I've been wanting to get my brows microbladed for months and did a lot of research. Or so I thought. I choose Pace Studios because they seemed reputable. I mean, they have 11,000 followers on Instagram! They must be amazing right? As I looked through the photos on their Instagram account, I liked *most* of their work and I figured I could just tell them which ones I liked didn't like, and that they would give me what I wanted. I made an appointment with them and chose "master artist" because I wanted the best of the best. I went in for my appointment and met with Shiri who was the master artist I was scheduled with. We looked through some pictures and I showed her what I liked and didn't like then she went over the procedure with me. By the end of my procedure she already had someone waiting for her next appointment. This is where things went south because she got in a hurry. She was still working on me but talking to the girl waiting saying that she was sorry and that she would be with her soon. By the time it was over, I was pretty shaky from the pain but when I looked at my brows they looked pretty good. She assured me that they were going to look really dark and red around the edges but that was normal. She also told me that any imperfections would be fixed when I came back for my six week touch up. She was in such a hurry towards the end that when I needed to pay, she asked the girl shadowing her (training) to help me and was frustrated when the girl did not know how to.
Later that night, I took a really good look and I noticed that they were not symmetrical. The tail of one brow was noticeably higher and thinner than the other. The fronts (middle) were also two different shapes. The more I inspected, the more I realized that I came home with two completely different eyebrows. I was devastated. The next day I sent a text to Shiri and told her my concerns. At first she was defensive but nice about it and said that any imperfections could be fixed and not to worry. She said she would look at the pictures that she took and then later wrote me back and said that she could see that they were not symmetrical. She admitted that they were not the same but that she could fix them.
I decided to reach out to my original first choice because I wanted another professional opinion so that I could be assured that this was normal and that everything would be OK. She told me that there is NEVER an excuse for asymmetrical brows. Ever. She said that not having the perfect shape or color is normal (for the first appointment) but that the brows should look the same. She told me to get it off of my face as soon as possible then gave me some tips on how to make the pigment lift. In the meantime, I made an appointment with her to get them fixed but have to wait 6 weeks. At this point, how could I possibly go back to Pace? It was not worth the risk to have them fix my brows.
I sent a text to Shiri and told her that I would not be coming back for the touchup and that I would appreciate a refund. She explained to me that I signed a waiver and that they didn't do refunds. I knew that I had signed it but thought I deserved one in this case and because even SHE had admitted fault. This is when the owner of the salon, Reno Pace, got involved. He had left a voicemail asking what happened and wanted to resolve the matter. I sent him an email with all of the pictures so that he could know where I was coming from before we talked. He said that his wife who is also a master artist would fix them for me if I did not want Shiri to fix them. I told him that I did not want to go back to their studio if that was the kind of work that they produced. I told him that I would not write a public review if they would give me a refund. I wasn't threatening about it, I was just trying to resolve this in the nicest way I could. Then Reno said that he would give me a 50% refund if I would sign a nondisclosure from his lawyer. He wanted me to agree to the nondisclosure agreement before I even saw it though! I told him that I would not agree to anything until I read it. I never got a reply and I haven't heard from them since.
I hate giving bad reviews but I feel like I have to share this experience so that no one else makes the same mistakes that I did. This is a 100% completely honest review. I'm not sharing this to be vindictive.
Maybe Shiri had a bad day. Maybe she has a lot of happy clients. However, when you are charging someone hundreds of dollars to tattoo their face, you can't have a bad day. You can never be in a hurry. In the end, it's not about the shape of my brows, it's about the fact that I have two completely different brows on my face right now. read more