As a SPMU artist, I have come across a variety of eyebrow colours over the span of my career. At the start, all of my clients had virgin skin. As my career progressed and I became more knowledgeable in skin types, healing, pigment brands and colours, I started to offer corrective services to clients with old faded permanent makeup.
Given permanent makeup doesn't last forever (like a tattoo does), your client will need to return to you after about 1-2 years. Over time, the pigment will begin to fade in the skin due to the breakdown of cells, exposure to the weather and the breakdown of the pigment itself. The pigment should remain more or less the same colour, just much lighter. The colour can change over time if the artists technique was poor. Cheap pigments can also cause discolouration. Certain skin types can retain a little of the base colour after the intended colour has been expelled. This can be normal and it's only slightly noticeable. Annual touch ups are advised for this exact reason.
THIS TIMELIME DEPENDS ON A FEW DIFFERENT FACTORS INCLUDING:
The clients skin type; oily skin (the body metabolizes pigment faster)
Clients with thyroid, autoimmune, hormonal imbalances (pigment will fade faster)
Original pigment saturation (clients who originally opt for very natural will fade faster. Clients who opt for more saturated bold brows will last longer).
The pigment brand and colour used (some brands are simply better than others. Blondes will always fade quicker than dark brown/black).
The clients lifestyle, such as regular sun, excessive sweating, chemical exfoliants, etc
how well the initial pigment retained in the skin.
Most clients return to me after 1-2 years for a touch up. Sometimes I see new clients who I haven't seen before who come to me for corrective work because their brows have faded and become discoloured.
The left image illustrates eyebrows that have faded to a pink/red colour (not my work).
The right image is after corrective work using an olive coloured pigment to cancel the red/pink, followed by a dark brown to finish.
WHY THIS HAPPENED AND WHAT I CAN DO TO FIX IT
Let's use grey faded eyebrows as an example. The remaining grey left in the skin is essentially a light wash of one of the main colours that made up the original colour, most likely dark brown/black. Faded black = grey. Very dark grey (like an old tattoo) after 1-2 years is a consequence of the pigment being implanted too deeply. An ashier version of the original colour is normal and can be bought back to the original colour very easily.
When it comes to a grey, ashy tone, adding warmth (orange, pumpkin tones) back into the original artwork is IMPERATIVE to bring it back to brown.
Warmer undertones cancel out the coolness of the grey. If you don’t neutralise this cool tone with a warm tone (using the correct technique and colour) it will not improve and return to stress you and your client out. You cannot cover a very saturated cool tone with a straight brown colour. It will just heal more saturated and cooler and look worse than when you started. Very saturated brows are a result of your artist using too much pressure and implanting ink too deeply into the skin. If your brows are very saturated and discoloured, you may need to have them removed by laser treatment before having them done again. Please be careful when choosing your artist!
To effectively correct discoloured brows, you must understand the colour wheel and learn the colours that cancel out other colours in SPMU. Olive cancels out red. Orange cancels out grey, so on and so on. My go to brands are Tina Davies and Permablend, they do an excellent range of pigments perfect for corrective work. Tina Davies also offer an online colour course to teach certified SPMU artists how to select the right colour for their clients.
If you have faded and discoloured eyebrows, book a free no obligation consultation with me and we can create a realistic plan to get those brows back to looking fabulous.
Thank you for reading!
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