Ombré

Ombré is powder brows with the gradient turned up. Barely anything at the front, building through the arch, strongest at the tail — so the brow fades into your skin at the inner end instead of starting with an edge.

That fade is the whole trick. It is what lets you have a strong, defined brow without it looking like a block someone has drawn on. The stronger you want your brows, the more the front matters.

Ombré or powder? Alison will tell you

Honestly, most women do not need to decide this before they arrive, and the price is the same either way, so there is nothing riding on picking the right word.

The short version: if you like being able to see where your brow begins, powder. If you want the front to melt away into your skin, ombré. But it gets settled properly at the mapping stage, with a pencil and a mirror, looking at your actual face — which is a far better way to choose than off a price list.

If your brows are naturally strong, or you wear a lot of make-up, ombré usually sits better. If they are sparse and you want them to look like they grew there, powder is often the softer answer.

Everything else is the same

Same appointment, same two-and-a-half to three hours, same numbing, same twelve to eighteen months. Same healing too — bold for a few days, flaky around day five, seemingly gone in the second week, back to normal by the end of the third.

And the same perfecting session at four to six weeks, included, where the gradient gets its final adjustment now Alison can see how your skin took it.