Big, bold brows are back.
Maybe not to the extreme of Brooke Shields’ famously lustrous set, but, if recent red carpet photos of celebs like Emmy Rossum and Sofia Vergara are any indication, trend-setters are putting away the tweezers and embracing a fuller look.
But not all of us are blessed with naturally heavy brows to pare down to perfection. Over-plucking has left many a lower forehead sparsely populated. Eyebrows also tend to thin with age, and people with light-coloured hair might not have much to begin with.
Filling in bald spots with a makeup pencil is tedious and doesn’t always result in the most subtle look. But a new esthetic service promises to create natural eyebrows that last for months (or at least until brow styles change again).
Microblading (also known as 3D eyebrow embroidering) is a technique by which pigment is deposited under the skin with a handheld tool. It’s a service Heather White recently started offering at her Dundarave business, Stamford Spa and Salon. The procedure is “huge in Europe,” White says, and she recently returned from London where she trained in the semi-permanent makeup technique with Rebecca Chung, “the master of microblading.”
The procedure starts with a two-hour salon visit. White applies a topical anesthetic to numb the brow area. Then she uses a disposable handheld tool to etch very fine hair-like strokes, depositing tiny amounts of pigment into the upper layer of skin.
“It’s a bit like calligraphy for the eyes,” White says, explaining it takes an artful hand to achieve the desired effect.
About 45 days later, customers return for a one-hour touch-up session. The faux brows should last well over a year before needing a colour boost.
The procedure sounds a bit like eyebrow tattooing, a more permanent makeup technique that uses a machine to implant colour deeper under the skin. But the results are worlds apart, White says. Traditional cosmetic tattooing is not as precise and will blur after a few months, resulting in brows that look as though they were drawn on with a Crayola. Microblading does fade over time, but the hair-like lines remain sharp.
“You actually have these lovely, fine, crisp hair strokes. It looks very, very natural,” White says.
“You don’t look scary. It’s not a case of your eyebrows walking in the room before you do.”
With a price tag of $500-plus, microblading isn’t for everyone, but it’s a treatment White thinks will only get more popular in North America.
“I’m sure there’s going to be people catching on to it now.”
