FADED PODCAST
Will My Brows Turn Red or Yellow After Getting Them Lasered?
Laser PMU Removal fears are real. You’re scrolling through before-and-after photos of permanent makeup removal, and suddenly you see it – someone’s microbladed eyebrows have turned bright red or yellow mid-removal. Now you’re wondering: is that going to happen to me?
At Studio Kiku, this is hands down our most frequently asked question. People email, call, and slide into our DMs asking the same thing. So let’s talk about why this happens and what you need to know.
Permanent makeup pigments aren’t what they seem
Here’s the thing about permanent makeup: what you see on the surface isn’t the whole story.
That nice brown or black pigment in your brows? It’s not actually just brown or black. Manufacturers mix in other colors – reds, yellows, sometimes even white- to create what they think will heal to a natural-looking tone.
They do this because pure black or brown pigments can turn ashy or bluish over time. So they add warm undertones to keep your brows looking natural as they age.
What happens when the laser hits
When we start your removal, we’re treating what we can see – usually the darker, surface pigments. These typically respond well to laser treatment and start lifting pretty quickly.
But as those dark layers disappear, guess what’s underneath? All those hidden undertones that were mixed into the original pigment.
The yellow problem
Yellow pigment is particularly stubborn. We’ve had success lifting some yellows, but others seem to laugh in the face of our laser.
We’re constantly talking with pigment manufacturers trying to understand why some yellows are so resistant, but honestly, there’s still some mystery to it.
Red undertones usually respond better than yellow, but they can still be tricky depending on the specific formulation.
Why we’re telling you this upfront
Because surprises suck, especially when they’re on your face.
We’d rather you know going in that your brows might look a little unhinged for a while than have you panic when it happens. This is normal. It doesn’t mean something went wrong.
Each eyebrow might react differently because the pigment wasn’t applied consistently. A test spot might not tell the whole story of what’s lurking in the rest of your brows.
If we hit stubborn yellows that won’t budge with a laser, we sometimes explore other options like saline removal. But that’s only if absolutely necessary.
The reality check
Some people end up with completely clean brows. Others might have faint undertones that remain. It’s not a failure of the process – it’s just how these pigments work.
The removal journey isn’t always straightforward, and it definitely isn’t always predictable.
Should you still do it?
That’s up to you. But at least now you know what might happen.
If you’re prepared for the possibility of seeing some interesting colors during the process, and you understand that complete removal isn’t guaranteed, then you can make an informed decision.
Just don’t expect it to be simple, quick, or predictable. Your eyebrows have been keeping secrets, and laser removal is about to reveal them all.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] : Will my brows turn red or yellow during the laser tattoo removal process? That’s the question we get every single day, all day long. Here at Studio Kiku, we specialize in tattoo removal and permanent makeup removal. Everybody who comes in to get permanent makeup removal is asking the same exact question.
[00:00:22] : We get it emailed every day. We get text messages, we get dms. Do you think my brows are gonna turn red?
[00:00:29] : Do you think they’re gonna turn yellow? if it does turn red or if it does turn yellow, will it be able to be removed? Let me walk you through the process so you can better understand exactly what’s gonna happen if you decide to get your permanent makeup lasered
[00:00:46] : okay, so first what I’m gonna talk about is the pigment. Permanent makeup pigment is not the same as regular tattoo pigment. every tattoo that you see that’s a black [00:01:00] tattoo on somebody’s body is most likely straight black pigment.
[00:01:06] : It’s a carbon based black pigment. There’s no undertones. There’s nothing like that. It’s just straight black. Permanent makeup pigment is not the same at all. What you see is not exactly what you’re getting For example, if you see some pigment that may be black or dark brown, that doesn’t mean that it’s straight black.
[00:01:29] : It most likely has an undertone in it. Undertones are put in the pigment by the manufacturer, so they heal warmer over time. Nobody wants an ashy or bluish looking eyebrow after a year or so. So the permit makeup pigment manufacturers decided that it would be a good idea to start adding undertones. So what did they do? They started putting reds in there.
