We go under the blade in pursuit of perfect brows
What’s the big deal with brows? That’s what I used to think, before I became the proud owner of "brows on fleek," aka. brows so flawless, you almost want to bow down before them.
I was never a brow-obsessed person, but as the beauty industry became more and more brow-centric (thank you Cara Delevingne), they just weren’t wow-ing anyone, least of all myself, and it was getting tiresome having to draw them in each morning.
That’s where microblading comes in. The semi-permanent eyebrow was actually invented around 25 years ago in Asia (you may have seen them on older ladies in various shades of blue, black, grey and sometimes, red), but the technique has thankfully come a long way since.
See also: 5 Stores To See At The Landmark's Beauty Avenue
Now big in Hollywood and all across Europe, microblading looks much less stamped on and more like natural hair strokes, using special tools and a '3D eyebrow' technique.
In Hong Kong, microblading is available at a variety of beauty salons, but the treatment varies drastically in terms of price, technique and hygiene. We decided to give it a try at Careyou Beauty, an upscale semi-permanent makeup and microblading studio at The Landmark, Central, which is considered to be a pioneer in the industry:
The consultation
The first step in every microblading journey is a consultation with your eyebrow artist. At Careyou Beauty, I met with the studio’s founder, Carey Cheung, to determine my ideal eyebrow shape and colour. Lying down in one of their spa-like treatment rooms, she used an eyebrow pencil to draw in my brows and showed me the results a few minutes later.
We worked on adjusting the length and thickness of each brow until I was absolutely comfortable with how they looked, and then Carey snapped some pictures for reference. With that, the consultation was finished, and I was ready to schedule my microblading appointment.
The procedure
As one of the top spots for microblading in Hong Kong, Careyou Beauty’s waitlists can be a few months long for their top artists. I managed to book an appointment for several weeks later with one of their senior artists, Karmen, which was confirmed by WhatsApp several times before the actual date.