I am FINALLY getting around to writing this post - are you guys excited?! I’m entirely healed and specifically it has been 119 days since my very first eyebrow microblading appointment, so I feel COMPLETELY confident in my experience and the results. Let’s do this!
BEFORE:
(Above: Filled in like I normally would with makeup. Below: Totally bare, makeup removed.)
As you can see, my eyebrows were VERY sparse. This is odd to me because growing up these suckers were THICK. I had a unibrow if I let things get out of hand, and my esthetician would call me a “furry monkey”! Can you believe?! Look at how sad they are now. As I’ve got older they just got thinner and thinner. I of course get the occasional stray hairs in the middle and above and below the “tail” or end of the brow, but nothing at all that would make them thicker, even if I didn’t touch them for years. It is what it is.
Now what led me to become interested in microblading? Well, I actually was SUPER against it for a long time because I’d seen so many disasters done to friends and people online - I didn’t trust it at all. I thought it pretty much always looked terrible and totally fake, no matter what. Turns out there are artists out there who do them SO WELL you wouldn’t really know just by looking at someone who had it done.
That was how I met Tiffany Olsen from Enhance Artistry, here in Utah. I’ll link her Instagram when I talk about her because you can get to her website from there - AND see the amazing before and after photos on her feed (when you see them you’ll know what I mean). She said she struggled with her advertising for her brow business at first, but then told me about Upleap who helped her get on her feet by giving her tips on how to gain a larger instagram following, it has obviously worked a treat for her!
Basically I’m obsessed with Tiffany and that is no exaggeration. When I first met her I was so disarmed by how beautiful her eyes are. Is this post taking a turn? Possibly, but I’ll keep it on track. I’ve never seen another person with her eye color, so when you go to her be ready to just stare at her eyes for like 5 minutes. She’s stunning.
Okay now back to microblading, the whole dang point of this post. I was asking questions on my instagram story to people who had it done, I was asking what it was like and if they liked the results, etc. A few people recommended artists they had gone to, and some recommended Tiffany from Enhance Artistry. Her style and techniques are different from anything I’d ever seen before. Every single before and after looked so good! I finally decided it would probably be a good idea to just do it - I wanted to save time on makeup every morning and also tell my readers all about the experience. You guys know I love being your guinea pig!
BE AWARE that if you want to make an appointment, make it now because she is booked out like 5 months or something insane. Yep, that’s another reason you know she’s good. My Mom went to make an appointment and I think at the time she was booked 4 months out. Her appointment is in June and I’m so excited for her! So basically go email her right now and then come back and finish this post. 🙂
OKAY fast forward to my actual appointment.
Before we did anything, she drew on one eyebrow with an eyebrow pencil to show me what the brow shape would kind of look like. I’ll be honest, I was like THAT IS TOO BIG! The filled in eyebrow next to my skinny bare one looked so huge, I was so scared I would look terrible but for some reason I went ahead with the appointment and said JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL, trusting that her before and after photos guided me to the right person.
Tiffany uses a process of “mapping” the brows. Based on your brow bone, face shape, and whatever other magic she uses, she maps out how your brows should look. BEFORE she does the mapping though she puts numbing cream on and then plastic wrap over that to make it soak in. You can see the WHOLE process on my Instagram story btw - I saved everything to a highlight for ya. Anyways after the numbing cream has soaked in she does the mapping, which she is surprisingly fast at.
So does it hurt?
The first pass was painful, I remember it feeling like someone was scratching my eyebrows, it’s a very “scratchy” sensation which is exactly what she’s doing so no shock there. The numbing cream can’t go very deep on fresh skin, but it definitely helps dull the pain. Honestly it’s so quick, I didn’t think it was terrible. I also think I psyched myself out so much thinking it would be SO painful and horrible, that after it was actually done I was like oh, that’s IT? After the first “pass” the skin is now scratched and open, so she applies a 2nd round of numbing cream. That stuff really does the trick once it can get down deep and on the 2nd pass you don’t feel a thing. You can hear it scratching which is a little trippy, but you don’t feel any pain. The whole thing is really no big deal in my opinion.
The final step was some “warming” pigment, to prevent the color from getting “cool”, she doesn’t do this on everyone but apparently I needed it:
Afterwards, she explained the aftercare to me and gave me a flyer on what exactly to do, and a special ointment to apply every day for the next 10 days. My instructions were to NOT let them scab over. I had to wash my brows I think 4 times that day with warm water and a gentle cleanser, and then apply ointment after. Then after the 1st day it’s just ointment on them a few times a day.
This is immediately after she was done:
In the car right after the appointment. You can see that they’re not irritated at all! Any redness is from the warmth pigment she applied at the end. They were a little tender, but really not bad at all.
