All permanent makeup goes through several different stages as your skin heals.
It’s not uncommon for clients to get freaked out when one morning they wake to find their PMU is looking weird...or has gone MIA.
PMU = Permanent Makeup 😉
If your permanent lash enhancement or eyeliner becomes very light at some point during the healing process, this is a normal part of pigment settling & skin healing in 99% of the cases.
The permanent eyeliner healing process entails several stages:
Initially your PMU may look very dark
Next, a thin film will form over the PMU once the injured skin starts to heal.
As the flakes of epidermis detach, the pigment beneath will look
Over the next few weeks, the pigment will darken again. (**This takes longer for 50-90 year old clients than 20-40 year old clients as the skin cycle lengthens as we age)
Your personal timeline might be slightly different, & the saturation/color shifts may be more or less dramatic. Not everyone will flake if the skin has been worked with extreme care.
Two main reasons for the Milk Skin Phase/Ghosting Phase of permanent eyeliner:
Some of the pigment that is more superficial flakes away & new skin that closes up the punctures made with the needles looks very light.
After, and during, a PMU session, the skin oozes lymph fluid as a response to the injury to the skin. The lymph fluid combines with blood, & since pigments are also a liquid, they also combine.
When will it end?
Most clients say that their PMU looks the lightest around day 10.
From that point it will gradually darken back up, so it’s impossible to say exactly when the ghosting stage will end as it's a gradual process & depends a lot on age/immune system/healing of client.
The PMU will reveal the final results by day 40.
At this point you can have an accurate picture how the results have healed, and how much pigment you have retained. Now you can get your 6-8 week touch up.
Due to the skin of eyelids (and lips) being so thin, there is only much area for pigment to be implanted. It is not uncommon to lose 30% to 60% of the color on the first application.
Layering pigment in multiple session is preferred rather than overworking the skin. Only 3 passes are done to avoid excessive trauma to the skin.(overworking can also inhibit pigment from staying in the skin)
The PMU will appear softer when completely healed because the color will be seen through the layers of the skin.
At the touch up, any areas that healed lighter can be retouched & you can also go darker if you feel the healed results are too light.
***very very rarely a client will have retention problems. This can be due to a multitude of factors. We will assess this at the touchup appointment & make adjustments to improve retention**
