The Craziest Thing I did in 2015

I’ve done a lot of new things this year, but the craziest thing I’ve done was… *dun dun duuuuuun*

Here’s the story…

Anyone that has known me since college knows that I’ve always wanted to tattoo my eyebrows. After years and years of over plucking in 7th – 12th grade, my natural brows were pretty terrible and required lots of daily penciling in to correct the shape… which was really annoying. So once I was in the land of beauty for work (Los Angeles, CA), I was finally able to find a place that did the hair-stroke technique that I liked WITH vegetable ink. This was a win-win for me because not only would my eyebrows look natural, but I would also not be stuck with the tattoo for life (the vegetable ink allows the tattoo to only last 10-12 months)!

So back in January I got my brows done at Temptress Cosmetics. It’s a cute little spa located about 30 minutes outside of LA in El Segundo, CA. My friend’s boss had hers done first by a tattoo artist name Melissa at Temptress and they turned out great so I decided to go to her too! Before we started, Melissa and I discussed the procedure and shape while a numbing cream was applied for 20 minutes. Once that was finished we penciled in my desired shape, then got started. Brow one came out great and we went on to the next one (the problem brow by nature). It ended up taking longer than expected (2 hours total), and she kept having to look at my face from a distance to figure out how to correct it. At this point I started to freak inside but I told myself to let her do her job – most of the time I am THAT customer that tells people how to do their job (#Virgoproblems). After some tweaks and a wax she was finally done and let me look….I IMMEDIATELY PANICKED AND REGRETTED MY DECISION! They were so bold, the strokes were super wide, and the density and shapes were not what we drew in. My trust was lost and I was too scared to have her keep correcting them so we agreed to leave additional corrections for the complimentary touch up (where most of the corrections are usually made anyways). I was so stressed and embarrassed that I worked remotely from home the next day. I didn’t want ANYONE to see me.

5 days later they were significantly lighter… and then two weeks later they looked like a natural brow (phew)! During the touch up appointment I told her what I did and didn’t like, and she made some adjustments. 2 hours later there were a few things that I still didn’t like as far as the shape but I figured this is probably as good as it’s going to get and gave up pressing symmetry (Melissa lives by the “sisters not twins” rule).

Overall my experience was a little more stressful than I thought it would be. I feel that I had to direct her a lot, but she did a pretty good job at making them look natural. I would definitely do it again… but maybe with another artist there that can get the shape right (I still correct the shape everyday)! 🙂

Some tips if you decide to go there:

• Parking is available but the area is busy so come a little early
• Ask to see a portfolio book for each artist before deciding who to go to – the current site/yelp/facebook page looks like all the work is done by the same artist (slightly misleading)
• Get your brows perfected a couple days before/don’t rely solely on the artist to be able to visualize the perfect arch for your face
• Don’t be afraid to ask to peek here and there
• Maybe bring a picture of your “ideal tattooed brow” to help communicate the look you are going for if you do not have a good brow shape already
• Don’t schedule anything important for at least a week… you will look cray for a few days
• Remember, the more oily your skin is, the more the ink will spread. Ask for super fine hair-strokes!!

Here are some more pics!

I’m way past due for a clean up around the tattoo… but this is what my brows look like today (without makeup added):

Whats the craziest thing you’ve done this year?