How to Choose a Brow Artist - Microblading, Nano, or Ombre
While shape, color, and method are all very important in the permanent brow process (see our other blog post for more info on this!), the right artist is definitely the most important aspect overall. With the right artist, you can feel confident that the shape, color, and method are also correct.
An experienced artist will be able to offer several methods, based on what's best for your skin type, and they'll be able to fully customize your color and shape for your perfect brows.
Here's some Green and Red Flags to look out for when searching for a brow artist!
Large Social Media Following, Low Reviews
It can be tempting to book with the most popular brow artist you can find on social media, but social media isn't the most important thing! It's easy to doctor content to look great on Instagram. Reviews are a more accurate way to gauge whether people are actually happy with an artist's work or not. Don't just book with them through Instagram. Find their business listing on Instagram and see if their review count matches up with their follower count. If an artist has a lot of social media followers but is lacking in real clients leaving reviews, they might be better content creators than they are brow artists!
Long Review History
The best indicator of happy clients isn't social media following. It's reviews! People leave reviews once they know they're happy with their results, and are likely to go back and update reviews if they're not happy after a few years. No brow artist will go back and update social media posts to say that the client isn't loving their brows anymore! Google and Yelp are both great resources to hear about real outcomes and results rather than all the shiny and fresh photos on social media.
It's also important to check their review history and see how long and consistently an artist has been receiving positive reviews. Maybe you find an artist who has 5 stars on Google, but they only have 8 months of review history. That means that they're still relatively new to the industry and might not have the experience level you're looking for.
Laying Down for Brow Mapping
This might not seem like a huge deal because you probably see it on social media all the time! An artist will have their client lay down and then they begin measuring and mapping out their eyebrows. If you get to a consultation or service appointment and they have you lay down for the mapping process, run!
Your brows will look different when you're laying down because of how gravity affects your skin. Your brows might look perfectly even while laying down, but as soon as you sit up and your face shifts, it's likely that your brows will be unbalanced! Your brow artist should absolutely balance your eyebrows while you're sitting upright, since that's how most people will see your brows.
Fully Customized Shaping
Brows aren't one size fits all, so your brow artist should never try to tell you that there's a 'perfect' eyebrow. Some artists depend very heavily on eyebrow mapping and excel on only balancing for one brow shape. Our faces don't all look the same, so our brows shouldn't either! Eyebrow shape should be a detailed consultation where the artist takes your face shape and daily life into consideration before making several different shape recommendations. An artist that spends a long time on brow shaping and consultation is a brow artist that really cares about detail and custom work.
Deeply Discounted Pricing
A good artist doesn't need to have huge sales to fill their calendar. Artists that offer huge discounts are often just trying to get as many clients as possible so that they have more consistent income, rather than catering to the existing clients they already have. Getting new clients is much easier with cheaper prices, but client retention should always be more important because it means that clients trust that artist and continue to return for touch-ups. An experienced artist will charge what they are worth, and usually won't have big sales. When it comes to permanent makeup, it is always worth paying a slightly higher price for more experience.
A Good Artist Ensures Right Shape, Color, and Method
We do microblading and brow tattoo removals at Aphrodite's Secret, so we see a lot of low quality work. Most of the time, either shape, color, or method went wrong in the original process. With a highly experienced artist, the risk of regret is much lower because they will make all of the right choices for shape, color, and method. Your results won't be patchy, uneven, discolored, or misshapen because an experienced artist knows what they're doing!
The Trouble With Junior Artists
Many brow studios will offer work done by students or junior artists. This can seem like a really good option because it's usually priced lower and still supervised by a more experienced or senior artist, but we never recommend going to students for your permanent makeup. Unfortunately, the permanent makeup industry is highly unregulated, and it only takes a few days to get a microblading license.
We used to have students as well, and we quickly realized that it can take up to 18 months just for them to learn how to shape the eyebrows. That's only eyebrow shaping. That doesn't even include needle depth, color theory, how to use the machine, or any other technique details. That's barely enough to meet our standards for eyebrow waxing.
Don't want to take the chance?
Book a consultation with Aphrodite's Secret.
We don't use numbing, but most of our clients don't experience any pain.
Our procedures are short! Most of our appointment time is taken up by our eyebrow balancing process. We balance while our clients are sitting, standing, talking, and double check everything with a mirror and camera.
Our consultations are completely free, with absolutely no pressure to follow through with service. During that consultation, we go over method, shape, and color, as well as giving you all the information that you need to make your decision.
