Beauty demands symmetry.
But yet most of us are asymmetrical beings, and this asymmetry becomes more apparent when we apply makeup. When filling in my own eyebrows, for instance, I have always had to put more eyebrow pencil or powder on my left eyebrow because its arch is lower than the right one and it’s also not as full as my right one.
As my eyebrows are not particularly sparse or uneven, I have been quite happy spending a few minutes daily filling in my eyebrows with pencil or powder, until I chanced upon 6HD eyebrow embroidery services at Paramedic Aesthetics.
The treatment
At Paramedic Aesthetics, instead of regular tattoo machines, trained technicians use the Biotouch Mosaic machine which utilises a unique up-and-down motion in the application of pigment instead of the zig-zagging motion characteristic of regular tattoo machines.
The lighting varies from picture to picture (all without filter) but you can still see how strong the brows are in the week after treatment.
This up-and-down motion ensures higher precision which results in less trauma to the skin and allows treatments to be performed on sensitive areas such as the lips or eyes. Instead of synthetic inks, Biotouch Mosaic utilises pigments that contain microscopic iron oxide particles that are more easily absorbed into the skin and provide stronger, more long-lasting colour. The combination of good training and natural pigments make for natural-looking results which closely match your actual skin tone and hair colour.
The “6HD” in “6HD eyebrow embroidery” refers to the six layers of fine hairs for every stroke applied onto the skin, designed to mimic the natural appearance and direction of growth of every individual strand of hair.
So you never have to worry about having two solid black swooshes for eyebrows that will eventually fade into an unnatural reddish or greenish hue!
Eileen Seah, the creative director I asked to enhance my eyebrows said that in addition to a touch-up one to three months after the initial treatment, my eyebrows should last a good two years or longer if my skin is not too dry or oily, which is good news considering that my skin is only slightly dry before applying sunscreen. I was also looking forward to having perfect eyebrows that don’t need fussing over or filling in no matter what look I feel like wearing!
The experience
Upon registration I was asked to fill in a comprehensive form declaring past medical procedures, supplement and medication intake and skin conditions. I was then invited into Eileen’s treatment room, where I was asked to put on a gown and a cap and lie down on the treatment bed.
Numbing my brows
Eileen asked me what sort of eyebrows I preferred. I said that my eyebrows already have a distinct shape so all I wanted was for her to balance them out and make the ends fuller and longer. She shaved off the stray hairs, drew the outline of my eyebrows and asked for my approval, which I gave. Finally she put on numbing cream on both eyebrows and left me in the room for 40 minutes for the numbing cream to take effect.
When she returned, she put on her gown and cap and went on to mix the colours based on my natural hair colour. She took the blade out of the packaging and affixed it onto her pen.
I have always been a wuss with blades and needles and was expecting it to be painful the whole way, but it was mostly comfortable with only the scraping sounds of the blade against my skin reminding me that I was having my eyebrows “embroidered”. Although the areas nearer my nose bridge were more sensitive and smarted whenever she applied the inks, she took care to apply more numbing cream onto the affected areas, constantly assuring me that everyone has different levels of sensitivity and that she has had more sensitive clients than me! I must truly commend her for her patience as most of the times I asked her to pause it was because I was expecting the next stroke to be painful although it was not always the case.
When she was done she let me look in the mirror for the final results. When I gave her my approval, she applied antibiotic cream followed by more ink to ensure that the new hairs properly absorbed the colour, which made me look not unlike Crayon Shin-Chan . She then cleaned my eyebrows, applied more antibiotic cream and soon I was on my way home.
You don’t need glasses to see that my eyebrows are uber-strong!
My eyebrows did smart for the next few hours and I was careful not to excessively wet or apply sunscreen on my eyebrows for the next few days. I had very strong brows for the next three days or so — Cara Delevingne would have approved —and so I wore bright lip colours (Urban Decay’s Menace and MAC’s Neon Orange, just to name a couple) to balance out my brows every day. On the fifth day they started to scab and I had to restrain myself from picking at them. By the eighth day, all the scabs have fallen off and my eyebrows did not look as strong as they used to be. I examined a scab once and found two fine hairs stuck to it which I suspected were the new strands as my eyebrow hairs are coarser.
In the mornings, I would run my index finger along my eyebrows and honestly, till today (the 10th day after the treatment) I can’t tell my own hairs from the new hairs. My eyebrows look and feel dense and real and I haven’t pencilled them in once since my treatment; the colour and shape seem to be holding up well. Am looking forward for my touch-up which should be in the next month or so!
The 6HD eyebrow embroidery treatment costs from $1288 onwards. The same technique can also be used to to cover receding hairlines and bald spots.
Taken on Day 10 by my office window. The only makeup I have on are concealer, liquid eyeliner and L’Oréal Gong Li Barely Moka lipstick, to show how natural the overall effect is even with minimal makeup.
How this compares to what’s in the market
While there is an increase in demand for semi-permanent and permanent makeup services such as eyebrow, lashline and hairline embroidery, few people know that the semi-permanent and permanent makeup industry in Singapore is mostly self-regulated and does not come under the control of any government body such as the Health Sciences Authority (HSA). This means that there is no minimum training or qualification requirement for staff working in the industry. In addition to the lack of standardised training or qualification requirements there are no regulations governing hygiene and safety standards. As a result many of these service providers mix their inks in unhygienic and unsterile conditions, reuse their needles and/or do not sterilise their needles properly, all of which increase the risk of allergic reactions, injuries and infections.
Paramedic Aesthetics uses FDA-approved products developed and manufactured by American-based Biotouch Incorporated, a world leader in semi-permanent and permanent cosmetics and cosmetics services.
Ask for Eileen! The gorgeous director of Paramedic Aesthetics has 20 years of experience in the beauty industry.
I was happy to learn that Paramedic Aesthetics also takes the training of its technicians very seriously. It is probably the only salon of its kind that insists on training and certification of all its technicians by Biotouch Incorporated before they are allowed to perform treatments on its customers.
Paramedic Aesthetics also takes pride in its high safety and hygiene standards. In fact it is probably the only salon whose technicians have gone for bloodborne pathogens training to prevent the transmission of bacteria and viruses such as Hepatitis B when attending to customers and colleagues.
Additionally, unlike most other outlets offering eyebrow embroidery, all needles are disposed of in a sharp objects container. When the bin is full, the container is delivered to the nearest hospital to be disposed of appropriately.