SEMI-PERMANENT MAKE-UP | FULL COLOUR LIP REVIEW
I love this permanent make up lips article from my client Charlotte - who happens to be one of the London bloggers! I love the honesty of her article! And ladies - it's all true! Thank you Charlotte and I look forward to seeing you for your yearly colour boosts! Please see the full review on her article below.
Some of you may have read my post about getting semi-permanent eyebrows last year (if not, give it a click and have a gander). After receiving lots of compliments about my brows and loving the fact they still looked dark and defined even after a sweaty gym session, I decided to take the plunge and get a semi-permanent lip treatment.
The rest of the women in my family are blessed with lush, full lips, and unfortunately this is a feature I haven't inherited. Although my lips aren't small, I suffer with a loss of colour around the lip line which leads to me having to fill them in with a natural coloured lip liner.
Because I was so happy with my brows, I went back to El Truchan Perfect Definition and explained I wanted my lip line to be more defined. During our first consultation I told El that I wanted a tinted lip without an obvious border, so she decided a full lip colour would be the best option for me. After looking at lots of examples El got to work drawing the shape onto my lips with a lip liner pencil. For anyone thinking of getting semi-permanent make up, my biggest piece of advice is to know exactly what you want before you book, and to not be afraid to make tweaks to the design before the needles come out. At the end of the day, this is your face, and during the time we've spent together El has taught me that a good semi-permanent make up artist wont mind you adjusting designs or colours as they want to get it right as much as you do. After playing with the shape, I was finally happy with a defined, pointed cupids bow. El explained that a lot of women go for the full lip colour in bright red shades to replace daily lip gloss or lipstick, however I wanted my lips to look natural. El skilfully blended light pink and brown pigments together to create a bespoke colour for my lips - it looked pretty dark when first applied, and I have to admit I was a little worried, but true to form El had got it spot on and once healed it was a perfect match to my skin tone.
Like my eyebrow treatment, El uses a technique similar to tattooing to apply the pigment. I'll be blunt, even with anaesthetic cream the treatment hurt. I was pleased I got my eyebrows done first as I knew what to expect, and after the initial outline of my lip was done the rest wasn't too painful. I had a few spots of sensitivity that made me wince a bit, such as my cupids bow, and this is when I really appreciated that I come back to El - she was very patient and must have used so much anaesthetic cream in to ensure I was comfortable. I always feel at ease around El, which is a huge relief as I'm a rather highly strung person and felt pretty nervous before my treatment.
After the treatment El explained my after-care instructions and made two balms for me to apply (one with added pigment for the day and a clear one for the evening) and stated that if my lips slightly swelled unevenly to not worry. For anyone booking in a lip treatment, I'd suggest you do it on a Friday evening or before a few days of annual leave. Your lips are super dark and plump after the treatment and become very dry and cracked the following day. The skin then peels, revealing fresh skin underneath, and then it's an agonising 6 week wait until you see the full results of your treatment (the fresh new skin reflects light, meaning the pigment underneath can't be seen until it's 100% healed).
As you can see from the below results my lips are now present in pictures! I visited El again 6 weeks after my initial treatment to get a top up of pigment, and I'm now fully healed and able to enjoy my lips for about a year before needing another top-up. I've even stopped applying lip-liner every-day, and now feel more confident to rock the no make-up look, which is perfect timing as we're just coming into spring. My only regret? That I didn't get this done years ago.