[00:01:54] : They started putting yellows in there. Sometimes they put reds and yellows, and even sometimes [00:02:00] white. What we normally do when we see an eyebrow, if it’s dark, is we’ll treat what we see. If we see a dark eyebrow, we’re gonna treat the dark pigment with the wavelength that targets the dark.
[00:02:13] : Most of the time, the dark pigment lifts right away. And when it lifts, what happens is it will reveal what’s underneath. So if there’s an undertone in there that’s red or yellow, or a combination of the two, then when we remove the dark pigment, that red or yellow is gonna be revealed. Let me give you an example.
[00:02:34] : I’m gonna show you a picture of an eyebrow that was dark and once we lasered it for the first time. You see here it is a peach, like a red, yellow kind of looking color. Now that eyebrow on the left is what our client walked in with. It looks pretty dark. It looks like black or maybe a dark, dark brown. By [00:03:00] looking at it, you cannot tell that there’s any undertone in it, but the permanent makeup pigment.
[00:03:08] : Always has an undertone in it. And those undertones are there, like I said, to make sure that that pigment heals warm over time. Nobody wants a cool tone. Everybody wants warmth. So there you go. You have a dark eyebrow. And then once it was lasered and that dark was removed, it revealed what’s underneath.
[00:03:32] : Let me show you another example. Here we have on the left, our client walked in with a, that that eyebrow looks a little bit ashy, but it is dark. It looks almost black. And after we lasered it, I think it took a couple sessions to get rid of all of that dark, and it was left with this orangey color that is not red.
[00:03:55] : Definitely, and it’s not yellow. It’s a combination of the both. You [00:04:00] can still see that there are some dark pigment spots still left behind, but our client really wanted to get rid of that red ’cause it was hard to cover with makeup. So we started attacking the red. Now, once we hit that red, it came out very easily.
[00:04:16] : The red was gone within just one pass. But what was left behind, Is a yellow. Now that yellow looks like highlighter yellow. Look how, look how bright that is. It went from that orange, which is on the right hand side there, and it is now that yellow color yellow is very, very difficult to remove with the laser.
[00:04:43] : Sometimes we can remove it, sometimes we cannot. It’s we’re about 50 50 with that right now. We’re still trying to figure out exactly why some of that yellow will not lift, and we’re trying to figure out why some of the yellow will lift. We’ve been talking with [00:05:00] some pigment manufacturers about the specific ingredients that makes the yellow so resistant to the laser, but we still haven’t figured it out.
[00:05:08] : Exactly. What I can say though, is Most permanent makeup does have undertones in it. And as you can see, um, from here, it was once dark and now it’s orange, and then we’re stuck with the yellow Here.
[00:05:24] : Let me show you another example. Okay. On the left there, that’s what our client walked in with. And after several sessions, she was left with a yellow undertone. This yellow was not. Able to be removed with the laser. So we ended up doing saline removal, which got most of it out. Um, it didn’t remove all of it, but it removed most of it.
[00:05:50] : I never, ever recommend saline removal unless the laser is not working on the pigment. Next we have [00:06:00] another client who walked in. She only wanted the fronts of her brows removed, so the tails and the middle part were not touched. The only part that was lasered was the fronts. As you can see, after one session, the dark was lifted right away, which revealed this undertone. Now you can tell in that undertone it is not straight red.
[00:06:25] : That is red, mixed with some yellow and possibly some white, and that’s how you get a peach tone. When we targeted this pigment, which is that peach color, it did remove all of the red. But it left behind yellow. Okay. Let me give you another example of some brows that came in. At the top here, we see a very saturated, super saturated set of eyebrows. It looks like just a machine packing in the color. Uh, I don’t know how many [00:07:00] touch-ups were done, but that that’s like as saturated as it could possibly be. It took a few sessions. We were able to remove all of that dark.
[00:07:09] : And it left behind these warm undertones. Now, those warm undertones that you see, it’s not straight red and it’s not straight yellow. It’s a combination of the two probably mixed in there with a little white. We were able to lift the red and it left behind a little bit of yellow, which in the grand scheme of things compared to the brows at the top, it wasn’t the end of the world.
