Descriptions, instructions, and answers for your best LIP PMU aftercare – in one place.
LIP PMU Guide
Whether you have pale or melanin-rich lips, the permanent makeup process requires patience and care.
The beginning of this guide applies to all Lip Procedures. The “Healed Results” sections specify Lip Blush (pale lips) or Lip Neutralization (melanin lips).
pre-Care
Caffeine
Do not consume excess* coffee or caffenated beverage or substance during the 24 hours before your appointment.
If you drink 1 cup a day- continue as normal. If you drink more than that on a regular basis, reduce your intake to one small cup the day before and the day of your appointment.
Drink lots of water throughout the days leading up to your appointment.
Alcohol
Do not consume any alcohol 48 before your appointment. This greatly helps reduce bleeding during the procedure. You may have alcohol after your procedure, but it is not recomeneded to over burden your system with it. Allow your body to focus on healing from the procedure and not detoxifying the alcohol.
Blood thinners
Do not consume blood thinning medication (Ibuprofen, Aspirin, Advil, Motrin), as well as curcumin (turmeric capsules), or fish oil supplements 72 hours before your procedure.
All these substances thin the blood, therfore reduce your body’s ability to clot and stop the bleeding that may occur during the procedure.
If you are taking prescription medication do not stop unless you’ve spoken to your doctor.
Cold Sores
If you have EVER gotten a cold sore, even if its been years, this service is highly likely to trigger a breakout. I reccomend seeing your pharmacist to get antiviral medication to take before and after your treatment. This will help the healing process along if you get a flare up.
Know that getting cold sores is not a contraindication – you can still get lip blush and get a great result, however the healing process is less enjoyable due to the sores.
Lip Condition - Chapped, cracked
Lips MUST be in a healthy condition to undergo this procedure. Chapped, dry, cracked, or hard lips cannot be worked on and you will be sent home and your deposit forfeited. Please make sure to hydrate extremely well 1-2 weeks prior your appointment as well as apply moisture.
One excellent method I reccomend every client do, is to apply Hyaluronic Acid Serum to thier lips while wet, and after it absorbs to apply vaseline. Doing this morning and night for the week before your service will drasticly improve the hydration, plumpness, and health of your lips. The Ordinary is a common brand, or Garnier has one with Aloe too.
Breakouts Around the Lips
Your Lips and the surrounding skin need to be in good condition for the procedure to continue. Having active acne, cuts, irritation, inflamation or any kind are contraindications of the procedure and you will need to reschedule. If you think your skin on/around your Lips needs more time to heal please contact your artist to reschedule.
Sun/UV Exposure
No sunbathing, tanning bed use, or long periods of sun exposure 3 days before your appointment. Sun burnt or irritated lips cannot be worked on, and you will be sent home from your appointment.
You will need to be cautious of sun exposure after your treatment as well. I reccomend buying a high SPF lip balm, and avoid tanning beds and sunbathing for 1 month (without proper protection of your lips at least).
Botox & Filler
No Botox or Filler at least 2 weeks before or after your appointment date.
Facials & Procedures
Avoid resurfacing treatments, including microdermabrasion, microneedling, laser peels, chemical peels, within 4 weeks before/after your procedure. Gentle or hydrating facials are fine, just make sure your estitician knows you have fresh permanent makeup.
Spray Tan/ Other Treatments
No spray tans on the face (professional or at home) 72 hours beofer the appointment.
No electorlysis treatments 5 days before the appointment.
CONTRAINDICATIONS
Dry, Chapped, Cracked Lips
This procedure cannot be done on lips that are not in a healthy state. Please get your lips to a healthy condition before booking this procedure. Hydrating well, gentle lip scrubs, and moisturizing will help – however if the condition persists consider seeking medical advice.
Accutane
You must be off accutane for at least 6 months before undergoing this procedure.
Scarring on the Lips
Scarring on your lips will be resistant to pigment implantation and retention. If you have any scarring on your lips, please book a consultation to determine if the service is right for you.
Sun / UV Exposure
No tanning or long periods of sun exposure for at least 30 days after your appointment. An SPF Lip balm should be used after flaking is complete, in addition to a hat when going outside. Make sure to book your appointment away from any sunny vacations.
Pregnant & Breastfeeding
This procedure may be done as early as 8 weeks post-partum, however not while pregnant.
If breastfeeding, you will need to “pump and dump” for the 24 hours after the procedure, so make sure your baby will take a bottle and have baby food ready for that time. This is due to the numbing used that we don’t want passed to the baby.
Active Skin Condition on or very Near the Lips
Active conditions such as cold sores, cystic acne, eczema, swelling, sun burn, abraisons, inflamation or rashes must heal before doing this service. If you come to your appointment with any lip health issues you will be sent home and your deposit forfeited.
Cold Sores
Although having a history of cold sores does not mean you cannot get this service, it does make it very likely you will get a flare up from the procedure.
I reccomend you take Valtrex (Valacyclovir) 3-4 days before the appointment and 3-5 days after to help prevent a breakout or if one occures- help it heal. Results should not be very affected.
Allergies to: Lidocaine, Other Anesthetics, Alcohol, or Nickel
Alcohol is used to clean the area. Lidocane and other anesthetics are used during the procedure. Some pigments have trace amounts of nickle.
Antibiotic Use
Must not be on antibiotics at the time of the service: minimum 2 weeks off before the procedure.
Chemo or Cancer treatment
Must not be undergoing any cancer treatment. You should be in remission for 6 months before booking this service.
under the age of 18
For insurance purposes, this service cannot be done on minors.
