Lesson 2 – Technique, Aftercare, Anesthetic.

• About technique

• The machine method:

If to speak in general

• All contour lines should be done with a 1rl needle and with the contour line.
• All dense filling should be done with 3rl-5rl needles with circular movements  (sometimes in complex cases 7-9 rl needles with dots technique without any strokes).
• All shading elements should be done with a 1rl needle with stroke or pendulum movements.
• All gradients from dense to transparent parts can be done with 3rl needle with stroke movements or with many passes with 1rl needle using stroke movements also.

In order to make all work with 1rl, we usually use machine Giant Sun with acupuncture needle because it is a very precise machine and less traumatic needle

If you want to make a very dense filling with machine method you can use Giant Sun also but you should change needle from acupuncture one to 3-9 pins needle because you can't make dense shading with 1pin needle.

Of course, in order to do a very thick filling, you can use module machines and rotary tattoo machines with many pins needles also with slow circular movements. In order to do more transparent color, you should do shading with stroke movements (with 1-3rl needles).

Everybody is always asking if you really need to use different needles in one procedure and if you can use one needle during all procedures, say 1rl. No, you can’t use 1rl for all work with eyes because eyelashes enhancement, eyeliner and dense part of shadows can’t be done with this needle. It leaves too transparent filling.

But if you want to use 3rl, you can use it during all the procedures because 3rl is a good needle for most parts of the eyes PMU, but for the thinnest tail of liner, you should use it sideways because 3rl gives big pixel and tail of eyeliner can heal little bit thick. So if you turn it 30-45 decrees to skin surface you can touch skin with one needle only and it can give you a thinner point.

• Manual method:

We like to use hand methods for all types of dense filling and shading. For this goal you can use different needles:

-You can use slopped blade 18 pins*2 rows.

-You can use different slopped and curved blades 11*2-21*2, you can try 3 rows too.

-You can do this procedure with the needle from Dragonfly 11m2 (m1 is not good, coz pins are too far from each other). Unfortunately, they are not sloped.

- You can use round Dragonfly needles as so 8rs or even 18rs. Unfortunately, they have not sloped also.

- You can use these Chinese round needles with red handle 7pins - 21pins. They are nice too. Unfortunately, they are not sloped too.

-But the best needle is 8ct by Softap (it's round one with fine needles little bit separated as a shader and sloped 45 degrees). Softap has got a lot of different needles too: round ones and one and many rows sloped blades. You can learn them.

• What is important when you choose the needle for hand (manual) method:

☝As more needles, you have in brush-needle than less pressure every needle makes on the skin the more superficially it lay the pigment. So you should choose not too many pin needles, very sharp needles, a little bit but not too much-separated pins, better sloped 45 degrees so you can touch skin with all pins equally at the same moment.

So the best needle for filling of eyeliner, eyelash enchantment and shadows are 8 round Softap needle. You can also buy some flat needle for lines as 14 flat needles. If you use both of them you should not even turn on your machine.

I’ll tell you how to do our most popular variants of eyes PMU: shadows with little tail (1st rate in all eyes PMU), then eyelash enhancement (coloring between lashes) with little tail with a soft upper edge (2nd rate). Some clients can still keep asking for eyeliner (3d rating).

For the 1st and 2nd variant we use Softap 8ct needle (round slopped one) + Giant Sun with acupuncture needle for the bottom line of the tail. For 3d variant, I can use Giantsun with a 3rl needle for filling of eyeliner and acupuncture needle for contour. As for pigments we usually use 6th Sense pigments #1 or #3.2 + Softap 090 or 331 for normal skin. For thick "rubbery" skin I usually use 6th sense #1 or #3.2 + tattoo mix black + red (or black+ orange).

Actually it is very easy to do perfect soft-looking PMU (1st-2nd variant).

• 1st step - make the tail of eye with 1rl needle

• 2nd step - fill the eyelashes area

• 3d step - add a fluffy edge (shadow)  ---- you can stop here for eyelash enhancement and go further for shadows

• 4d step - increase the density of existing shadow and make fluffy edge higher

• 5th step -  increase the density of shadow and make fluffy edge much higher  

That’s it. Work is done.

Some videos on how to use Softap method for brows and can show you it before work on real skin.

And now more videos about different techniques. I will ask you to watch them properly. Most of them were done by me and one is done by our colleague from Moscow, the official representer of Softap in Russia.

Please note that we should work with closed eyes, but we turn out the eyelashes area not opening eyes. So, of course, you can achieve good results in this area without any problems.

As for drawing video, we did it several times, but it is not demonstrative and not informative. Schemes and photos are much more informative. For example like the next one. You'll see the sketch of eyeliner with contrast white line around which helps to see edges of the sketch if even sketch will become blurry because of anesthetic.

If to talk about manual method. It is an absolutely irreplaceable method. So If you were not thought with this method. Let's look at it closely. All you should do to use it is put the needle on the surface of the skin and press it down and ahead then lift it out a little bit having clung the skin. You should hear this clicking or clanking sound. So if to see this movement it reminds you of the circle with little diameter.

