4 Things to Know Before Becoming a Permanent Makeup Artist

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This time we’re gonna be talking about four things to know before becoming a PMU artist. 

Number one: make sure the school provides quality products. I wish I did more research about the kit provided to me when I first started. It may be good enough to serve your first twenty clients and it’s like “Oh, I can almost make my money back already.” What are these trainers really giving in the kit though? I learned this the hard way because I got the machine in my one week training and the machine itself was kinda hard to use. I learned that it’s not the best in the industry. After doing more research, I learned that the Zion S (not sponsored) is the best so far. It is made in the USA and you can autoclave this if you want. For me I always wrap it very cleanly. The needles I use are Vertix Nano (not sponsored). These are all officially licensed products and can be sold in the EU, which has stricter guidelines for PMU. What’s great about these needles is that it does not allow backflow. There is a membrane that prevents ink or bodily fluids from going into your machine. If bodily fluids penetrate your machine, it would be very difficult to clean. Not every machine is the same. You might be getting a machine that only costs $40 - $50 on Alibaba and -to be honest- that is not something you want to work on a client of yours that’s paid $300 or $500 or $1000 on their eyebrows. More importantly, it’s probably not the most hygienic thing to use as well. 

Number two: choose an artist with a lot of experience. A lot of artists do great work and when you see it on Instagram, usually the photos are taken immediately after. The immediately after photos look really good because Instagram is a platform where the visual picture means a lot. So of course, people photo edit their pictures. Not saying that they edit their actual work but everything else around it is probably really filtered. It looks really good to someone who is not experienced. What you want to look for is their healed results. It’s not their healed results after three months, it’s their healed work after 2 years, after 3 years, and so on and so forth. When you do research on a trainer that you want them to teach you, make sure that they know how their own work looks 2 - 3 years down the line. With that said, I really wish I knew that too so I knew to pick a trainer that’s been in the industry for quite some time. When the ink heals in the skin, it does change over time. It depends on how deep it went into the skin and also on the product line they used for the eyebrows. That’s why for some people’s eyebrows, they turn salmon, blue, or green. But you don’t actually initially see that for the first 3 months, you see it as time progresses. So when you choose a trainer, their brows should stand the test of time. Make sure they show you results one year from today, two years from today, three years from today. So do your research. 

Number 3: confirm support is offered after receiving your certificate. Something that’s very very important is the care that they provide to you after you’ve done your training. What kind of support are you getting from them after that? I’ve taken 10 - 15 courses, and a lot of times I felt like “Okay, my money was invested. Now I don’t know how to actually start or I need more support.” How do you know what color you should be choosing for a client or what technique is best to use when you’re not an expert on their skin. At this point, you need some help from your trainers. A lot of times, if you go to a really big academy, they’re so busy they’re not gonna get back in time. What if your client comes in two days from now and you need advice right away? The really busy schools are not going to give you that personal care and guide you on how to do a certain procedure. At least with my first year, I knew I needed the guidance and I really didn’t get a lot of that. So do your research and make sure you get so much aftercare support after you’re done with your actual course, which is usually about one week or three days. No training courses or academies that focus on permanent makeup has taught me how to market myself. That is something you need to look into. When I do one-on-one training with my students, I give them that. I give them that support on how to build an actual business from the ground up. 

Number 4: Don’t be sold by just the numbers. Once you get so excited, you’re ready to be like “Oh my god! I’m going to start something so new!” You do all this research, a lot of things come up where it says you’re gonna make so much money from this industry. If you really think about it, let’s say you are gonna charge $350 for a pair of brows and you do two procedures a day, that's $700. If you work a 5 day week, it would be $3500. In 48 weeks, that will be $168,000! A lot of schools sell you on how much money you’re going to make and how quickly you can make back the money you’ve invested. But to be honest, just by taking one course is not enough. It’s barely scratching the surface of permanent makeup. You need to be taking so many different courses, such as, a course on the anatomy of the skin and really understand when ink goes into the skin. How does it heal? Why does the ink stay there? Why does it disappear? Why does it change color over time? Those are all things that you need to know as an expert. Usually these 2 - 3 day courses don’t go into detail why it happens you need to know why it happens. Your client is gonna come back in 2 - 3 years and ask you questions if they don’t heal correctly. So yes, this industry is very lucrative if you really put in your work and passion. It does take money to make money because the courses you take are expensive. I think my first course for microblading was $4500, my second course for ombre was $5500, and then I’ve taken a gazillion other courses just on color theory and removal. I wanted to make sure that before I even started touching anybody’s skin that I needed to know how to remove it. Because what if I screw up someone’s face? So please be ethical when you start. Don't just think about “I need to make my money back or I need to make my investment back.” You will! As long as your work is based on integrity and very good skills that you’ve spent countless hours practicing. Please find yourself a trainer that will offer you support and offer you guidance and confidence to push you further and further so you can be great in this industry. 

This concludes my post! If you’d like to keep learning or have any questions, feel free to contact me! Follow me on instagram @EffortlessPMU and @Effortlessacademy.