Expert PMU Tips

How To Color Correct Brows

Take on more challenging cases and expand your offering by learning these top tips for color correction.

Before, after and healed color correction by Tiffany Chen.

One of the most important skills you'll need to acquire as a PMU artist is understanding eyebrow color correction.

You know the drill: a client calls you in a panicked tone. They’ve had their eyebrows tattooed elsewhere and now their eyebrows have faded to blue, grey, or red. They beg the question “can you fix them??”. The answer to this question is the difference between being fully-booked and, well… not fully-booked. As the PMU industry quickly grows, so does the likelihood of your potential clients needing color-correction experts to tend to their eyebrow correction needs.

By Tiffany Chen

We've partnered with Tiffany Chen, the master artist from Beauté Academy who is known for her incredible ombré brows and tried-and-true eyebrow color correction approach with proven healed results.

With clientele from around the world seeking her expert artwork, along with thousands of students requesting training for this technique, Tiffany, Mini and Laura, AKA Beauté Academy, created one of the most in-depth online Ombré Brows courses the PMU world has ever seen - Ombré Brows Online.

Why eyebrows can shift color over time

As we learned in our basic color theory, brown is a mix of red, blue/black and yellow. Depending on the quality and the formulation of your pigment brand, the lightfastness rating of the colors may not have been equally balanced which can leave behind those undesired dominant residual colors, like red, grey, blue
Clients with a warm skin undertone will pull the warm tone of a pigment more than a person with a cool undertone. If you use a warm pigment on a person with a warm undertone, the color will heal very warm compared to someone with a cool undertone.

Make sure you know the undertone of both your pigment and your client.

Remember that:

Warm skin undertone will heal warmer
Cool skin undertone will heal cooler

Understanding Complementary Colors

You can color-correct old tattoos that have turned blue, purple or red by understanding complementary colors.
As you can see from the color wheel, orange can offset blue. On the contrary, if you are trying to correct red brows, you need green to offset the red.

Color Correction Steps

You'll need to first ask yourself the following questions.

What color is the old tattoo?

Is it blue/grey or red/orange?

What is the complementary color of the old tattoo?

If the old tattoo is blue/grey, orange is the complementary color so you'll need to use an orange corrector to offset the old tattoo.
If the old tattoo is red/orange, green is the complementary color so you'll need to use a green corrector to offset the old tattoo.

What is the target color (the final end color you desire)?

If the old tattoo is cool and ashy, your target color/pigment should contain a warm undertone.
If the old tattoo is red and warm, your target color/pigment should contain a cool undertone.

Brows that have faded by 70% or more

Outline	Target Color
1st Pass (1 layer to open skin)	Corrector Color
2nd Pass (up to 3 layers)	Corrector Color
3rd Pass (up to 3 layers)	Target Color

Once brow mapping is done, outline the brow shape with the target pigment color choice (the one you would normally use).
Shade 3-4 layers using the desired corrector (Pumpkin or Olive).
As you shade more passes with the corrector, you will notice the old tattoo color is gradually being neutralized and turning browner.
Once the old tattoo has been neutralized to the desired level, finish the rest of the shading with the target pigment choice. Don't forget to apply duration numbing in between each pass.
You may need to repeat this process on the client's touch-up session if the old tattoo color is still visible.
If the old tattoo has been fully neutralized, you DO NOT need to use corrector pigment on the touch-up session.

Brows that have faded by 50%-70% or more

Outline	No need to brow map
1st Pass (1 layer to open skin)	Corrector Color
2nd Pass (up to 3 layers)	Corrector Color
3rd Pass (up to 3 layers)	Corrector Color

If the old tattoo is very dark and saturated, you may need to shade 5-6 layers using only the corrector pigment to offset the old color.
If this is the case, the initial appointment should be set for doing color correction only.
Do not outline the shape in this case. Only use the desired corrector to neutralize the old tattoo.
Clients may need 2-3 touch-up sessions to completely correct and neutralize the old tattoo.
Once the old tattoo has been neutralized to the desired level, you can add the target color.

Remember, our job is to cover the old tattoo using a corrector pigment. It DOES NOT remove the old tattoo. You can cover old tattoos as long as they have faded by 50% or more. Do not try to cover up old tattoos that are very dark and saturated.