If Ihad a dollar for every time a potential client asked me if I can Microblade their brows after looking at picture after picture of my beautiful powdered brows, I’d be rich! So many of you look at my work and can’t even tell the difference between both techniques that I wanted to take the time to address and educate and you all on this topic. Unfortunately Microblading has become the universal word for getting your brows tattoed, but its extremely important to know the difference between the different techniques. An educated client, will be able to make the best choice for them, and you will have a much better chance at having results you will love.
Microblading is a technique where the artist makes fine cuts onto your skin with a manual tool that looks like a micro blade, hence the name, and deposits pigment into those cuts, underneath the skin, creating colored lines that mimic hair strokes.
Powder Brows are achieved by creating layers of tiny dots in the skin with a cosmetic tattoo machine that uses a very fine needle that graces the skin back and forth while depositing color underneath the skin., The dots mimic a powdery effect, leaving you with a soft, filled in make up look as when you fill in your own brows.
As an artist, I have trained in both techniques but I choose to offer only Ombre Powder brows for many reasons. Let me tell you why! 9 out of 10 clients that walk through my salon doors are not good candidates for microblading, they just don’t know it yet. Microblading, if done well, should ONLY be done on younger, normal to dry skin, and on someone that has a good amount of brow hair already so the “hair strokes” can blend in nicely. It is not recommended for combo or oilier skin types, or on very sparse brows because those lovely hair strokes that you see on the day of the procedure will end up spreading and blurring leaving you with an undesirable result. Another reason why I’m not a fan it is because it can be hard on the skin, painful, and in my opinion not sustainable long term. Microblading also tends to fade faster and requires touch ups much more often. You just cannot continue to make cuts into the skin year after year and not end up with a blurry brow in the end.
On the other hand, let me tell you why I love, love, love, powder brows! Ombre powder brows are suitable for every one, unless you have a medical condition that can disqualify you from getting your brows done all together, of course. It is so much gentler on the skin and you will experience very little discomfort if any at all. Almost all of my clients fall asleep while I’m working on them. Some of you even snore! Powder brows can be customized to your liking and lifestyle. We can make them as soft as you want or a little bolder for those who wear a full face of make up daily. I also love that they tend to last longer, 2 years on average, before needing any maintenance. Last but not least, results are much more predictable and they should fade to a lighter color of what you have. No surprises and you won’t have to worry about blurred lines in the end.
As a PMU artist I want my main focus to be natural looking, sustainable permanent make up, and I feel that an Ombre Powder brow allows me to offer such an option .
I hope this helped answer some of your questions! thank you for reading and please reach out if you have any other questions, I’m happy to help.