4 Things to Know When Choosing a Permanent Makeup Artist

Hi everyone! My name is Judy and I’ve been a permanent makeup artist at Effortless PMU here for about 4 years now. I specialize in microblading, ombre brow, eyeliner, and lip blush. Keep reading to learn more about this industry! 

Here are 4 things to know when choosing a permanent makeup artist. 

So first things first, you want to make sure the studio passes the health department and the artist her/himself has a bloodborne pathogen certificate. This certificate needs to be updated once a year and make sure it is not expired. All these things should be on the wall when you walk into the studio and should be very visible. So, basically you don’t want to go to your cousin’s friend’s house basement and get a friggin’ tattoo on your face. Another thing is, serious infection and transmittable disease can happen when your PMU artist is not clean and hasn’t gone through the proper training to set up and tear down the working space. One droplet of blood from someone who has hepatitis B can survive on the surface for 7 days if it hasn’t been cleaned properly. 

Number two: beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Every PMU artist has their own style, and you can probably see all of that on their Yelp page or their Instagram. So for example, don’t choose an artist that does very natural brows when you want them to be on fleek all the time. The PMU artist will probably not be comfortable doing it and the results will not be what you hoped for. Similarly, a stage makeup artist will probably not do bridal makeup all that well, even though both types of artists are trained in makeup.

Number 3: Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge! For example, microblading is not for everybody. I know it is very hot right now, but that doesn’t mean you should go out and get it done. If you go to a PMU artist who’s had a great education, they would tell you by the look of your skin - how oily it is, how sensitive it is, your age, and even health - and will let you know that maybe you’re not a good candidate for microblading. This is especially if you have oily skin because the strokes may not heal very crisp. Over time the strokes will blur out bigger and bigger. A few months down the road, it will look like a solid dark eyebrow. I bet that’s not what you wanted when you wanted microblading done. You want an artist that can see your face and give you pointers as to what style of eyebrow you should be getting. They shouldn’t do it just because you requested it. You’re not the professional, we are. We understand how it’s gonna look when it’s actually healed.

 Another thing is, the design needs to stand the test of time. What I mean by that is, at the end of the day, permanent makeup is a  tattoo. It cannot come off as easily as makeup, or if you’re following a different trend. It has to look good on you three or five or ten years from now. I know people like to market this as a semi permanent tattoo, but the truth is, especially if the artist goes a little deeper into the skin or your skin type is a little bit more on the drier side, the tattoo can potentially last for a really long time. So you want to make sure the shape does not follow a certain trend at the moment. Let me tell you how I did makeup in my 20’s is significantly different from how I do it in my 30’s. So what if I got a really dark eyebrow done when I was in my 20’s and now “Oh man, I regret it. What can I do?” And now you have to go through removal, which is a whole nother topic that you can read about in my other blog post. With permanent makeup, in my opinion, less is more. It’s meant to make you look good at your baseline. Like when you wake up and you just want to go to the grocery store really quickly and you don’t want to apply all this makeup. At your baseline, you look great! That’s what I want for my clients. You can alway add more makeup on top of the permanent makeup once it's healed. If you want to go to special events like a wedding or a birthday party, feel free to apply makeup. Once the brows have healed, you can do whatever you want to them. 

Four is PRICE. Why can somebody charge $1500 whereas some charge $150? A WHOLE ZERO difference. It really comes down to is basic economics. What I mean is when an artist is busy enough and they’ve built a name for themselves, they can control supply and demand. More people want it, so they’re able to keep charging up and up and up. It doesn’t even mean they’re using better quality products. They could be using the exact same products. Of course, with more seasoned artists, they’re able to charge more because they have so much more experience than someone who just started off. Someone who just started off charges $100 because they need to build their portfolio and their clientele. When it takes one PMU artist two hours to do your eyebrows and it takes a more seasoned artist one hour, and even though the outcome can be very similar, guess whose skin is more damaged at the end of the process? My goal is to get in, implant the color with the least amount of trauma to your skin and get out. That is what you should look for when you're looking for a PMU artist. 

Make sure you do some digging, consult with your artist, and go through the whole process with them. They should really lay it out for you. Make sure they advise you on what the precare is, what the aftercare is, and what their workflow is like so you can get an idea of what you’re expecting from them.