By Annabel Meggeson and Stacey Duguid
If semi-permanent make-up conjures up images of drag queens and your Great Aunt’s really bad lip liner, then it might be time to think again. The new generation of stay-put make-up looks (nearly) natural, read the reviews below to find out which semi-permanent enhancements we recommend.
Price: £400
ELLE’s Executive Fashion Editor, Stacey Duguid, spent years over-plucking her eyebrows, so when fashion deemed bushy, face-framing brows in vogue again, we sent her to expert Sarah Jagger to restore her brows to their original, natural glory.
Sarah Jagger is an expert so in demand she only offers salon appointments one day a week and spends the rest of the time tending to her private clients. Originally trained as a professional make-up artist, she spent so much of her time correcting other peoples’ bad semi-permanent jobs that she decided to learn how to do it herself – only better.
Jagger is a natural perfectionist – she spends at least 20 (reassuring) minutes taking measurements and prepping pre-treatment. She also gave me a patch test to check for ink allergies and pencils the area in for me to approve before she uses the needle and ink. After numbing the area with a little cream, she gets to work with a very fine needle, it’s pretty uncomfortable and makes me sneeze a lot, but within 30 minutes, Jagger is done. I’m handed a mirror and relieved to see a normal looking pair of eyebrows that look identical to the ones I paint on every morning with eye shadow.
Within three days the few small scabs that formed post-treatment, flake off and I’m left with immaculate eyebrows. If anything, they’re not quite bold enough, but that’s an infinitely preferable result to the thick and unnatural looking eyebrows I had worried about, and anyway this is not a problem as each appointment includes a six-week follow-up where the ink is topped up to ensure it lasts the guaranteed eight months – and where you can go a little thicker and darker if you wish.
Click here to read what happened when Avril Mair tried eyebrow transplants...
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