Milton Keynes woman, 22, devastated over 'botched' eyebrows

Katy Adams, 22, from Milton Keynes, underwent a semi-permanent eyebrow tattoo treatment - known as microblading - which unfortunately went wrong.

The treatment is a semi-permanent form of tattooing used to make eyebrows appear fuller, while purporting to maintain a natural look.

However, Katy was less than impressed with her results, with pictures showing her brows dyed much darker than her natural fair colouring. 

The colouring usually lasts for up to three years but unhappy Katy was desperate to take action, forking out £1,200 in a bid to rectify the results.

Explaining what happened, Katy said she booked the procedure as a treat to herself for her 19th birthday after finding a practitioner on Instagram.

She said: “At the time, I was 19 and extremely impulsive - if I wanted to do something, I would try to do it as soon as possible. Microblading was one of those things that I wanted to try at the time, so once a friend of mine let me know their friend offered microblading services and would do it for me, I jumped at the chance.”

The results weren't quite what she had imagined. The ink used appeared much too dark compared to her natural fair hair. It left her with uneven outlines and spots of ink along the outside of one brow, she said.

Katy has revealed she has spent more than £1,200 over the course of two years to rectify them, undergoing saline removal sessions two months after the initial procedure, which involves using a tattoo gun with salt and water to lift the ink.

The reverse procedure helped tone down the dark black shade slightly to a grey-ish colour, but the uneven lines of ink on the outside of her brows remained visible.

She switched to home remedies during the 2020 Covid lockdown, using lemon juice and salt to try and get her eyebrows to fade. 

Katy said: “By 2022, I was so insecure about my eyebrows, so I found a specialist laser removal for semi-permanent makeup in Milton Keynes. I had in-depth consultation and eight additional sessions for laser tattoo removal.

“I was told that the tattooing had gone too deep into my left eyebrow, so would never go back to normal, however, after a range of frequencies and lasers, they were able to remove the red ink. Now I am left with a slight orange-yellow tinge in my left brow, but feel good about myself and confident again.”

The unfortunate experience has kickstarted Katy into creating her our eyebrow business, offering more natural and temporary treatemnts as well as offering remedial procedures to help those with botched results. 

Katy's story comes as a new study has been released revealing which treatments receive the most complaintsin the UK

The research, by beauty retailer Justmylook, has found that microblading was the tenth most complained about beauty treatment in the UK in 2022.

Researchers found that 89 per cent of people who filed complaints about an aesthetic treatment going wrong to accredited practitioner register Saveface found their practitioner on social media, and 84 per cent were ignored by them when they tried to seek help.