These are some photos from my study materials from the Softap course.

As for links where to buy some needles, I can say that all types of blades, all types of round Chinese manual needles and all the tattoo needles can be bought on aliexpress. Softap needles should be bought only from the official distributor, just look the official site of this company http://www.softaps.com/

I use only 8ct. It is the best needle. Actually we order only them for our studio having tried all of them.

As for their pigments, they are good also.

Let's go further. You could see in one of the videos that you can use a special device to check the density of PMU you made. Actually you can buy any laser pointer with a red light. Not different color, only red please. And please turn it on and put it on the surface of the skin near the tattooed area and try to light as if under the pigment. Such way you will see the quality of done work.

Let’s talk about anesthetic.  

This is a very important topic because incorrect work with anesthetic can cost you too much. Why? Because it is a very aggressive substance and can coz the burn of the cornea if anesthetic cream will penetrate into the eye.

In order to avoid such a mistake, we try to guard the eye before the procedure. First of all starting the procedure we put protective panthenol containing gel (Corneregel) into the eye. http://corneregel.ru/mobile

Then we dry the eyelid surface dry with cotton disk and pronounce that it is forbidden to open eyes for any reason. Then put Eye anesthetic on the surface of eyelid maximally close to eyelashes bout not too far (it not to go inside of eyes). Better to use a toothpick for this goal.

http://lightdep.ru/eye-anesthetic-cream-10-gr

This anesthetic contains  5% lidocaine, 5% prilocaine, 3% benzocaine.

We wait for 15 minutes and take it accurately with a wet sponge or cotton bud.

The main thing is to prevent penetration of cream inside because it can become a reason for corneal burns. If cream went into eye you should immediately wash the eye with distilled water or liquid for eye lens.

We use only Eye anesthetic cream for eyes because most parts of anesthetics are too aggressive. You can use Emla cream but it seems to be much weaker.

What to do if corneal burn happened? And how you will know about this? According to all feedbacks of different masters clients usually, call some hours later after the procedure and say that they feel burning pain, that eyes are red and swollen. What to do in such a situation? There is only one way to react: support the client as much as you can and send him or her to an ophthalmologist doctor. You should estimate how to react from a financial point of view because sometimes such cases are clients’ fault. They simply open their eyes, if you leave the procedure room for a little they can go to the toilet or start calling to mum, husband, children and so on. Whatever clients do this is your responsibility to be near them and look after them like you are a teacher in kindergarten. Because if something happens it becomes your problem in any case.

What will doctors' treatment look like?  The doctors usually prescribe antibiotic cream, antihistamine cream, and pills + regenerative creams like Corneregel.  I just tell you this you to know about this treatment but if even the medicine prescription by not doctors is not forbidden in your country please send your client to doctor and don’t advise him or hear anything.

• Now about aftercare for eyes PMU procedures:

The aftercare can be different for different masters. As for our school, we usually advise putting protective panthenol containing gel - Corneregel into eyes not only before the procedure but even after the procedure. Panthenol will calm the eye irritation down and the client will go home without red-eyes effect.  In addition, we advise rubbing the area of eyeliner with hydrocortisone cream right after the procedure. I always say to a client if she is afraid of some swelling she can use this cream herself a couple of times on next day after the procedure. For a very worrying client, we recommend taking the antihistamine pill right after the procedure and on the next day after the procedure. On the third day, the client should use Vaseline oil when she or he feels the tension of scab. This care should be continued until scabs go away. I don't recommend any washing because eyelids are so sensitive after the procedure that if I even recommend washing nobody really will do it.  Many clients confessed that they preferred not to touch eyes during the first days at all.

And of course, we ask the client not to tear scabs away, not to make them wet, not to go to swimming pool, sauna, solarium, not to put eyelash mascara and eyeliner cosmetics. Everything is forbidden until the scabs go away. The solarium is forbidden for 2 weeks after the procedure to avoid post-traumatic pigmentation and fading down of the pigment.

• Now more videos

I could accidentally repeat some videos if you find alike ones please ignore copies.

I will add while I remember about laser pen, I know that some masters use special  Nurse laser Pen:

I did not try but our students gave good recommendations about it.

As for eyeliners, I can say that I have a lot of clients which are judges, heads of tax o police departments, directors of big enterprises TV anchorwomen, Top-models and so on. All these people have high status, they want to have an absolutely respectable look.  So all want to have only shadows and nothing more.

So for 100 clients, I have no more than 1 who wants solid eyeliner. It is difficult to write the favorite colors for eyeliner. But as for shadows, I like

1) Dynamic Black with little bit orange (3 drops of Black: 1drop of Orange) with 4-5 drops of 6th sense #1 for eyelash enhancement and dense part of shadows and light part of shadows. I just change the density old PMU with the same mix.

2) Sometimes I do shading with 1st mix but I make lighter shading with 3 drops of Black: 2-3drops of Orange with 4-6 drops of 6th sense #3.2

3) Sometimes I make a dense part with 1st mix and olive shadows with Olive pigment by Intenze (if the girl is enough brave I can use 4 drops of Olive by Intenze and 0.5 drops of Dark green by Intenze, you'll have more green color after healing).

