Show Notes
This Faded Podcast episode addresses why permanent makeup eyebrows turn yellow after laser removal and explores the available solutions.
Billy explains that dark pigment is removed using the 1064 wavelength laser, which often reveals underlying undertones — red, yellow, or white. Red tones respond well to the 532 wavelength, but yellow pigment is highly resistant. Aggressive treatment risks oxidizing yellow pigment and darkening it further.
Three Options for Persistent Yellow Brows
1. Cover with makeup indefinitely.
2. Re-tattoo brows in the same shape to conceal yellow areas.
3. Attempt saline removal, though results are unpredictable and carry scarring risk if performed improperly.
Saline removal requires an experienced practitioner and offers no guarantees.
Transcript Highlights
"Welcome back to The Faded podcast. Today we're gonna talk about the dreaded yellow eyebrows." — Billy DeCola (00:00)
_Note: Full verbatim transcript available on the source page; should be re-extracted for SEO completeness._
Full Transcript
Welcome back to The Faded podcast. Today we’re gonna talk about the dreaded yellow eyebrows. And you’re probably here because one of two reasons. One, you’re either thinking about getting your eyebrows lasered and you’re wondering if your brows are gonna turn yellow and what you’re gonna do if they do turn yellow or two, you’ve already had your eyebrows lasered and they are yellow. So either way, let’s talk about the options that you have when your eyebrows are yellow. Okay? So first, let’s talk about why your eyebrows turn yellow and why the laser can’t remove the yellow. Okay, the eyebrows turn yellow. They’re actually not turning yellow. What’s happening is. Um, we’re lasering the pigment that we see. So when you first come in, you’re gonna have a dark pigment, most likely, like a dark brown. Sometimes clients even come in and it looks sort of black. And what we do is we target that pigment, whichever pigment we see. So we use a certain wavelength that targets dark pigment, which is the 10 64 wavelength. We target that pigment and it usually lifts right away. Within one or two sessions, most of the dark is usually gone. But what happens is when that pigment is lifted, it reveals what’s underneath. So underneath of the dark is usually some sort of red, some sort of yellow, and maybe some white that’s mixed in there. We’re able to remove the dark most of the time with no problem whatsoever, and then we’re stuck with an undertone, whether the undertone is red, yellow, white. We will target that in the very next session. We space the sessions out a couple months apart and we’ll target the undertone. So if it’s a red, most of the time, the red lifts right away. It’s a pretty easy color to remove with the pico away using the 5 32 wavelength. But what happens when the red is removed? A lot of times people look in the mirror right away and they’re like, oh, wow, it’s gone. It’s all the pigment’s gone. But most of the time when the red is lifted, the brows are a little bit irritated from the laser itself and the skin is red. And when the skin becomes red and irritated, it will usually mask whatever is underneath there. Like a yellow is very easy to mask with a little bit of skin irritation. So you walk outta here, you think everything is great, and when the irritation subsides, that’s when you start realizing that there’s yellow, a yellow undertone. And when that yellow is present, it’s very hard to cover up with makeup. From what I hear, and people just don’t like the look of yellow, it’s very bright. It catches your eye, especially in certain types of light like sunlight or in the bathroom, you’ll really see that yellow. And unfortunately, although the manufacturers of all lasers say that the 5 32 wavelength will target sunset colors, which includes reds, orange, peach. In yellow, we find that most yellows are resistant to the laser. And what ends up happening is if you try to treat the yellow too aggressively, it will actually oxidize and turn dark. So we never try to approach yellow aggressively. We always try to just break it up gently and hopefully over time it will fade. But that doesn’t always happen. It may not fade. And if the yellow is not fading, what are your options? What can you do? Well, let’s talk about ’em. Number one, you can live with it and you can cover it up with makeup all the time, and you’re gonna be on the hook for most likely the rest of your life. ’cause that yellow is not going anywhere. Most people don’t want that option, so they’ll think about some other options. Number two. You can get your brows redone, but if you get your brows redone, you’re gonna have to go with the same shape, because if you try to change the shape, then you’re gonna see the yellow poking through, whether it’s top or bottom, wherever, uh, you don’t want to have you yellow peeking through, then you’re still gonna have to put makeup on and conceal that Anyway. So getting your brows done is a possibility, but you should get it done in the same shape that you had your previous browse. That’s usually not ideal either. The next option would be you can give saline removal a try. So what is saline removal? Well, basically what you do is you take a tattoo needle and you dip it in saline and you tattoo it into the skin and your body pushes that saline out, and hopefully the saline binds to the pigment and grabs that pigment and pushes it out with the saline. Um, I’ve seen it work and I’ve seen it not work. There are mixed cases. I can’t really put a finger on why some cases are successful and other cases aren’t, but that’s what happens. It’s very important if you do get saline removal to think about the person who’s doing it, because not all saline removal is the same. You can go to somebody who is gonna. Really dig a hole in your skin and that could leave scar tissue, it could damage your hair follicles, or you can go to somebody who doesn’t apply it quite aggressively enough and you get no result at all. So you gotta kind of find somebody who has experience, whether it’s somebody who’s been tattooing for years, or somebody who’s been doing saline. And has some before and afters that they can show you, but uh, you don’t just want to go to anybody and get saline because it’s number one, it’s not guaranteed. And number two, it’s not always safe if it’s done incorrectly. You could walk away with some sort of scar tissue and you may not even get the pigment out also. So you can have a scar and the pigment. Which is definitely not ideal. Number one, you can keep that pigment and cover it up with makeup for the rest of your life. Number two, you can tattoo over your brows in the same shape that you had before. Or number three, you can try saline removal to try to break up that pigment and hopefully fade a little bit. So those are your options with yellow permanent makeup that just doesn’t wanna seem to come out with the laser. And if you’ve had an experience where you were able to get rid of the yellow pigment, I would love to hear about it in the comments. So if you found this episode helpful, if you were wondering what would happen to your yellow brows, or if your brows were gonna turn yellow. Then please like and share and subscribe, and leave a comment and let us know what your experience has been with the removal process of your brows, and if you had laser done and it wasn’t successful, or if the yellow came out with your laser, I would love to know how you got the yellow out, and I would love to know what your experience was. Thanks again for watching The Faded podcast, and we’ll catch you again next time.