AFTER-CARE
Day 1
The area will feel a bit sore and look quite intense. The inital colour is bright and fully saturated, and will tone down a lot through healing. There may be some swelling and minor bruising that only lasts for 1-2 days.
Fluids leak from the tattoo that create the scabs. Use the cleansing pads provided to clean the tattoo every hour, pat dry with a clean tissue, and apply the ointment with a q-tip. All three steps every hour for 6-8 hours. You will see some pigment come off on the cotton rounds – this is normal.
Day 2
Swelling will go down and lips will look darker as they oxidize. Some people may notice peeling begin. Keep applying ointment.
Day 3
Lips will be dark where peeling has not yet come off. Areas that have peeled will look light and may have a milky hue to them. Keep applying ointment.
Day 4
Peeling will continue. Keep applying ointment.
Day 5
Peeling should complete by the end of the day. You may apply makeup over the area and return to your normal routine. The surface skin has only freshly healed, but not the deeper levels. The colour is not what it will be once fully healed at 6-8 weeks (pale lips) or 12 weeks (melanin lips).
Pale Lip Clients: Uneveness is normal, as skin texture throughout the lip varries, let it fully heal and don’t be concerned about darker spots around the lip line – this fades as it heals.
Melanin Lip Clients: Your lips likely are experiencing hyper or hypopigmentation. The melanin has been triggered through the trauma of the procedure, similar to any wound on your body, it gets darker before returning to normal. Once it fully heals, the pigment implanted will become visible.
Rule 1
Cleanliness / Avoiding Infection
Do not touch your tattoo with dirty fingers. Remember it is an open wound and an infection could ruin the tattoo. Always wash your hands before applying ointment with your fingers, or use a clean q-tip.
Rule 2
Don't get your lips wet for very long
Getting your lips wet for too long will make the scabs become soggy and likely to come off prematurely. You want to keep the scabs on for as long as you can, falling off naturally.
Avoid steamy showers, hot baths, suana, pools, lakes, etc.
Rule 3
Only use the provided Ointment
Moisturize as often as possible with the provided ointment only. This is a non-petroleum healing ointment, do not use vaseline. If you loose it, you can use castor oil.
Do not apply the oitnment when your lips are wet, only when dry.
Rule 4
Avoid Lifting the scabs
Do not pick, scratch or bite off the scabs. Picking can cause scarring, loss of pigment, and infection.
Do not sleep on your face to avoid lifting your scabs prematurely, and make sure you’re sleeping on a clean pillowcase to avoid infection.
Rule 5
Products / Eating & Drinking
Avoid harsh cleansers, any creams, makeup or other products on the treated area until all the scabs have fallen off. These things can jeapordize the healing of the tattoo.
Avoid anything too spicy or with too much citrus. Be careful when eating not to rub any scabs off and dry to drink through a straw.
Rule 6
UV Exposure
Do not expose your tattoo to UV rays or tanning beds for 30 days after the procedure. This can alter the appearance of your tattoo dramatically.
Wear a hat. Use a strong SPF lip balm once falking has completed. Avoid mid-day sun.
This is expecially important for Melanin Lip clients – hyperpigmentation from UV exposure is something you will want to be hyper vigilant about.
HEALED RESULTS: PALE LIPS
The healed result after 1 session is often adequate for clients with pale lips. A bare canvas shows colour well.
However there are some reasons you may want a touchup:
-
- If you have a natural uneveness in tone- that will likely still be aparent after 1 session has been completed. For example, beauty marks, sun spots, darker regions.
- The presence of natural fordyce spots – white dots beneath the surface. Covering these often requires a 2nd session.
- If you didn’t retain very well from the first session- a variety of reasons could cause this (mainly pre/post care issues)
- If you are looking for a bolder level of saturation, as opposed to a tint.
- You want to shift the tone of your healed result.
HEALED RESULTS: MELANIN LIPS
Neutralization works to shift the colour of pigmented lips.
Desired results often require more than one session.
Lip Neutralization
Lip Neutralization is a gradual process for the lips to become lighter over time and help even out the colour. Specifically to warm up and lighten the cool and dark tones in the lips, to get the lips closer to a “blank slate” that will show the desired colour. Not all clients want to have their lips neutralized to be bright and pink, but are looking for a more natural/nude tone that blends with their complexion. In either case, more than one session is likely to be required.
Quick Points on Healing
- Healing takes longer when there is the presence of melanin. A minimum of 12 weeks before we can address the healed result from 1 session and do a 2nd.
- Hyperpigmentation is expected, meaning lips will get darker before they get lighter. This is due to how melanocytes react to trauma, which is what the tattooing process is.
- Hypopigmentation is also common, where you experience whiteness on spots around your lips. This is apart of the healing process when melanin is present in the skin. As the skin continues to heal, the whiteness will subside and colour will surface and even out. By 12 weeks you will see your result from the session.
Process Explained
Depending on what your desired result is, we cannot often use the “Target Colour” in the first session. This is because we first must shift the darkness of the lips to first become more light in order for a target colour to show up over the melanin.
Warm toned pigments: corals and peaches that include orange, yellow, red, pink, and white are used to shift the lips from dark to light so that the colour will show. Cool toned colours like mauve, dark reds and purples cannot be used as they will make the lips darker.
Lip Blush (for pale lips) is like painting a “white wall” with colour that shows up exaclty as painted. Lip Neutralization requires us to *shift* the dark, cool tones in order for it not to turn darker or not show up at all.
Lip Neutralization is a specialty that requires extensive understanding of colour theory, as well as client skin assessment. It requires paitence from the client as desired results are not immediate, and healing takes longer than someone would initially expect.
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