Powder eyebrows and watercolor lips: what is behind the trend names?

Liliya Panitkina , permanent make-up master, head of @lmakeup_studio studio

Let's take a look at what these methods are. And are they innovative or is it just a successful marketing package for existing techniques?

Powder eyebrows

Let's start with powder eyebrows, every girl in our city probably wants them. Comfortable, natural and, at least for a year, you can forget about eyebrow makeup.

Powder eyebrows came to us following the shot technique - a denser skin coloring, satisfying the current market demand for naturalness.

A modern woman appreciates time, but the fact that eyebrows in this technique completely “leave” the skin up to 3 years is a big plus. We change, our tastes and style change, so permanent makeup should also be temporary.

Before and after the procedure. Photos provided by the author

First of all, I want to emphasize that the “powder eyebrows” technique is a permanent make-up, that is, the apparatus, needles and pigments are also used. There will be no magic and powdering, the pigment, as in any permanent makeup technique, is applied to the upper layer of the dermis.

In fact, this is a shading technique that takes its origins in the dotwork tattoo technique, in which the drawing is done with dots, and by varying the distance between the dots and the number of layers, a volume effect is achieved.

Before and after the procedure

The permanent makeup master paints the skin with small dots (pixels), layer by layer, achieving the desired intensity. Since the concentration of the coloring matter in permanent inks is less than in tattoo inks, the pixels spread during healing and do not look like dots, but gently form a light-and-shadow pattern.

The powder coating technique is non-traumatic, which gives maximum color retention during healing, so correction is required less often. Why is that? There is a rule in permanent makeup - the less tissue traumatization, the better the pigment residue, since the ichor in traumatized, overworked skin pushes out the injected pigment, which leads to a poor pigment residue after healing.

watercolor lips

As for watercolor lips, the same technique is used as with powder eyebrows - with small dots, layer by layer, we introduce pigment under the skin.

Watercolor lips are a non-contour lip tinting technique in permanent makeup. Lips acquire the desired shade, but without significant changes in shape. I draw your attention to the fact that if there is a request to change the shape of the lips and this can be achieved harmoniously with the help of permanent makeup, then a denser coloring is required, the so-called lipstick effect. In this case, the effect of watercolor lips cannot be achieved.
The “watercolor lips” technique is ideal for girls who are satisfied with the existing volume of the lips, but lack juiciness, brightness, or need to correct the natural unwanted shade of the lips, for example, a bluish undertone. And also there is no desire to accentuate the contour.

Masters and schools, wanting to stand out in the market, come up with beautiful English names for their techniques, but in essence this is watercolor lips: contourless and loosely painted over, with a gentle effect of lip tinting.

A modern client today is sophisticated and clearly knows what problem he wants to solve with the help of permanent makeup, and at a personal consultation, together with the master, he only determines in the most suitable technique.