[00:07:33] : Now if you think about it, if you are looking to remove the dark pigment and remove most of it and go back in and add new brows, then it shouldn’t be an issue to cover that up. If, if. You’re doing it in the same shape. Now, if you’re trying to change the shape, that’s when you run into some, some issues because you’re needing to get it a hundred percent off if you’re gonna change [00:08:00] the shape of your brows.
[00:08:01] : Otherwise, you’re gonna be always covering your brows with makeup, and that’s not the goal here. The goal is ease. You wanna wake up, not have to put makeup on and walk out the door. That’s the reason why people get permanent makeup done most of the time. Otherwise, you could just pencil in your brows all the time.
[00:08:19] : But if you have undertones like that, that somehow are not able to be removed, and most of the time it’s the yellow that we can’t get rid of. If you can’t get rid of the yellow, then it’s gonna be very hard for you to change the shape of your brows with new tattoo. let’s take a look at this last one here.
[00:08:39] : Uh, looking at the picture on the left, you wouldn’t suspect that there’s this bright highlighter looking yellow pigment in there, but as I mentioned, most permanent makeup pigments have. Undertones in there, and the undertones are always warm, so it’s gonna be a red, it’s gonna be [00:09:00] a yellow, and a lot of times they put white in there to lighten it up a little bit.
[00:09:05] : In this case, we had a very. Bright yellow and the yellow was not, once again, was not able to be targeted with the laser. It didn’t really respond to the laser, and believe me, we turned the laser up very strong on this client. We actually went stronger than we normally feel comfortable with, with the wavelength that targets that specific color and.
[00:09:31] : It wouldn’t budge. So what we ended up doing once again was saline removal, and I do not recommend saline unless it’s your last chance. If there’s no other options. If laser is not working, then I do recommend maybe given, saline a try. But as you can see in those photos, like a lot of pigment. All of the permanent makeup pigment pretty much has undertones in it.
[00:09:59] : [00:10:00] And when you try to target the undertones, a lot of times it lifts right away and it’s gone and that’s great. But there are some cases when. The undertones cannot be removed and it’s most of the time, yellow. The other difficult pigment that we encounter is anything mixed with white. So a lot of times what they’ll do is they’ll make a brown, and in that brown they’ll add a little bit of white so they can kind of, uh, lighten it up a little bit.
[00:10:28] : A couple shades lighter. You’re adding some titanium dioxide in there It’s not possible to remove that, and if it’s mixed with the red, a lot of times when we target the red, if it has white in there, then the red and white will oxidize and it’ll actually turn darker again. So you have to be very careful when you’re planning on getting your eyebrows lasered because the pigment that you have in your brows may not respond the way that you’re thinking it will.
[00:10:59] : Now, why am I [00:11:00] telling you this? It doesn’t sound like I’m really selling the service too much now, does it? Um, I’m not trying to sell the service. When people come in here, the last thing I want to do is surprise somebody. I, I always want to make sure that everybody knows exactly what to expect before they dive into it.
[00:11:20] : I send people away all the time, or I talk people out of getting laser tattoo removal on their permanent makeup. All the time, and I have no problem doing that. I’d rather be honest with people and give them realistic expectations rather than take their money and have them be upset with us. that is not how we do it. Here at Studio Kiku, what we like to do is be completely transparent with everything that we do.
[00:11:48] : And when you walk outta here, you’re gonna know that we gave it to you straight. And that’s how we roll. Another thing. If you are wondering if your brows are gonna turn red or yellow, then there’s [00:12:00] really no way of knowing it until you laser it.
[00:12:03] : Unfortunately, eyebrows most of the time are not consistent all the way through. So you could laser the tail and you could see that there’s no undertones there. And when you go over towards the middle a little bit, you may find out that there’s different pigment there than there was on the tail. That happens so frequently.
[00:12:24] : So just keep in mind if you do decide that you want to come in and do a test spot, I’m not saying that we won’t do it. But it may not be an accurate indication of what your entire brow is.
[00:12:38] : Now that you know the scoop, hopefully you’ll be able to decide whether or not you want to take the plunge into lasering your permanent makeup. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you again.