I picked Urbane Brows because of the Yelp reviews, and I liked her work on Instagram. Ashley is the owner and sole proprietor. She is friendly and on time. I had some ideas about shapes, but the she sat me down and started right away on shaping the brows; very similar to all the other brows she's done on Instagram. When she was done I liked the brows for the most part. There were imperfections: strokes that were missing, an off color that didn't match, a little unevenness. But there was another person waiting in the shop, Ashley warned against getting too hung up on perfection because I had to come back for a touch up in 4-6 weeks anyway. I thought I'd let the brows heal and address whatever gaps and color matching issues there were when I came back. (By the way, many microblade artists include the touch up in the upfront cost. But Ashley does *not* include the touch up; it is a separate charge.)
I left, followed the after care instructions and returned 4 weeks later for the retouch. After healing, the brows were not even and were much worse. One was lighter than the other, the color didn't blend well, and one arch was clearly higher than the other. I asked Ashley to match the (albeit sparse) eyebrow hair, fill in where there were clear stroke gaps, and to even out the brows so they would match shape. Unfortunately, that was not the result.
Ashley was very distracted and rushed the day I came in for the touch up. She was really upset about a previous client coming into the shop and demanding a refund because she was unhappy with her results. Ashley spent the hour appointment telling me about how the client was leaving bad reviews and that she was coming by the shop and she had to call the police. The health department came and told her to hold off on microblading until she got licensed. I should have left, despite how awkward that would be, I should have. But I stayed, and the first thing she asked me to do when I came in was to write a good review for her to counter the bad reviews this other client was leaving.
I wish I could leave a good review but I'm very disappointed with the end result. Oddly, I left the shop with wonderful looking brows. But after following the after care instructions for the retouch and waiting patiently through the touch-up healing process, they remained very light, uneven, and super blurry. I am really disappointed. I spent $750 on microblading but I still have to fill in and even out each morning.
I wrote to her on Facebook messenger (hard to find an email) showing her the pictures of my brows fully healed. I asked if she would consider touching them up / evening them without charge. She viewed the message but did not respond. I waited a week. No response. After that, I reached out to a microblading artist in Westchester who teaches courses in microblading. I asked if she would consider retouching a client she didn't initially work on. I explained my situation and sent her pictures. This was her response: "Unfortunately I won't be able to work on your eyebrows. The pigment is very saturated to do more microblading and it may have been done too deep and the brows arch is too high. (See the photo attached). My recommendation to fix it now is removal. I am so sorry about your experience. You should ask for a refund, this is not right and unfortunately it damages the reputation of other artists that are trained." I can not go forward to fix this situation for at least the next six months. And once I can go ahead, it will be another $600 to start all over!
I did finally hear from Ashley after posting this review. She left a VM and asked how to make it right and apologized for not responding. To make things right, I need a refund. I am
no longer confident that Ashley can fix this and in fact I'm concerned she might do more damage. I need the refund too to cover the cost to correct this microblading job. (I have not heard from her since asking for a refund to cover corrective costs.)
What I learned: Just because a microblading pro is the most expensive, doesn't make them the most qualified. I will never go to someone with less than a year of experience or to someone who has not been trained in this art and supervised a number of hours by a credentialed teacher. And I learned how important it is to ask for not just shop shots they take right after microblading but pictures of HEALED results 10-12 weeks out. As the instructor explained to me, that's the only way to see if the microblading artist is able to apply professional techniques in depth and stroke application. read more