What Do I Say to the Client that Asks for Jet-Black Eyeliner
October 30, 2024
Lets look at 5-Common Struggles for Permanent Makeup Practitioners. I never want to forget my beginnings. I had no predecessors and no one to ask why a procedure didn’t heal exactly as I planned. Thirty-years ago, I had no one to tell me that the hair strokes I placed in eyebrows had to be spaced out or they would heal together. Bearing this in mind, I will always find time to answer our graduates with these initial struggles and do everything possible to make things make sense and hopefully easier for them.
Here are some of the struggles I hear, consistently, from new practitioners and I hope this helps a lot of people out there.
My permanent eyeliner isn’t staying! It looks great when they leave and, in a few days, it’s all gone!
My response…I feel your pain and disappointment. I used a standard coil for my first 12 years, so my eyeliners held but were swollen for DAYS!!! But I can still relate!
Although, myself and our Certified Micropigmentation Master Instructors do explain that this may happen to you, in your first few eyeliners, and tell you exactly why it will happen, I will say it again. SLOW-DOWN, SLOW-DOWN, SLOW DOWN! It is the hardest thing to do. You want to get your client done and you may see she is not thrilled with having you around her eyes and you move too fast. It is frightening to stay on the skin, but it works.
Relax & Breathe
I always say, eyeliner is meditative. Drop your shoulders and place a bit of Lavender on the edge of your nostrils (seriously), put on some new age, spa music and take a deep breath. Gear down to reduce your own personal speed. Lower your voice to a calming tone. Remember, to move slowly around your client’s face. Avoid quick or jerky movements.
Numbing
Be sure your client has had Eyz-a-blu topical on for 30 minutes, select and mix her color, insert and adjust your needle and lastly, remove her topical anesthetic and quickly draw her on and begin tattooing, in that order.
Stretching
Be sure you have a very tight stretch on her eyelid, without pushing on her eyeball. Just stretch the skin in the area you are starting, very tightly.
Sketch
Begin etching your insurance line from the top down toward the lashes to insure you won’t go further than your drawing and then establish your width. This prevents the dreaded call that her permanent eyeliner looked great when she left and now it has shrunk to nothing. If she is hypersensitive, use pointillism method to get your line in.
Once you have a sketch, layer your topical anesthetics and do the same on the other eye. Return to the first eye, remove the layered topical anesthetics and straighten your line. She should be numb.
Remain focused and begin your SLOW tight circles or Ovals of two forward and two back and do not lift your needle. If you move this way, you won’t have to go back over it. If you move quickly, you will not get the pigment deposit and will have to continue to go over the same area, repeatedly and simply chew it up and swell it up.
Remember, the skin (in all permanent makeup procedures) should appear like velvet and not like stucco or suede. If you start to see a grain in it, you have moved too quickly and repeated your strokes too many times. Breathe and slow down!
Struggle My client said she shouldn’t have to pay for her permanent makeup touch-up.
My response…I dislike talking money with my clients. This should be done previously on the phone either by you, if you do not employ a receptionist, or your receptionist but NEVER at the time of procedure. A fair price should have been agreed upon prior to the arrival of your client. They can send a selfie for you to see what is involved if it is a touch up, visit.
It is best to have a price chart or menu of services on your web site. It can appear something like this.
6-month touch-up $200.00
1-yr. touch-up, $250.00
2-yr. touch-up, $350.00
3-yr. touch-up, $450.00
This is just to give you an idea on setting up a FIRM pricing for your clientele and prevent them from trying to have you reduce their price after you have finished their procedure. I urge you to not fall into this trap and sooner or later someone will attempt to have you do so and you will remember these words…NO, NO, NO. Your work is work the value you place on it. Do not allow this to occur.
You all know what your demographics are and what your area will bring. Whatever that is, stick with it!
Remember…Always use the price you want to charge one day as your regular price and make the actual price you are charging, a special price for a holiday, a season, etc. For instance: Regular Price, $600.00, Spring Special, $399.00. Always place an expiration on this special. You need to have a Call-To-Action. Got it???
My client has crooked eyebrows that keep moving up and down when she speaks.
My response…This is an easy one. Have her give you a big smile and take her picture. Show it to her and tell her this is where her permanent brows will be placed because it is when she focuses on something her brows go up. You would never want to place them there.
I am not sure how much time to schedule for a permanent makeup procedure for a new client.
My Response…It is so imperative that you have more than enough time to do a procedure. This reduces your stress level and your client’s as well.
In the beginning, we suggest 3 hours for a permanent eyeliner procedure. This is from beginning to end. You can even have them come in 15 minutes early to apply your topical anesthetics. Do not rush!
If you are charging $400.00 and allow yourself a 2-hour time frame for her touch up in 6-weeks, you will still have earned, $80.00 per hour, less your set up costs.
I say 3-hours, in the event you get a person that tears, twitches, sneezes, has little deep-set eyes (they take longer) wants a larger eyeliner, etc. you just don’t know. It’s like a box of unmarked chocolates! You never know what you are going to get! Allow the time and enjoy any extra you have with your client. This would be a good time to draw her brows or other procedures on and show her your entire bag of tricks.
Remember, do not schedule eyeliner procedures past 1:00 pm. You will find your clients do not have the sustenance to be as tolerant as they would be in the am.
My client draws her lips on way outside her natural lips or vermillion border. What do I do?
My Response…We have sent women home when they insisted this is what they wanted and the only way they wanted their lips to appear. It would be hideous, and you would not want your name on it.
However, let me say, this! Older women lose their vermillion border. It flattens out. You can cheat a bit on them, and it won’t look contrived. But you can only cheat a little bit.
If they still have a vermillion border or have the help of injectables to give them one, then you can only come onto the crest of the border but not over it. I think of the vermillion border as a wave. I can ride up on the crest of that wave but never over that wave.
Remember, a millimeter on a lip is like a mile! Giving a woman a millimeter or two on her lips will give her a much more youthful look but giving her something extreme will make her appear contrived, unnatural and hardened.
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– Rose Marie Beauchemin-Verzella, CMI, CPCP
