The Essential Guide to Pigments and Booking Semi-Permanent Makeup

Maya Milani, Semi-Permanent Makeup Specialist and Creator of 3D Microblading and founder of Nouva Beauty located in the heart of Chelsea, London, along the renowned King's Road, shares her expertise on understanding different pigments, how they affect the skin and what to look out for when booking semi-permanent make up.

Maya’s signature technique has put her studio on the aesthetics map, with customers travelling across the globe from the Middle East, America, Europe, and beyond, to experience a semi-permanent makeup treatment with Maya. Home to a collection of award-winning, globally renowned lip, brow, makeup experts, Nouva Beauty combines talent, precision and the highest quality products available for beautiful, natural results that last. Each expert takes pride in being leaders within their fields, and works closely with clients to create masterpieces that live up to Nouva's promise of hyper-realistic results.

Nano Brows and Microblading have become a popular method for achieving fuller eyebrows without the headache of applying makeup. This semi-permanent technique uses fine, hair-like strokes to create the appearance of more voluminous brows, making it a go-to solution for those who want to perfect their eyebrows. I have dedicated my life to perfecting my artistry. However, despite its popularity, semi-permanent eyebrows are surrounded by several myths, particularly concerning the pigments used, healing process, and final results. 

Understanding Nano Brows

Nano brows is a cosmetic procedure that involves using a specialised tool to implant pigment into the upper layers of the skin, creating the illusion of fuller brows. This method allows for hyper-realistic results and when issued correctly, should look completely natural and subtle. At Nouva we are specialists in brows and I have spent years researching and testing pigments and materials to ensure we only use the absolute best of the best for the most natural, and safest results. 

I have built my reputation on the premise of an unsurpassed level of customer care, along with the highest quality products available which make for beautiful, long-lasting, and natural results. Our eyebrows are the sign language of our face and any slight change will completely edit the way we look, they frame the face and show who we are so need to be treated carefully. This is why Nouva Beauty is the best place for brow, lip and eye semi-permanent makeup. Often I have clients who come to Nouva Studio for their first nano-brow and 3D microblading treatments and often they are very nervous and some even take time off work as they expect horrific dark brows, scabbing and long downtime. In reality, when brows are treated professionally, with care and safe pigments, you should not expect any scabbing or shocking pigmentation and can go back to work and live your normal life straight while feeling fantastic with your transformation. 

Before your practitioner comes close to you with a needle, it is important that they study your skin type first, then consider your face shape to design your eyebrows. When a client comes to Nouva they will enjoy a bespoke experience, no two skin or brows are the same and each client should be treated differently from the last. We start every treatment with an in-depth consultation, we use specially designed tools to analyse the skin and eyebrows, then we devise multiple treatment plans, according to skin type and budget. Once the client has chosen their plan we only use the best pigments and our technique, for which we are known, is soft, gentle and careful so that each delicate part of the brow has an even colour. As a result, our clients are left with the most natural look, with changes the naked eye cannot differentiate from as the pigmented hair strokes are so similar to the look of real hairs. Clients only need to come back for a yearly touch up because our pigments are safe and should not last more than a year. 

The sad reality is a lot of clinics often use pigments which fade to red, green and even blue! Like everything in our industry, the market is saturated with many different products out there, but can be broken down into three different categories of semi-permanent makeup on the market:

Pigments

Organic 

Whilst the name ‘organic’ is often seen as a more preferable option in the world of food produce and skincare, in semi-permanent makeup ‘organic’ pigments are never used by professional master brow artists and if you find yourself being offered organic pigments… run! 

Organic pigments are very affordable. I often have new clients who come from other studios and brow bars who have had treatments using ‘organic’ pigments and the results are shocking. Organic pigments are the cheapest product for clinic owners to buy, and when used on the skin often it will never heal. The misconception of microblading for brows being very dark and not natural come from clinics using these pigments as the immediate dark, bold look of the brow that is expected straight after treatment will never fade as it should, but will discolour to either blue, green, red or grey with further discoloured undertones. To fix this is very similar to tattoo removal and can be traumatic as well as expensive, and can take years to heal. The process is so traumatic as the ‘organic’ pigments actually change the skin texture, safe pigments would never do this. 

Hybrid

Hybrid pigments are blends of organic and inorganic materials. They work well and are much safer than organic pigments, my go-to pigments are always inorganic. Hybrid pigments are often used because they are widely available in the market whilst inorganic pigments are more expensive to produce. 

Inorganic

Inorganic pigments are the materials I use for all my treatments. When used on the skin the results will heal a lot softer, giving a more sheer, and earthy tone within the skin, therefore a more natural look. Although inorganic pigments are the safest option, many artists don’t like working with them as they are hard to deposit on the skin, are hard to find and more expensive to purchase. A true artist would use multiple techniques combined with these pigments that leaves the client with the most wonderful experience to love not only their brows but their face. Most importantly the colour being used will safely fade through time without changing into blue, green, red or grey undertones. I am proud to say that zero of my clients have EVER experienced any discolouration of their eyebrows or scabbing through the years.