@Tori Ponder-Brown I so wanted to try those before I retired! Love Teryn, I cried when I met her accidentally lol. But love her education on pigment!

@Sara Fine I was turned onto Monica Ivani from @alexpmuacademy (not sure if theres a punctuation mark in her handle somewhere, so might have misspelled it)... But after getting into pmu in 2016, and later on around 2018 started using pigments with carbon black in them, I wanted something without it. It was difficult going from 90% retention after 1st microblading session back to like 40% with an iron oxide, and took me maybe about a year and 75 more clients to get to roughly 60-80% retention after 1st treatment.. but to me well worth the sacrifice to not give my clients that solid grey block (which absolutely killed me inside when 3 years later I saw this across all my clients - when previously with the OG iron oxides (if anyone remembers the little glass jars with the black lids that everyone whitelabelled lol).. Oddly even though those pigments weren't very good, nearly all the clients I worked with from the brown shades actually had very very light, not terribly discoloured faded MB and was super easy to keep refreshing.. All in all.. after that larger brand microblading pigment with the carbon black, it was hard to trust any pigment line again, even after understanding the CI numbers.. I was only buying from lines that had been out for more than 4 years, and only if I could see "aged" results.. not just 1-3 years later. So that's why I went with Monica Ivani - they were recommended by someone I trusted, she could show me 2 year results, and I was able to find 4 year healed online. I couldnt find that kind of line anywhere else at the time.. Waiting for some of the new players to mature a little bit cause I'm always so curious about what gets the lowest risk of complication aged healing Hope something helps there even a little!

@Yipei Chen yes agreed! The long edge of a wooden pointed swab stick for brow mapping is what I'd use. I'd probably have to remove the numbing cream (thick layer) in two clean swipes.. Swipe, dump on tissue, swipe again. VS going over the mapping too many times would create smudging. Then I'd always press a clean paper towel on the brow area - just pressing, no running or wiping. That would get rid of the slick (mostly) so I could stretch with my gloves. But, I'd still be mindful of not touching the mapping while I did the first pass, which can be tricky sometimes, depending on bone structure, but all in all, love the long end of a wooden stick/swab method! Great tip @Tori Ponder-Brown

@Diana Gethers love this question - and I totally see where Ramona’s coming from too. I’ve tried managing separate pages before, and personally both ended up suffering a bit just because of the time and energy it takes to grow two audiences. I actually think it can look really beautiful to combine both if it’s done with intention - like letting each service shine visually while keeping one cohesive story behind it. I’ve seen some skincare + PMU combo pages that feel elevated and not cluttered at all. Sometimes it’s less about separating them and more about finding the balance - which service you want to highlight more right now or for a specific campaign period. Curious what your current setup looks like now?

https://www.instagram.com/melissacutler.ads/ @melissacutler.ads Thank you! 🫶