I was worried I would look insane, because I knew people whose eyebrows went SO dark during the 10 days. This is day 4 after my appointment:
Yep they got dark. Tiffany warned me of this so it was FINE - but yeah for a while there I really layered on the rest of my makeup to compensate for the darkness of them, which worked out surprisingly well. Some girls wear their eyebrows like this everyday and that’s how they like it, so I’m sure to ME (and my husband, poor thing he was pretty worried I’d be Groucho Marx forever) it was very dark, but you might actually like it!
This is day 10:
Basically normal at this point! The darkness went away and at this point they were healed and ready to go.
What was the experience like during the 10 days?
For the first couple of days, they were tender but not bad. The ointment was always really soothing and I never really noticed them. Tiffany advised not to really soak them in the shower or wash them for the rest of the 9 days, but to be honest I wasn’t very good at it. I’m used to wildly rubbing my eyes and face when removing my makeup in the shower, so I did my best but I definitely got them wet and even probably rubbed them a bit. It was fine - they still looked great. Just do your best!
During the 10 days they did “flake” I like to call it - some of the pigment/eyebrow hairs start to come off when you apply the ointment. This is totally normal and didn’t affect my life much. I just had to make sure I didn’t have any flakes hanging off when I was talking to people. 🙂 That only lasted a few days before they were totally healed.
Now for my touch up! 6 weeks later you have a touch-up appointment. The cost of the 1st appointment covers your touch-up too, FYI.
This is right before my touch-up appointment so you can see how they look after the 6 weeks:
This is immediately after my touch-up! I look a little crazy from laying down for like 2 hours haha, but the point is they look pretty dang normal even right after the touch-up too.
The touch-up appointment seemed a lot faster, but to be honest I don’t really remember! She really just touched up a few spots and added in where she needed to after the 1st appointment. Again, it wasn’t too painful. After the touch-up I had to do the same 10-day process of washing on day 1 to prevent scabbing, and then the rest of the 9 days just trying to keep the ointment on and water off of them.
And here is the final AFTER - full healed and DONE:
These photos I have no makeup on my brows. Usually if I am going to shoot or if I just want a little more definition, I do fill them in with my Anastasia Brow Definer. I LOVE that - because when I’m home or my makeup is off - it doesn’t look like I’m wearing makeup at all. They are still very natural and normal, and if I want to fill them in more for even more definition, I totally can in 5 seconds. That’s exactly how I wanted them to turn out.
Here is a full before and after from Tiffany:
I will be completely honest about this and you can see in my Instagram story highlights about the whole process, I was VERY scared after my first appointment. I basically thought I had ruined my eyebrows. I thought they were huge and way too big for my face. It also didn’t help that they were extra dark while they healed, so the whole experience was distressing and I wasn’t prepared for how different they would look from my skinny tiny brows.
PREPARE YOURSELF okay? After they healed, I realized I LOVED THEM. Obsessed, and basically I feel like the real me if that makes any sense. I think my face is more defined now, and they make my features more pronounced. They truly fit my face so much better than before, but I never realized because I was so used to how they were before. Now looking back I can see that I just wasn’t used to having actual brows that fit my face. It reminded me of when I first started filling in my brows I felt like I looked ridiculous, but after a few weeks I could never go back to not filled in. It’s the same with my new microbladed brows. I would never want to go back to how skinny and sad they were before! I feel so much more polished now, and even when I don’t have any makeup on I love how they outline my eyes so much better.
So long story short, be open-minded and just trust Tiffany with your brows. Let her do what she needs to do and trust the process.
How long does it last?
Microblading lasts 1-3 years depending on how “rough” you are on your brows, and your skin type. Basically if you wash them a lot, scrub them in the shower, etc. they won’t last as long. Tiffany recommends a touch-up every year after your initial 2 appointments, to keep them fresh and beautiful.
How long does it take?
About 2 hours for my first appointment. I think maybe an hour and a half or less for my touch-up. I think my appointments went a little longer because we were taking photos and I was documenting the process in a video too (that will be on my YouTube channel soon!). I hear it varies though, my friend told me hers was an hour and a half and she had hers done through this website here.
How much does it cost?
Microblading can range from $300-$1,500 depending on who you go to and their level of experience. Tiffany charges $600 total, meaning that includes the main appointment and the touch up 6 weeks later. She also TEACHES microblading courses if you are interested in becoming a microblading artist yourself!
If you have any more questions leave them in a comment below, and Tiffany’s FAQ is HERE! I can’t recommend Tiffany from Enhance Artistry more - even though I’m scared to send her more clients because she is already so booked out! 🙂 I’m utterly 100% in love with my eyebrows and I would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat.
Have you had your eyebrows microbladed? Would you ever do it?
xoxo
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