#brows ciara

The moment you have all been waiting for. Today I’m going to take a break from the health and wellness posts to tell you a little about my experience with Microblading. If you haven’t heard of Microblading before, I would be surprised. It has been increasingly popular for several years now. Microblading is a form of semi-permanent makeup to help re-shape and/or thicken the appearance of your brows.

To be honest with you, I was SO nervous to get microblading done and after so many people had shown me theirs I decided it was time for me to explore if this was an option for me.

Some of the fears that were running through my mind:

Will I like it?

Will it hurt?

How do I get rid of them if I hate them?

Will it fade as quickly as my tint?

Who do I trust to microblade my face?!

I quickly realized I wasn’t alone with these questions/fears. If you are considering microblading, you have probably asked yourself a few of those.

Microblading is a process and requires at least 2 visits. My first appointment was on August 19th and my touch-up appointment was on October 4th. I would have gone in for the touch-ups sooner but because I decided to get married in the middle of the healing process, we pushed that follow up appointment to a later date.

After someone in my FREE private Facebook group posted and confessed her nightmare she was having with her eyebrows, it sparked a large thread of comments and got me thinking about getting my eyebrows done. Someone in the group recommended the incredible Brows By Ciara, I reached out and within minutes it was time to be brave and book my appointment!

I cannot stress this enough.

FIND A TECHNICIAN that knows what they are doing. You don’t want to be one of those horror stories you see on the internet.

If you are considering this process, I encourage you to read this entire post.

Even if you aren’t considering getting microblading, I have photos documenting the entire experience and some of them are worth your time in exchange for a good chuckle.

If you have ANY questions, drop them in the comments below and I will answer them as best I can.

I’ll start by saying that since going to see Brows By Ciara my life has changed. Not only because my confidence is through the roof (watch out world) because of my new brows, but I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Ciara. She is one of those people who make this world a better place and my life is better simply because she is now in it.

BEFORE

THE MICROBLADING PROCESS

The microblading procedure itself took about 2 hours. We had lots of chatting and photos going on though so don’t think you will be laying there being worked on for 2 hours straight. Here is a summary breaking down each step so you can get an idea of what to expect before you go. I imagine some places do things differently, but probably follow something similar to this:

Consult: Ciara had my fill out a pretty in-depth intake form which made me feel more comfortable and like this was legit! For whatever reason, I thought I was going to her house (in her basement) and when I walked into her beautiful shop I was instantly at ease. Ciara asked me what I was hoping to achieve, I showed photos of brows I liked and we worked together to get the shape right before we moved on to any next steps. I felt like this experience was extremely personal and appreciated that.

Outlining: Ciara drew on my face to show me the outline of what she planned on doing. You can be as picky as you want at this step. DO NOT just agree if you don’t like what you see. The outline is dark and scary, but it is using a brow pencil so don’t think your brows are going to look that dark when you are done.

Numbing the brows: Ciara used a topical numbing cream and continued to apply numbing cream throughout the procedure to make sure I was as comfortable as possible.

Microblading: After the cream absorbed, Ciara began to make hair-like incisions on one of my brows. She works on one eyebrow at a time. She was rubbing brow pigment (which we also agreed upon earlier) into my brow and letting it sit before wiping it away and making further incisions. I went super light and natural at first and wish I had gone a little bit darker on my first visit. I was scared and on the cautious side so I insisted that we “didn’t go too dark” but on my return visit you will see how my decisions changed. I just wanted to add this in for you to consider as you are picking your colour.

My brows were pretty numb, but I could feel it! Ciara made sure at all times I was okay. I would explain it as a “this hurts so good” type of pain. Each eyebrow takes about 40 minutes to complete but depending on your style and how much hair you currently have/don’t have this time could vary.

Healing: YOU DID IT! You absolute champ. Below are some FAQ answered by Ciara, these should cover everything you could be thinking about but as mentioned if you have questions drop them below.

Touch-up appointment: Your follow up is usually 4-6 weeks after your initial procedure. This appointment needs to be after your skin has fully healed. When I first went I wanted natural, light coloured eyebrows. You will see in the photos below this changed when I went for my touch-up appointment. We decided to do what is called “powder brows”. Think of this as more of a traditional tattoo. Thousands of tiny dots of pigment are inserted, gradually building up colour and making a more defined, full brow.

Finish product: After 2-3 weeks or so after your follow up appointment, you should be all healed up + your brows looking great. If you still have some blank spots, I recommend contacting your technician and heading back for an additional touch-up. If you have really light hair as I do, consider tinting the hair. I am so pleased with my brow shape, width, colour, everything. My microblading experience was AMAZING!

MICROBLADING HEALING AND AFTER-CARE

+ Why do my brows look red?

The red tone is caused by irritation and inflammation of the skin which can have lingering effects as a result of your service.

+ My brows are scabbing, is this normal?

Yes, scabbing is normal. Permanent Makeup services cause your body to go into protection mode (think about when you scrape your knee and your body goes into protection mode to begin the healing process; this is the same sort of reaction). It is also normal for your body to not scab. The results depend on your skin type and cycle and will contribute to the amount of scabbing if any at all.

+ Why did my brows disappear?

As the healing process continues, new skin forms over the wound. As the new skin forms, it may appear as though your brows have disappeared, but the pigment just needs time to resurface. Your brows will re-appear as you further along into the healing process.

+ Is it normal for my brows to heal at different times?

Your brows are not the same before the process. In most cases, we need to do completely different things to each brow to achieve symmetry. As a result, you will notice that your brows may heal independently and at a different rate. For example, if one tail requires more work than the other, you may notice that the one tail requiring more work has significantly more inflammation and irritation in comparison to the other tail. Likewise, if one brow requires more work at the head than the other you can expect that brow to have more inflammation and irritation than the other.

Let me know if you have any questions at all. I tried to be as thorough as possible but if I missed something just leave a comment below. Have any of you had your brows microbladed? What was your experience? I would love to hear!

Thanks again to Brows By Ciara (follow her on Instagram) for being SO awesome – if you guys are anywhere near Calgary, I highly suggest you go and visit their gorgeous space and this gorgeous girl – you can mention ‘LucyandKelsi’ for a little discount off your service too! 

Not sure if you want to drop the $$ on microblading? I get it. All I can say is just think about how much time and energy you will save yourself. In my opinion, it is worth every penny.

MICROBLADING BOTTOM LINE

GO GET IT! Microblading is 150% worth it! It is so nice to wake up in the morning loving my eyebrows. They look so much better and I am saving so much time in the morning. I literally woke up like this.