7 Things Microblading Artists Should Know – Q&A for Beginners

Top Microblading Q and A for Beginners

The PMU community is generally very supportive, but it’s important to know who to turn to if you have any questions – which you probably do have.

PMUHub is here to help. Here’s a list of things microblading artists should know that your course may not have covered.

1. How Do I Find My First Clients?

You’ve just spent several months practicing on props, you got your certificate, and you’re super excited to finally start working. But the problem is, you have no clients to work on!

A challenge many beginners face is having difficulty getting their first clients to book them, which is natural, since people feel reluctant to get tattooed by someone with little experience. So you’ll have to put some effort into it and use all resources available to get things going.

The best way to get your first clients is to do a few pairs of brows for free. Advertise this as a limited-time promo and post it in your local Facebook groups – this is a great pool of potential clients. Doing a couple of free microblading treatments will get you something more valuable than cash – before and after photos!

You’ll have examples of your work which you can post on your social media and actually show potential clients what you can do. It will definitely get easier from there.

You can find more suggestions here.

Image source: Freepik

2. How Much Should I Charge My First Clients?

Your course probably advertised microblading as a super lucrative profession that will earn you $600 per treatment and 6 figures a year. And this definitely can happen, but not immediately.

We’ve already mentioned that you should do your first couple of clients for free. This is probably not what you wanted to hear, but for many artists, especially for those who are trying to break into a market where there are many working artists, it’s often the only way to close those first few clients.

You don’t have to take this path, though, but your initial price can’t be what experienced artists in the area are charging. Be realistic and set a price you feel is fair, but take into account the fact that you are just starting out and people probably won’t be willing to pay the average microblading cost until you’ve gained some experience.

A good strategy is to book your first, say, 5 clients at $100, then your next 5 clients at $200, and increase your price gradually from there.

Here’s a more detailed article on how much you should charge your first clients with several strategies.

3. How Do I Take Great Before and After Photos?

Before and after photos are your most powerful advertising weapon and you should make sure your portfolio showcases your work in the best possible way, starting day 1.

Here’s what to pay special attention to:

• Make sure your photos are not blurry. Blurry before and afters look unprofessional and won’t gain potential clients’ trust.
• Lighting is everything. Don’t even think about taking before and afters without a ring light. An intense flash may work in some cases, as long as it doesn’t make the skin look greasy.
• Keep your before and after collages simple. Split the pic into 2 even halves and stick your logo in one of the corners. If there’s too much going on, your work won’t be able to stand out.
• You can retouch the pics a bit to edit out skin imperfections, but don’t go overboard. Here’s the best way to edit before and afters.

Image source: Instagram @saadetkarabulut_phibrows

4. Which Pigments Should I Buy?

Your course probably provided you with a starter kit that includes supplies for performing a couple of treatments. However, you may not be 100% satisfied with the quality of the pigments provided, or you feel they’re difficult to work with.

The thing some courses won’t reveal is that not all pigments are equally beginner-friendly, especially if they’re advertising a particular brand.

If you’re wondering which pigments to buy for working on your first clients, ask more experienced artists what they recommend. Many of them will suggest a not-so-highly pigmented formula that will fade consistently within the designated time – longevity shouldn’t be a top priority if you’re a beginner, as accidents can happen and your work may not turn out as perfectly as you’d hoped.

You should also research which pigments are true to color once healed and which fade without turning. Some pigment brands are known to heal and fade cooler than their pictures show, and while experienced artists know how to modify them and warm them up, it’s best to avoid this step until you get more comfortable with color theory in practice.

5. What Do I Do If My Client’s Brows Are Asymmetrical?

Here’s the thing – everybody’s brows are at least a little bit asymmetrical.

But you will encounter clients whose brows are visibly uneven and you will probably find them difficult to map. Here’s what you should know:

• Remember that brows are sisters, not twins, as artists like to say. They should be as similar as possible, but don’t strive to make them identical. If you create 2 identical arches, they may look unnatural.
• You will get clients who have 1 brow lower than the other. In those cases, thicken the lower brow a bit on top.
• Mapping and measuring techniques are great, but don’t use them blindly. Sometimes, you will have to adjust your mapping manually.
• If you get a client with severely asymmetrical brows and you feel anxious about tattooing them, it’s no shame referring them to a more experienced artist until you’ve gained more experience.

For more tips on giving your clients the perfect brow shape, check out this article.

Image source: Instagram @elsbeautyizmir

6. If I’m Doing Combo Brows, Should I Blade or Shade First?

This is a very common question beginner artists have. If you’re doing manual strokes and machine shading, you should do the blading first.

Blading entails doing a pigment mask to saturate the incisions. Machine shading requires you to open up a relatively large area. You shouldn’t do a pigment mask on top of skin that’s been opened up in that way – the shading won’t turn out good.

7. What Do I Do If Someone Has Visible Old Work?

Lately, with so many people having had a brow tattoo at some point in the past, artists get more and more clients who have visible residues and want their brows refreshed and redone.

Such corrections can be challenging.

First, you need to assess the state of the skin and whether it’s safe to microblade on. You also need to decide if the residues are light enough to work over, or they need to be removed. Then, you might have to do color correction, which is heavily based on color theory and it can be a challenge even for experienced artists.

The shape is another factor, and creating the perfect shape over previous work is often difficult.

Of course, you might get corrections that are super easy and you know you’ll do them right. But for more complex cases, perhaps it’s best to refer the client to a more experienced artist. Once you touch somebody else’s work, it becomes your own, and if you’re not 100% sure it’ll turn out right, it can do more damage than good.

Here’s an article on working over old microblading that you might find useful.

Image source: Instagram @jade_professionalglam