BROWS ON POINT As people continue go to greater lengths to achieve fuller brows, Amanda Pauley analyses the latest trends shaping the semi-permanent make up industry.
TREND: NANO-NEEDELING
Micropigmentation techniques have evolved over the years, from block brows to the hairstroke technique favoured today. In March, Finishing Touches Group launched the Nano Needle, which it says can create even finer hairstrokes for the most naturallooking results. The flexible needle has a super-fine tip, designed to allow technicians to create intricate eyebrow designs made up from natural hairstrokes. Finishing Touches says it has been engineered to glide rather than slice and to undulate in the skin so there is less blurring and a reduction in the “umbrella” effect. The needle has a tapered tip with a rough texture, designed to help the pigment particles latch onto the needle instead of slipping off. “As times and styles change through the micropigmentation industry so must the techniques and tools we use. For years now the industry has been crying out for a needle that creates super fine, realistic hairstrokes,” says Finishing Touches founder Dawn Forshaw. “We’re proud to launch a needle that can create the most intricate of eyebrow designs.” The needle is available in two sizes n1 (0.2mm) and n2 (0.25mm) and fits with the Precision Plus Cosmetic, Medical and Nano machines.
TREND: SALINE TATTOO REMOVAL
Saline tattoo removal is a technique that can be used to fade unwanted tattoos or semi-permanent make-up work. It uses micropigmentation needles to introduce a highly-concentrated salt solution, forcing the pigment up from the lower layers to remove it. The unwanted pigments then shed in a thin scab that forms over the treated area, without causing scarring or loss of eyebrow hair. “Your body goes back to physics. It doesn’t want the salt in it, so in its process of removing the salt it also pushes the pigments out,” says Lisa Henning, director at Beautiful Ink, who offers the technique at her Brighton Clinic, where she also runs courses in semi-permanent make-up and dry needling for skin rejuvenation. Three sessions with saline are usually enough to get a client’s brows to a state where they are light enough to be reworked or easily covered up with make-up, but this figure can vary depending on the client and what they want. “The ideal client is someone who has been having permanent make-up for many years and now there’s not enough space left in the skin to add more colour because it’s saturated. It’s also good for someone who likes the shape of their tattooed brows but has had the colour done too dark or a hairstroke put in the wrong place.” Permanent make-up pigments are usually brown but they are made up of lots of different colours, such as black, red,
green and yellow, and this can sometimes prove problematic. “It’s easier for the saline to push out larger molecules of dark pigment but it’s unknown what other colours will be left. While it gets out the darkness of the colour, some clients can be left with a red, yellow or orange pigment stain,” says Henning. “The other problem is that saline forces pigments up to bring them out, so for a short while brows can actually look darker.” While an effective and safe solution, saline can’t get a client to a point of total removal, as Henning explains. “To call it tattoo removal technically is correct but will it ever realistically remove them completely? Not likely. It’s definitely not a treatment for those wanting to change the shape of their eyebrows.”
Read more in November issue about microblading trend.
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