Learn about the steps we take to curate the color that is for you using color theory!
You're booked for one of our permanent makeup services - now what? We know it can be scary when it comes to a service that will be on your face for a few years and we want to help ease your mind!
During your consultation, your artist would ask you if there are any specific lipstick or gloss colors that you like on yourself and if there is a specific brow pencil/pomade color that you use. Let's understand the why behind that question and the reason we choose the colors we do for your permanent makeup.
Understanding Your Undertones
Have you ever worn a red lipstick and wondered why it looked a bit too bright, maybe too orange, or too dark on you? Well, that has to do with your undertones! Each person falls into one of these categories: warm, cool, or neutral when it comes to their undertones. This is
essentially the natural tones your skin has that can either be complimented or clashes with the pigment of a product you use on yourself. The same concept applies to the pigment we use for your powder brows or lip blushing. This is why we spend a lot of time studying your skin to understand what your undertones are. If we just chose a random pigment for your permanent makeup, your brows could fade to look gray/red/orange or your lips may appear darker/brighter than what suits you best.
Complimentary Colors
Your undertones are comprised of multiple colors that show through when closely observing the skin. What our artists do is carefully observe the colors in various lightings to see how those undertones appear to gain a better understanding of what pigments to use. Like the video above, we carefully go through the pigment lines that we carry for our permanent makeup services to see what colors they are comprised of. This helps us to know what colors to use that are complimentary colors to that of your undertone, which can be better understood as the color that lies opposite of a color on the color wheel.
By doing so, we can easily bring out the color that best suits you! Over time, the color from your permanent makeup will fade and the result later should still match you. If you have cool undertones, we would stay away from pigments that are also cool - this rule applies to neutral and warm pigments as well when paired with neutral and warm undertones respectively.
What Does This Look Like?
We recommend for permanent makeup artists to take close-up photos of the lips to really nail down the undertones of a client's lips. Above is an example of how we complimented the colors present in someone's lips as they had lip blushing done! As you can see from the palette, they are all of the same group and appear different based on how saturated that color is. This person initially had cool undertones (left photo) and that is why the artist chose to use warmer colors (right) to counterbalance their lips.
This left their lips to appear more more vibrant and brought back color to their face! This lip blushing was done a few years ago and we would recommend getting a touch-up to help even out the color that has faded on their inner lip so that their lip line blends seamlessly with the rest of the lip. Now you know how we choose what pigments to use for your permanent makeup! This same concept is used for your brows after we have examined your skin to find the right pigments. We hope this helps to ease any worries you have about your upcoming appointment!