Eyebrows are single handedly one of the most important features of your face. In recent times, filling in your eye brows has become not only a makeup trend, but a way of life! There are so many brow products and ways for us to achieve flawless brows. I’ve tried powders, pencils and even gels and yes, they temporarily work but it is a huge pain in the a$$ and can become very time consuming. I’m someone who tweezes my brows because I literally trust no one with them! It would be so amazing just to wake up and have perfectly arched and even brows.
Over the past year or so, I’ve heard about this procedure called Microblading. If you are not already aware, Microblading is a semi-permanent makeup procedure in which pigment is implanted into your first layer of skin using a very thin needle or blade to resemble “brow hairs”. In other words, its a semi-permanent tattoo. Now if you’re anything like me, you might be thinking there is no way in hell I would ever “tattoo” my face. But after looking into it further and dreading the constant struggle of achieving perfect brows, I decided to go through with it!
I googled places in my area that do Microblading and none of them were really giving me the confidence I needed to go forward with it. After all, this is a pretty serious decision to have something permanent on your face. I found out that the procedure can cost anywhere between $300-$1,200 depending on where you go and what you’re looking to have done.
About ten years ago, one of my aunts had an esthetician come to her house and apply permanent eye liner on some of the ladies in my family (I was too young at the time). Similar to Microblading, permanent eye liner is a tattoo needle that is applied to your waterline or lash line to create a permanent eyeliner effect. Anyway, they absolutely loved it and just recently reached out to the same esthetician to have it reapplied. Semi-permanent makeup can last for several years depending on how well you take care of it. For example: sun, certain makeup removers or constant rubbing can fade the makeup and over time will eventually wear it off. During their second application about a month ago, they got to talking to the lady and she had mentioned that she does Microblading. When I found this out I was so excited and ready to get it done! I knew I wanted to go with her because I trusted that she would do a good job. She showed me a few before and after photos of clients she had done and I was really impressed!
I scheduled my appointment and three weeks ago had it done! I was super nervous because I’ve never gotten any tattoos or had anything permanent like this done to me. She started by asking me what I was hoping to achieve and what color I normally fill in my brows. She has a wide variety of brow colors to choose from. I showed her a few pictures of what I wanted and she had me pencil in my brows the way I normally do with the product I usually use. FYI, I always used the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo. She grabbed a ruler and measured my brows to my face and with her own pencil started filling them in to show how they were going to look. All these years I, like most people have been doing it all wrong!
The diagram shown is a quick summary of how your brows should technically be sculpted to fit your face. Obviously, I have no time to whip out a ruler on myself and start measuring. This is perhaps why my brows have been a mess for all these years. 
Next, she took a needle and did three injections on the upper part of my brow to help numb the area. It was a little painful and there is something about needles that just freaks me out. She waited a few minutes and then began the “tattooing.” With swift, thin motions she drew on hair-like lines.
I asked a few of the other ladies who got it done prior to me how it felt. Most of them said it wasn’t that bad but I’m going to be very honest and say that it friggin hurt! Some areas weren’t as painful but for me, the beginning part of my brow hurt the most. For whatever reason, my right brow (which was the first brow done) hurt more than the left. It’s very possible the numbing solution injected was not dispersed all the way through but I definitely felt each stroke. From what I recall, it took about 45 minutes per brow which is an average amount of time. As soon as she lifted the needle, the pain went away and I barely felt any discomfort.
I took before and after pictures because I wanted to document what my brows looked like prior. Please excuse the “before” picture. I can’t even believe those were what my brows looked like- its actually scary. I never really liked my brows but I really didn’t think they were THAT bad until I got them microbladed.
Directly after getting them done, my esthetician told me put a cold compress on the area to keep the swelling down. As you can see in the “after” photo, the area was a little red and swollen but nothing too bad! She also said the color will be darker immediately following. Similarly to a tattoo, the area will peel and fade and in about two weeks, the true color of the pigment will come through. For a week after, I was instructed to apply Bacitracin to help heal the area and prevent an infection from happening. I was also told not to be in the sun but its summer and there was no way that was happening. I just put block around the area and wore a hat to cover it.
It has been three weeks and now that the area is fully heeled, I absolutely love the way they look and the color they turned!
In my honest opinion, I would 100% recommend this procedure. I love waking up in the morning and having my brows ready to rock. It seriously takes several minutes off of my makeup routine (which in the morning feels like hours!). I’ve also been to the beach/ pool a few times since getting it done and its so amazing to not have my brows sweat off and look perfect even after being in the water.
If you are thinking of getting it done, here are some key pointers that I think are good to make note of:
- Is it worth the money? I ended up paying $375 and as I’ve mentioned pricing varies depending where you go and what you want done. I thought that was extremely reasonable and I would have paid double that to achieve the look I was going for. If you’re not someone who fills in your brows every day then maybe it wouldn’t be worth it. I do have and grow hair easily on that area but I know there are many ladies out there who have overplucked brows that no longer grow or lost their brows with age and this procedure is absolutely perfect for you!
- Is the place you’re using creditable? This is probably the most important thing to research. You have to be very careful when choosing where you go. The reason I chose the lady I went to is because she’s done procedures on people I know and she is licensed. She uses the most state of the art equipment and products and was informative about the before effect, procedure and after care. She’s also very clean and sanitizes all of the equipment she uses.
- Do brows really matter to you? For me personally, this was up there on the list of things important to my beauty routine. I feel like when my brows aren’t done, my face is not complete. If you are someone who already has decent brows or doesn’t mind filling them in, then I would skip the Microblading.
- Are you willing to spend money on the upkeep? As discussed, Microblading is Semi-Permanent. They say the brows may need to be touched up every year but it all depends on how you take care of them. I’ve been told the upkeep is not as pricey as the initial procedure if done in a timely manner, but it will eventually need to be done again. Also, after your brows are completely heeled, you may need to go through with a second session shortly after to fill in areas missed or darken the color. Each case is different.
- Can you handle pain? I thought I had a high tolerance for pain but to be perfectly real with you, it was pretty painful for me. Even though it hurt, I am definitely willing to go through it all again to keep them looking perfect. After all, beauty is pain!
La Bella Vita 
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