Review of microblading at the Contour Clinic, Whitchurch, Cardiff. With photos and lots of info on what to expect.

I wrote a couple of posts ages ago about growing my eyebrows back. Like a lot of women I totally plucked them out to a severe line back in the 90s. Check out the photos of my eyebrow crimes to humanity. It took a couple of years of growing back and my brows no longer resemble punctuation marks.

Now my eyebrows are crazy bushy apart from one irritating bald bit. It’s hella time consuming drawing on eyebrows. It’s one of those things that I can’t tell if I’ve done right. Like, the longer you look at your eyebrows the weirder they look. It would be nice to get to skip that step in the morning. And that thing were you touch your face and inadvertently wipe your eyebrow up your forehead. Not good.

I’ve been stalking various microblading artists in my area (Cardiff) for some time, then the Contour Clinic in Whitchurch contacted me and asked if I’d like to review their services. Hell yeah. I want permanently nice looking eyebrows.

The Contour Clinic Cardiff Microblading Review

Microblading is a semi permanent treatment. It’s most likely to need topping up yearly to keep it looking it’s best but can last longer than that. How well the pigment takes depends on the individual and how closely you follow the aftercare advice.

It’s done by scratching the upper surface of the skin with tiny blades made up of a row of pins and rubbing the pigment into the shallow cuts. Sounds like fun, right. I want to say that it’s not as bad as it sounds but it definitely stings.

The aforementioned row of pins-

The way it went on the day was this- I ran in sweating and panicking and trying to pretend to be normal, as per usual. Then I had a brow conference with the highly experienced business owner Jade. Conclusions were that my brows are full but undefined. They need filling in in places and defining to make a neat eye framing arch.

My old crazy brows-

The Contour Clinic Cardiff Microblading- The Procedure

First I had the numbing cream applied. I reckon it was on for 10 minutes which isn’t long enough, if you’re squeamish about pain it really should be on for an hour.

Then Jade mapped out where my brows should be by marking out my ideal brow dimensions with pencil. I checked it to make sure I was happy with the shape. Jade chose a shade to match my brow shade exactly.

Then she cleaned the area with alcohol and got to work. I needed quite a lot of plucking to neaten up the stray brows, which I was totally expecting.

The actual microblading was quite sore. It’s sort of a scratchy feeling, it feels like what it is really- being scratched with little pins. It’s not unbearable and doesn’t take long. It’s not as bad as a bikini wax for example.

The immediate results were fabulous- really sharp and neat hair strokes.

I was given some pretty strict aftercare instructions-

• Gently pad your new brows clean with damp cotton wool 2 hours after the procedure
• Don’t get your new brows wet for 2 weeks
• No excessive sweating or rigorous exercising for 2 days
• Don’t use makeup, exfoliants, moisturiser, sunscreen or retinol on your brows for two weeks and don’t use foundation on them for the foreseeable future
• Avoid touching and scratching
• Apply coconut oil a 2-3 times a day to keep the brows moisturised
• Don’t engage in heavy household cleaning where there may be airborne particles
• Avoid long hot showers, jacuzzis, swimming, saunas for 2 weeks
• Don’t drink excessive amounts of alcohol for 2 weeks
• No transportation in open air vehicles

I found it pretty challenging sticking to the instructions. Washing my face and hair was tricky and I love a nice run. But I was determined to get the best out my my microblading. At about day four the excess tint and scabs started to come away.

As the weeks went by the colour softened and looked more natural. I had a top up after about 6 weeks to sharpen up the shape.

I’ve been really happy with my microblading treatment. I no longer need to think about brow makeup in the morning. It’s easy to keep the shape tidy at home. My new arch is really flattering. I’m looking forward to getting them done again. I quite liked the fresh, incredibly sharp dark brows.

Here is the final topped up fully healed result compared with my original fully grown wild form

The Contour Clinic is open Monday to Friday and offers Saturday morning and Wednesday evening appointments. Microblading costs around £150, which is very competitive. They also run training days for professionals.

For more information on their services and microblading training head to The Contour Clinic.