4) Sometimes I use the 1st mix for the dense part and 333Tempting Teal Softap for shading (if the skin is complex I can drop there Midnight green by Intenze).

As for depth I already told that we should work not deeper than 0.5 mm.

I added Will's Olive by Intenze because it is very good color to make a beginning (inner eye corner) of colorful shadows

We have a lot of clients with bright green eyes. This is why green is very popular here. It will heal as olive color and it looks very natural and matches such girls a lot. Sometimes we have requests for blue shadows and purple shadows. But they are more decorative and less natural than green ones. Once I made light blue eyelash enhancement. Unfortunately, our women love darker variants of eyelash area. But the blue eyelash area makes blue eyes much bigger and much bluer. You can use Periwinkle Intenze for this goal...

Ahh, I didn't mention some brown shadows because it is not so decorative like green, blue and purple. We always do different natural variants of shadows:  

completely black,

black-brown,

completely brown,

dark brown- light brown,

completely ashy,

dark ash-hazelnut and so on...depends on the appearance and style of the person. But of course, you should remember that all heals much paler and if you have a bright beautiful girl as a client better make brighter contrast and noticeable difference between colors of shadows area and lash area.

The most transparent part of shadows and the area where eyelashes growth will fade down first. The area right above lashes will keep pigment longer than other places. But the exact time depends on the skin. We say to come in one year anyway. Never promise anything longer than 1 year because we have no idea how this exact skin works. But between us here I can say that it can be ok even for some years. Because eyes skin is very thin and dry and holds pigment longer than the skin of other different areas on the body.

You can use Dynamic, Fantasia, Enternal, Mom, Starbrite and so on. All of them are good quality tattoo inks. But look some alike colors yourself please because I can't translate our receipts from "Intenze language" to say "Mom language".

The main principle is using dark bright colors laid transparently. Don't take light colors because they contain a lot of white in the composition. If you put white containing pigments they turn into white in some time. So if you look at our favorite Intenze palette you can choose Dark purple, just dissolve it and put quite transparently and you will get nice shadows.

We can consider the principle of making colorfully eye shadows. And I will show you the procedure, done with Dragonfly machine, 1rl, 3rl precision needles and manual method with 7pin and 21pin needles. Skin will be very complex so you can see everything that you can do with eyes 🙂

I will use pigments: Dynamic Black 2drops+ Orange 2drops+ 6th sense #1 - 4 drops for basic color and Intenze Olive 4drops + Dark green 0.5 drops for green nuance on top of dark shading.

The scheme is about this:

Now I will share the video of the procedure of making shadows. The link for all playlist

And the typical questions about this technique:
what is about the technique that allowed working on the skin over and over again?
***Light superficial shading with 1rl Precision needle (very thin triangle sharpening ). You can make fast long movements and don't damage skin too much even with many passes.
Also, I observed that the client didn't complain at all about pain in her eyes, it was due to the anesthetic that Ana's showed us in this class?
***Yes it was because of Eye anesthetic, in addition, I used TKTX but you should not do like me. Both of them also contain adrenaline what prevents edema.
🔸In my observation also, once you realized that the skin was not taking the pigment, then you switch for the Manual technique...
* Yes, correct. The manual method is the best for complex cases. And in addition, I will never put the lash area with the machine method if even skin is ok during the procedure because I know the difference after healing. The manual method leaves twice more than the machine method, especially in the lash area.
Then after a while, you returned to the Machine again why? If you knew that the skin was hard to implant pigment by MACHINE.
* If you noticed I worked with the machine in two cases: 1- I needed to have very thin shading 2- I needed to get a perfectly accurate line. This is why I took the machine again: to put fine shadows or to improve the line. You can't be perfect with fine shading with the manual method. Of course, you can do shading but it has a chance to be a little bit discrete but if you have a goal to make perfectly fine and transparent shadows you should use the machine but you need to use such pigment what will heal perfectly in any case. As I wrote I used Dynamic and Intenze. They are tattoo pigments. I would never work like this with PMU pigments. They are really useless for such fine works and will never heal quite visibly.
As for the perfect line and very precise details, you can use the manual technique, but you will have to change the needle because you can't make perfect lines with round 21-pin-needle. It is very clumsy. You will see when you try to repeat this work you will automatically take machine or little flat softap needle (about 5-7pins or it will be clumsy again to do curved line).
🔸 Why you decide to use the Machine with the GREEN Pigment and then go back to Machine and again, go back to the Manual Technique?
***As I said I took the machine back when I needed to get fine fluffy shading. The closer to eyelashes area the denser color I had to put the less risk to get the spotty result the more confidently I can use the manual method. This is why the higher I went the more often I took the machine, the lower to eyelashes I went to more often I took the manual needle.
It doesn't mean that you cant make good shadows only with manual method. You can. But shading will be a little bit different consisted from sort of pixels. It looks good also but I had a different goal in this work.