Permanent Make Up has experienced a real boom in the past few years as new techniques and new products were launched and thanks to pigmentation results that can be individually micropigmented from natural to expressive.

What is Permanent Make Up?

Permanent Make Up is a cosmetic tattooing method that is generally used specially to embellish eyebrows, eyeliner and lips. There are also camouflage techniques in order to for example cover scars or optically reconstruct areolas. With many brands, techniques and products there are also many terms coming up that may be a bit disorienting at first.

Basically, there are two main Permanent Make Up pigmentation methods that need to be distinguished: Micropigmentation and Microblading:

Microblading

Microblading is a manual method where the pigmentation work is done with a non electric handpiece with needles that are aligned like a blade in order to for example scratch or cut lines into the skin to obtain a hairstroke line. These lines form the eyebrow hair. As soon as or whilst the lines are drawn, the pigmentation colour is spread into the cutted lines in order to set the colour in. As we believe that this technique is not very skin friendly and comes with various potential risks and potential scarifications, we at Long-Time-Liner® decided to not offer this method.

Micropigmentation

With a Micropigmentation of a Permanent Make Up, for instance with our Long-Time-Liner® Conture® Liner DUO, the colour is brought into the skin with the help of an electronic device and an extremely fine needle. In our case the needle (that is as fine as an acupuncture needle) micropigments exactly straight, allowing a very precise treatment without further harming the skin with rotating movements of the needle. This allows a very gentle and skin friendly treatment. Also with this method the colour is brought only into the upper skin layers and not as deep as when tattooing. The healing process of a Long-Time-Liner micropigmentation is, other than with some other methods and devices, usually shorter.

Microshading

Microshading is a method and technique of shading the eyebrow.
Like the hairstroke design, this can be achieved either with a manual tool (by cutting or stamping the skin) or with a machine for a micropigmentation with punctual and very fine, gentle stitching.

The manual tool looks like a pen that has several needle points at one end. With this pen, the colour is manually stamped into the skin, this means that the intensity, softness and depth of the pigmentation depends on the individual manual pressure every user applies during the treatment. Even if Microshading is advertised as gentle alternative to Microblading, the manual method brings more risks as the machine method using a special micropigmentation device that has especially been developed for this purpose and where the needle length, colour flow and strokes number can be adjusted and the colour can be brought into the skin ideally without requiring that the user applies additional pressure manually – to make the treatment as gentle as possible. Usually, micropigmentation devices have modules with fewer needle points as they work quicker, yet, there are differences between every brand and machine. We at Long-Time-Liner are very keen to offer the most gentle possible treatment with short healing times and a natural looking permanent make up. That is why we use a one point needle for all our pigmentation techniques (eyebrows, eyeliner, lips and camouflage).

Some providers combine hairstrokes and shading when doing a microshading treatment:
Here, contour and shape of the eyebrows are secured and defined by a hairstroke design and a soft shading, e.g. placed in the middle of the eyebrow in order to create a natural looking 3D effect. Because of the gentle treatment, this method is also suitable for more sensitive skin. Plus, depending on the individual type, the intensity of the colour gradient can be varied.

WHY MICROSHADING IS OFTEN ADVERTISED AS GENTLE ALTERNATIVE TO MICROBLADING?
Besides the fact that one is for hairstroke design and the other for a shading effect, when comparing the two manual techniques the stamping of the skin looks more gentle than cutting or scratching it. 

Bottom line: with a pmu device (micropigmentation device) it is possible to create super fine hairstroke designs as well as filigrane, soft shadings for perfectly defined looking eyebrows… but with less risks for the skin.

You have questions?
Write us at info@long-time-liner.com or visit us on Instagram @longtimelinerofficial

Permanent Make Up eyebrows

There are different ways and techniques for Permanent Make Up eyebrows to look defined and perfectly accurate. Fine hairstrokes would give an absolutely natural looking result. Or eyebrows are shaded for a powder effect or -if more than one colour is used – Ombré Eyebrows.

MICROSHADING is a technique of eyebrow micropigmentation. This technique combines hairstrokes that build the „frame“ of the brow with a light shading that is placed in the middle of the brow to create a natural looking 3D effect.
So Microshading describes one of many possibilities of an eyebrow design comparable to a Make Up look. Whereas Microblading is a particular pigmentation method by cutting the skin with a handpiece.

Long-Time-Liner® MICROSHADING

Click here to learn more about the delicate Microshading with Long-Time-Liner®: https://www.long-time-liner.com/en/microshading/