Every week someone sits in my chair and says the same thing: I’ve been reading about this for months and I still don’t know which one I want.

That’s fair. The names don’t explain themselves, every studio describes them differently, and half of what’s online is written to sell the most expensive option. So here it is plainly, from someone who does all three.

The short answer

Your skin type narrows it down faster than anything else.

Oily skin doesn’t hold hair strokes. The strokes blur and soften as they heal, and within a year they read as a smudge instead of hairs. If your forehead runs oily, powder brows are your technique. That’s not a sales preference, it’s how the skin behaves.

Dry or normal skin can take any of the three. Then it comes down to the look you want.

Microblading: the most natural of the three

I cut fine strokes by hand that follow the direction your own brow grows. Healed, they read as individual hairs filling the gaps in your natural shape.

This is the technique for people who don’t fill their brows in. If you’ve worn brow powder daily for ten years, microblading will probably look bare to you. Not because it was done badly, but because your eye is calibrated to a stronger brow.

See the microblading service.

Powder brows: the makeup effect

Instead of strokes, I build soft shading, lighter at the front and deeper toward the tail. That gradient is what stops it from looking like a block of color.

It works on every skin type, it’s the most forgiving as it fades, and it’s the one that covers older permanent makeup, as long as the old work didn’t heal too dark. If it did, you need laser removal first, and I’d rather tell you that than build on top of it.

See the powder brows service.

Combination brows: the middle ground

Strokes at the front, shading through the tail. Almost everyone who books this came in asking about the other two and realized they wanted something between them.

You get definition where your brow is seen and softness where it should fade into your face. It suits dry, normal and combination skin, including an oily T-zone.

See the combination brows service.

Side by side

	Microblading	Powder Brows	Combination
Look	Natural hair strokes	Soft makeup shading	Both
Oily skin	No	Yes	Usually
If you wear brow makeup daily	Too subtle	Yes	Yes
Covers old work	No	Yes	Sometimes
Price	$450	$450	$480
Lasts	About 1 year	1 to 2 years	12 to 18 months

What matters more than the technique

Here’s the part almost nobody tells you: the technique matters less than the color.

Most artists buy their brown premixed. Different skin holds the components of that mix differently, and as the pigment fades, the wrong undertone surfaces. That’s why brows turn red, or gray, or a strange green a year later. It isn’t the technique failing. It’s a color that was never chosen for that skin.

I mix every color myself from primaries, after reading your undertone. It takes longer and it’s the reason my work fades into something softer rather than something you didn’t ask for.

When you’re comparing studios, ask whoever you’re considering how they choose your color. The answer tells you a lot.

Still not sure?

Come in. The consultation is free, it takes about half an hour, and you’re not committing to anything. I’ll look at your skin, map what each technique would do on your face, and tell you honestly which one I’d do on you, including if the answer is none of them yet.

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