This month we’re taking a closer look at permanent beauty procedures, in particular cosmetic tattooing. We enjoyed speaking with Christine of New Face by Christine, one of the most talented artists in this niche industry. Our Style Editor Ikponmwosa, recently visited with Christine to have the Ombre brow treatment.

Christine, how did your career begin? Can you tell us a little about your history/experience in the industry and how you found your niche?

Permanent makeup has been an incredible way for me to use my artistic skills, married with my love for beauty procedures and helping people feel confident. I absolutely love what I do now, but it was certainly an unexpected route that sort of materialized out of a risky, impulsive move. I started working in the marketing field and wasn’t totally happy or stable with what I was doing four years ago. Seeing the rise of microblading and permanent makeup, I jumped the gun with zero guarantees for success because I could see a vision of myself thriving doing this. I put $30k on a credit card and various other expenses accumulated as I started my one-woman business. All of that effort, risk, expense, and time certainly paid off, and I am so thankful and happy to be running my successful permanent makeup business working for myself. I’ve always always been into skincare, beauty procedures, trying to look beautiful and feel beautiful without makeup. To help women feel that confidence without makeup or address any facial insecurities related to their brows, lips, or lashes is truly a blessing.

From booking through consultation to finished treatment, can you give us an idea of the client’s journey?

My clients are definitely making an investment with me, which I take seriously. My job is to vet good candidates for the procedures, who are both medically good candidates and realistic in expectation and understanding of the process. I don’t hire an assistant or anyone else to do the customer service for me. I always do everything myself, from discussing the potential contraindications, as well as their personal beauty goals, and what I can do for them. Once they come in, we do an in-person consultation of shape, color, and design. Whether its brows, lips, or eyeliner, I go over everything they need to know for aftercare and what healing looks like. Every part is the most important part of the appointment, but the Pre-Draw or Pre-Design is where I get client sign-off for the tattoo.

From personal experience, I take a LOT of time doing this. I do not rush a sketch, and my pre-draw is exactly what I will tattoo for my client. What you see is what you get, which hasn’t always been my own experience with permanent makeup, so it’s my effort to give clients what they actually ask for and be transparent and accurate with the design. I use two different types of topical and secondary numbing to ensure as much comfort as possible, and I like to add a few extra layers of saturation, so the color lasts longer and also doesn’t disappear too much during the healing process. My colors are custom mixed for every client after hearing what their color preferences are and mixing them according to their individual skin tones. Afterward, I hand everyone an Aftercare sheet, go over the main healing steps again, and off they go with their new beautiful brows! (or lips, or eyeliner). I also offer removals for botched or old permanent makeup. I’ve never seen my business as a “factory” style operation, of getting many clients through the door and back out. I take almost 3 hours per person, which is a huge time investment because, again, I do not rush, and I genuinely want to perform the best work I possibly can every single time. It never escapes me the fact that my clients are trusting me with their faces.

There’s a lot of negative stories about lip fillers from poor practitioners or on people who aren’t suitable for the treatment; can you tell us about the Lip Blushing technique you use as an alternative to fillers?

Lip Blushing, and my more saturated “lipstick style” Velvet Lips Tattoo, are an amazing way to add the illusion of a larger pout using color and shaping. By staying close to the natural lip line, adjusting for symmetry, and augmenting conservatively, the lips can look fuller than they normally do and even have more satisfactory results that last longer than lip injections. Many women think they want just more volume when the color and definition in shape are more of what they need to achieve their goals. Sometimes, fillers add volume, but the borders are ill-defined and can look lumpy or just pillowy without any clear shape. So they add more and more fillers and realize they are not satisfied and create a problem by overfilling. Lip Blush is a natural enhancement that can give women this beautiful soft color and a defined shape that contrasts their face skin, making them appear bigger.

I’m also a Dark Lips Neutralization specialist, as I strive to be inclusive of all races and people of all types in my office. Lip Blushing is not suitable for melanin-rich lips, which happens to be common in many Asians, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and African Americans/Blacks. Neutralization techniques and safe colors must be used to address naturally cool or dark areas of the lips to ultimately achieve a nice rosy, pink, or nude color. Tattoo colors are a science, and many ink formulas are not suitable as they can heal disastrously in melanin lips. This is a technique where it’s challenging to achieve successful results, and thus a true specialist should be sought out for this–not someone who is dabbling in it or doesn’t have much experience or healed photos. Botched Dark Lip work is quickly becoming common in my inbox, and the results are truly tragic. The permanent makeup industry is exploding, so I warn all consumers to please do their research and make sure the artist you choose is credentialed, clearly experienced, and has enough photos. This is not something you do base solely on price!

