city who has NOT had a semi-permanent treatment done! It’s known as “Brow Embroidery”, “Brow Resurrection”, “Fiber Brow”, “Hand-Scratch Brow”, “7D Brow” (I’m curious to know exactly what those extra four dimensions are, LOL!), and is almost as common as having a facial.

I spent a year traveling through twelve cities known for their high quality of treatments—from Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, London, Paris, Budapest, and beyond—studying and researching and testing.  And together with Master Trainer Michelle Wu, we improved on what the BEST of the world has to offer. 

-- Ramon Padilla

Mom Made Me Do It!

My mom has many beautiful qualities, but brows are not one of them. Her sparse brow hair led to a never-ending stream of solutions, finally leading to a brow tattoo in 2005. What did it look like? Not pretty. Unnatural and blocky, later fading to a purplish-blue. For years, she wore these blue brows with resignation.

Sons always have an overwhelming urge to make their mothers' lives better, and I was no different. After spending time in the beauty industry of New York City, I became intrigued with the process of "Semi-Permanent Makeup" and spent months traveling through Eastern Europe and East Asia where these treatments are commonplace.

With the talented brow expert Michelle Wu, we found and improved upon the most advanced techniques and pigments that gave the best results, especially for the diverse races and complexions of the USA. No more blue brow tattoos. The promise of our results: always natural-looking, never fake, and true to you.

We opened our doors in 2015. My first client? Mom of course!

-- Ramon Padilla