Everything people ask

Cosmetic pigment placed into the upper layer of the skin with a fine needle, to shape and colour brows or lips. It is not a tattoo: the pigment is designed to break down and fade over twelve to eighteen months so the shape can be adjusted as fashions and faces change.

Two and a half to three hours for brows, two and a half for lips. Around 45 minutes of that is spent on shape and colour before any pigment goes in.

Yes, at least 48 hours beforehand, every time unless you have had one here within the last twelve months. It is free and it takes five minutes.

Yes. Consultation and patch test cost nothing and carry no obligation to book. It is also the appointment where you might be told the treatment is not right for you, which is worth having for free.

Powder and ombré brows are £295, combination brows £325, and lip blush £195. Brows and lips together are £450. Every one of those includes your consultation, your patch test and the perfecting session at four to six weeks.

Not if the colour is matched to you and the shape is mapped to your face. The single biggest cause of obvious-looking work is pigment chosen too dark. The advice here will always be to start softer than you think you want, because depth is easy to add at the perfecting session and hard to remove afterwards.

Yes, with time to spare. Allow at least six weeks before the event so healing is finished and the perfecting session is done. Two weeks before is too close.

Say so at the perfecting session, which is what it is there for — shape, depth and symmetry can all be adjusted then. The stage that prevents this problem is the mapping at the start: nothing is applied until you have looked in the mirror and said yes.

Yes, and it comes off the price of your treatment rather than sitting on top of it.

Inside Escape Hair & Beauty at 152 Briercliffe Road, Burnley BB10 2NZ, by the hospital roundabout, with parking on the street outside.

Not if the colour is matched properly. The commonest reason semi-permanent brows look drawn on is pigment chosen too dark or too warm for the person wearing them. Colour is matched in daylight against your skin and your hair, and if you want the result softer than the shape drawn on, say so at the mapping stage — it is far easier to add on your perfecting session than to remove.

Usually yes, and powder shading over faded microblading is one of the most common requests. It depends how much old pigment is left and what colour it has faded to. Send a clear, well-lit photograph before you book and you will get a straight answer rather than a booking.

As dark as suits you, but the honest advice is to start lighter than you think you want. Depth is easy to add at the perfecting session. Removing it means saline or laser removal, months of waiting, and more money.

Near enough. Both are machine-shaded brows. Ombré specifically describes a graded finish with a deliberately soft front. The price and the healing are identical, and which one you end up with is settled at the mapping stage.

No. It is applied lighter, not left blank. Because it is lighter it will show fading sooner than the tail, which is one of the things the colour boost appointment exists to even out.

No. Microblading cuts the strokes into the skin with a hand-held blade. Combination brows draw them with a digital machine and a fine needle, which is gentler on the skin and more predictable as it heals. There is a fuller comparison on the powder brows vs microblading page.

Because it takes longer and it is more technically demanding. If the consultation says your skin will not hold the strokes, you will be steered to the cheaper treatment instead.

For most people, yes — lips have more nerve endings. It is still managed with numbing and most clients describe it as very tolerable, but it is fair to expect it to be the more uncomfortable of the two.

Yes, but the order and the timing matter. Leave at least four weeks between filler and lip blush in either direction, so the lip is settled and its true shape is what gets mapped. Tell the practitioner about any filler at consultation, however long ago.

No. Liner tattooing puts a hard line on the border. Lip blush deliberately diffuses the border into the lip so there is no visible outline, which is why it still looks like a lip when the colour eventually fades.

When you find yourself filling your brows in again, or reaching for lip liner. There is no fixed date — sun exposure, exfoliating acids, retinol and simply having oily skin all speed fading up.

Yes, if it has been more than a year since your last one. Sensitivities can develop over time.

Yes. It is booked four to six weeks after the first appointment and there is nothing more to pay for it. Semi-permanent make-up is designed as two appointments and quoting only the first one would be misleading.

No. The consultation and the patch test are free and you are under no obligation to book anything afterwards.

It is uncommon but it happens, usually with very oily skin or with skin that pushes pigment out quickly. It is charged at the colour boost rate rather than as a new treatment.

Yes — £450 instead of £295 plus £195 separately. They are still done across two appointments rather than in one very long sitting.

Ask at the consultation. A deposit and balance arrangement is normal and can usually be spread across the weeks before the appointment.

Only because it takes longer. Hair strokes are worked in individually on top of the shading, so it is more chair time, not better work.

Paracetamol, yes. Avoid aspirin and ibuprofen for twenty-four hours beforehand — they thin the blood, which makes the skin bleed more and takes pigment less well.

More sensitive, yes, but manageable — most people put it around four or five out of ten with the numbing working. The outline is the tender part.

Yes, and it should be. Say when it starts wearing off rather than waiting to be asked.

Then it stops. Breaks are normal and there is no problem with pausing for a few minutes.

Not reliably. Sensitivity to sensation and sensitivity to products are different things. Tell Alison about either at the consultation.

Yes. There is nothing in the treatment that affects you that way — the numbing is topical only.

Because a new layer of skin has healed over the pigment and it is still slightly opaque. The colour comes back up over weeks four to six. This stage catches almost everybody out.

Not on the treated area until it has fully finished flaking — usually about ten days. Make-up elsewhere on your face is fine from the start.

One flake is not a disaster. Leave the rest alone, and tell Alison at the perfecting session so the spot can be looked at.

Two weeks. Chlorine, salt water and heat all pull pigment out of freshly healed skin.

Yes — faster to flake, more swelling, drier, and the ghosting stage is more dramatic. Lips also often need more of a top-up at the perfecting session.

Not before week four, and properly only after the perfecting session has healed. That is around three months from the first appointment.

Yes, and you can bring your brows drawn on the way you normally wear them if that helps show what you are used to. It will be cleaned off before the work starts.

It is not the end of the world, but it is better not to. Two weeks of growth gives far more to map a shape against.

It genuinely makes a difference to both comfort and bleeding, and bleeding affects how well the pigment stays. One morning without it is a small price.

No. Never stop prescribed medication for a beauty treatment. Just mention what you take at the consultation.

At least ten weeks, so both appointments are done and fully healed with room to spare. Two months is cutting it fine.

For the consultation, yes, and it is often useful. For the treatment itself it is a long appointment and a small room, so it is usually easier on your own.

Yes. Modern cosmetic pigments are not generally a problem, though there are rare reports of a warm or tingling feeling during a scan. Tell the radiographer you have it — that is all that is needed.

No.

Contact Alison, and see your GP or call 111 if you feel unwell in yourself. A patch test makes this very unlikely, which is exactly why it is done.

Usually, yes — sensitive skin and allergic skin are different things. The patch test settles it either way.

No. It is not that harm is proven; it is that it has not been established as safe, your skin behaves differently, and it is a treatment that can simply wait.

Related, but formulated differently — cosmetic pigments are made to fade gradually rather than stay put, and are implanted more shallowly.

Ask them, and ask to see the certificate. You can also ring the environmental health team at the local council, who hold the register.

Eventually, for most people, though a faint shadow can persist for years. The practical answer is that it stops looking its best at twelve to eighteen months.

Because something is still visible at that point. Whether it still looks like brows is a different question. Twelve to eighteen months is the honest figure for how long it looks good.

Often slightly, yes. Lips tend to hold pigment well and are less exposed to sun than brows are.

They will fade it considerably faster than daylight will. If you use them, cover the area.

Much cheaper to boost, and cheaper the sooner you come. £150 within eighteen months against a full price treatment if you leave it years.

You can adjust it, and you can go darker or warmer. Making a shape significantly smaller is harder, because the existing pigment has to be worked around or removed.