Do you do corrective treatments?

If someone botched contacts me for removal, I can do emergency removal by machine within 24-48 hours. Timing is super important. I can achieve 50-80% fadeout with emergency removal. I advise them to use lots of ointment and, if they can, sweat and steam out the color and apply tons of ointment every day until it’s healed out.

My normal removals on botched work are usually done when the skin is all healed or on an old job. I use my tattoo machine with needles to “tattoo” or “needle in” the removal fluid. When it’s healing, the scabs will pull out the color with it, and thus it’s a more natural and “softer” removal technique than lasers. Most laser techs will not go near face tattoos for fear of burning or scarring. Lasers are often difficult to use on darker skin types, so removing with machine needles and solution works great when done correctly.

Can you tell us about the treatment you’ll be doing on our Editor, Ikponmwosa?

I will be doing the Ombre Soft Powder Brows Tattoo technique. This is my preferred brow tattoo technique for melanin skin. Although there is a lot of beautifully done microblading out there, unfortunately, it does fade too quickly in combo/oily skin types, and the constant blading over the same hair strokes over and over again does raise the risk of scarring. Asian skin and African American/Black skin dermatologically have a higher risk of scarring with keloids or hypertrophic scars. The skin has an overproduction of collagen (protein) and causes raised thick scars that can either be flesh-colored or turn purplish and dark.

In the best candidates, which are those with dry or normal to dry skin, very tight pores or no pores, and certainly not mature skin, it could potentially be a good long-term option for them. But for women of color, combination, and oily skin types, I always prefer machine-needling techniques with shading versus a microblading hand tool. It is the difference between a needle implanting color into the skin by going in and out, up and down from the machine, versus a hand tool which is a blade, or a series of needles that form a bladed edge, cutting lines to look like hair strokes. Ombre Powder Brows can be anything from supernatural soft shading, mimicking a shadow or fuller hair, all the way to a moderately soft makeup look or a full makeup look. Ombre Brow artists avoid creating that old permanent makeup look of “marker brows.” We are trying to offer natural or varying levels of natural for best results and less damaging options from the old style of permanent makeup. As the industry becomes more inclusive and more interested in preserving the integrity of the skin, it is becoming more interesting to me and continues to be my passion.

Notes on our appointment with Christine:

“Thicker skin is tougher to work on, and also Ikponmwosa’s oily skin means I had to add extra layers and a slightly darker color to ensure that it heals evenly with enough color (instead of fading out too much). If I used too light of a brown or too soft of a dark brown, it would just fade right into her skin when healed, and we do want to keep that nice vibrancy and contrast. That’s why IK’s brows looked definitely darker right when we finished, and her swelling was more on the right side due to the bigger brow bone on that side and more sensitivity.”

The Results

“So my eyebrows are done, and I really love them. It looks like I’ve done them with make up but not too dramatic, they look really natural. The procedure itself was definitely painful, so as long as you prepare for pain, I’d really recommend it. The week after the procedure you have to avoid getting them wet, so you have to be careful when washing and you’d have to skip the gym. There’s also a peeling process that looks a little crazy and like the color is gone, but you have to just leave them completely alone. The very next day after the peeling, they looked like proper brows and you could see the finished look.

One of the things I really I liked was that I could text Christine every day and she would respond, and give me feedback and reassurance that they were doing what they’re supposed to. I love the results; no-one knows I’ve had them tattooed, they just think I have make up on and that’s what I liked about it. I’ve seen brow tattoos that have faded or look too harsh, but mine don’t say ‘hey I’ve had my brows done’.

Last week I took my new brows for a spin in Vegas, I loved not having to include creating a perfect brow as part of my make up routine. I can also go to the gym or get in the pool and there’s no issues! For me brows shape the face, they can make or break a make up look and Christine has made mine the perfect length and width for my face. The color is also perfect, I’m so happy!”

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