The past two years of staying home have been disastrous to my eyebrows. They’ve been an unkempt mess for the longest time because I don’t even have the time to shape them with my tweezers. It’s always difficult for me to figure out the arch they are supposed to have and if I don’t find the time to regularly shape them, I lose touch with how I am supposed to look with properly defined brows.

I’ve heard a little about eyebrow embroidery and read many good reviews from fellow mom bloggers about their eyebrow embroidery experience at Browtisan here, here, here and here, so when I received an invitation to experience eyebrow embroidery for myself, I was pretty stoked. Ok, truth be told, I was half stoked and half hesitant. I needed to know what exactly is “embroidery” for the eyebrows in beautyspeak, what I would be in for, and what it could do for me to help de-auntify myself (read about my quest to do that this year here).

Eyebrow embroidery is an aesthetic cosmetic procedure of adding coloured pigment to the skin by filling in empty spots on your brows to give them a fuller and more flawless look. Using pigment matched to the actual brow colour, eyebrow embroidery produces a semi-permanent, natural look as the eyebrow hairline stroke is done by a professional stroke by stroke with precision and care. It is NOT a tattoo procedure (which is permanent, by the way) in which ink pentrates deep into the dermis. Eyebrow embroidery introduces pigment to the epidermis – the superficial layer of the skin – with minimal intrusion.

I was also told that at Browtisan, I would be in the good hands of Coco, Browtisan’s Chief Creative Officer, who has over two decades of experience in the brow and grooming industry. She also recently sat on the Annual Asia Panel of Experts for Asia Art of Eyebrow Embroidery Competition, and appointed Chairman of the Singapore (Regional Asia) 2014 Annual Asia Panel of Experts for Asia Art of Eyebrow Embroidery.

I was impressed, but nonetheless still hesitant. Afterall, it was a semi-permanent procedure which would last 2-3 years. I decided to bring my questions personally to Coco. I needed her to allay my fears and clarify my doubts, which include:

1) Will I end up looking perpetually shocked, fierce or like Crayon Shinchan?

2) Will this help make my grooming routine of tweezing my brows easier or more difficult?

3) Will I feel pain?

4) Will I regret? Can she reverse everything if I did? (Someone did tell me it is reversible, but I needed to check!)

When I arrived at Browtisan, I was immediately introduced to Coco who wasted no time in scrutinising my face and my brows. I probably would never know this if I didn’t step foot into Browtisan – but I found out I had a perpetually arched right brow because of a slightly bigger brow ridge, and that I had always had a little “hole” on my left and brows will likely not grow there anymore.

After applying some numbing cream and letting it numb the area around the eyebrows, Coco started working on tweezing away the strays and finding a natural shape of brows for my face. She also took the time to take the questions I was ceaselessly fielding and kept assuring me that it would look very natural.

Basically, she answered Questions 1 -3 (more on whether I would regret later!) by doing just ONE thing: tirelessly assuring me that the shape she was designing for me was going to follow the most natural arch for my face as much as possible.

In other words, this was what she was going to do: define my brows to make it full (there were too many gaps) and lower the right arch created by the bigger brow ridge to create balance for both sides. And she says that when the entire process is done, all I have to do is to tweeze away the strays by following the shape she’s created. It’s going to make life soooo easy!

All that she subsequently explained could be summed up in three words: painless, effortless, natural. Once again, she assured me that the whole process was going to be painless; it’s not going to take any effort on my part (so I just need to relax); and I that I needed to trust that she will give me a look that is as natural as possible.

Convinced at last, I let her get to work after I ok-ed the eyebrow design…

At last, eyebrow embroidery COMPLETED!

So I started asking, why is it so thick? so brown? so full? so erm… unnatural? And I was told that it will all be OK after 5 days. I did like this “new” look actually, but I figured I needed to be putting on makeup when I headed out those 5 days. If not, I might actually look very fierce.

Before I left I was given a serum to apply daily for 5 days, and some 3M Tegaderm Film to protect my eyebrows from water.

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My brows DID really start looking more and more natural as days passed but I have to say the 5 days that they were not allowed any contact with water was a bit of a hassle. I take at least two baths a day, and had to go to a pharmacy to hunt for more 3M Tegaderm films to cover those brows for those 5 days. But this senseless grumble aside, the incovenience was totally worth it. The entire experience at Browtisan and the result after 5 days was, well, let’s just say I am not regretting anything at all (Question 4 answered).

The above pictures were taken with as natural a lighting as possible, and not edited.

And this was the 6th day. And I was feeling all too happy to finally not have to tape my brows up when I shower!

And here are the brows again, at Week 3, taken just yesterday!

I’m really liking the fact that the brows are now fuller and cleanly defined. I like it too that my eyebrows now frame my face instead of just being a shabby patch of mess before they were embroidered. It’s like, before Browtisan, they just existed. Now, after Browtisan, they’ve come alive and are making me look a lot more well-groomed than I used to look.

First step in de-auntifying self: SUCCESS!

Thank you, Coco and Browtisan, for demonstrating your artistry on my face!

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More details:

Browtisan is the latest Clinical Standard Brow Salon located at Delphi Orchard (402 Orchard Road #03-17, Singapore 238876). It specialises in painless, non-invasive, highly-customised Creative Eyebrow Embroidery. Other services include eyebrow shaping and design, eyeliner definition, lips embroidery, eyelash enhancement, eyelash perming and facial treatments.

The price for Eyebrow Embroidery starts from SGD1380.

And here’s a discount code just for Motherkao readers:

Quote [Motherkao blog] or [Elizabeth from Motherkao] to enjoy a 10% discount off Creative Eyebrow Embroidery at Browtisan. Valid till June 2015.

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P/S: I had my eyelashes extended too, but more on it in another post!

Disclosure: Motherkao received a sponsored Eyebrow Embroidery Session at Browtisan for the purpose of this review, thanks to an invitation of AT Marketing Consultancy. The opinions here are in no way representative of Browtisan, and are solely mine.