What tools and supplies do you need for microblading?
One of the most frequently asked questions by students interested in our microblading training and new permanent makeup artists is, “What supplies will I need?” Having all of the correct and sanitary microblading supplies will help you start your PMU career on the right foot.
There are a lot of websites a PMU artist can purchase supplies from but it’s important that they are of high quality, properly sanitized and packaged, and ultimately safe to perform cosmetic tattooing. You will want your clients to feel comfortable at your studio and in your hands. Being able to show your clients that all of your tools are clean will give them peace of mind. Not to mention, if you take the time to research products, you will know that you will also want the best for yourself because having certain products will save you time, money, and make your work look the best.
Pre-treatment supplies
Making sure that your work station and supplies are sanitary should be a permanent makeup artist’s #1 priority. I’m going to break down all of the items you will need, share links, and explain why they are important to have.
Massage Bed/Chair
You will need a massage bed/reclined chair for your clients to be comfortable while you work on them. It should be wide, sturdy, and easy to clean and disinfect.
Stool
The stool is for you to sit on while you’re performing the treatment. Find one that is comfortable for you, has wheels, and moves around easily. A trick we like to share is try switching out the wheels of the stool of roller blade wheels! This will make moving around a whole lot easier.
Tray
You will definitely need a work tray to have all of your items on that you will need to perform your treatment. It should be metal so it’s easy to wipe down and disinfect. It should also be on wheels.
Tray Liner
The tray liner will be used to cover your tray. We typically use pedicure bowl liners. This will be the first item you place on your tray.
Dental Bib
The dental bib will go on top of the tray liner. This will cause a bit of friction on your tray so that items don’t shift around on the plastic tray liner.
Red Hazard Bag
You will hang this off of your tray. Any items that aren’t sharp, but touch blood, will be disposed of immediately into this bag. For example- cotton rounds and wipes that you use to clean the brows between passes, q-tips that have touched blood, etc…
Sharps Container
These are required for all PMU artists so they can dispose for their ‘sharps’ in them. You sharps will include your microblading needles, cartridges, and razors. Every county will have a regulation as to where the sharps container should be located. In San Diego, it must be mounted to a wall and at shoulder level. We also must have a biohazard company pick them up and dispose of them. So check your local regulatory agency to see where you must keep your sharps container and how it should be disposed of when full.
Disinfectant Wipes
You will need to follow the guidelines of your county’s health department but most will require proper disinfectant wipes and/or spray. We personally love and use Cavicide wipes.
Overhead Light
Using a light will help you see your treatment area more clearly. You’ll want a good one because it will also be key to taking good before/after photos of your clients. Ring lights are one of our favorites and can easily be purchased on amazon.
Bed Cover
You will use this to cover your bed before your client lays down. You will still need to disinfect the actual bed after each treatment.
Barrier Film
Barrier film creates an infection barrier and makes cleaning much easier. You can use it to cover and protect your machines, knobs on your lights and drawers/cabinets, bottles on tray, etc.
Gloves
Gloves are a must. Be sure they’re latex free to avoid any potential latex allergies. You may want to get these through a tattoo distributor as the ones they sell are typically a bit thicker so you can feel safer if you accidentally prick yourself.
Face mask
Face masks are worn to cover the mouth and nose and prevent cross-contamination. We suggest using disposable paper ones.
Alcohol Pads
You will want these to disinfect the treatment area (ex. Brows, lips, etc…) prior to starting any treatment.
Brow Mapping Tools
There are some important items you should have in your microblading kit when it comes to brow mapping. Most of these items you can quickly grab on Amazon.
Eyebrow Ruler
You have two options here. We personally like the plastic, reusable eyebrow rulers. You can move them around and read them easily. They also disinfect nicely. The other option is sticky rulers that stick on one’s forehead. Although 100% disposable, they don’t always stay well depending on the client’s skin type, and it can be hard to get them to stay totally even. A good eyebrow ruler is important to have when trying to nail to create the perfect brow shape.
Eyebrow Caliper Ruler
Microblading calipers are used to measure, locate, and shape even eyebrows on both sides of the face. The caliper has an exact scale that is considered aesthetically beautiful and frequently appears in nature and in the human body. (You will not see us using this item in our videos but some like it.)
Sharpie Wax Brow Pencil
Let us save you time! This is the only pencil you should be using to map on your client’s eyebrows. All other pencils we have tried smear and don’t stay well. You can get this one nice and sharp and create crisp lines which will help you get that perfect outline and create the perfect brow shape.
Razor Blade
You will use this to sharpen your wax pencil. You cannot sharpen the Sharpie pencil with a traditional pencil sharpener. The tip of the pencil must look like a flat head screwdriver so a razor blade must be used.
Mapping String
Pre-inked mapping string is a must! Inexpensive, easy to use, and helps you map symmetrical lines on one’s brows.
Tinkle Razor
These guys are great for cleaning up brow hair around the mapped brow outline. You can either give the razor to your client to take home or dispose of it in your sharps container after their appointment. We don’t suggest using tweezers to get rid of hair as you can shock the hair follicle when you pluck which can cause hair to no longer grow in that spot.
Precision Q-Tips
You will need precision q-tips to clean up your outline as you map and draw on your client. Regular q-tips won’t cut it for this part of the treatment.
Micellar Water
Micellar Water can be used to dampen your q-tips when cleaning up the brow area. Also, if your wipes start to dry out during treatment, you can splash them with a bit of micellar water.
Stencils
We don’t personally use stencils when mapping a client’s brows but they can be helpful for new artists that are struggling with shape. It’s important that you still map out the correct proportions on your client’s face prior to choosing the best stencil for the look they desire.
Microblading tools for treatment
We will not discuss the microblading supplies needed for the actual Microblading treatment. At this point, you are finished mapping and the client has approved the shape you have drawn on them. You can some of these items on amazon but it’s important not to buy certain things on amazon like pigment, microblading blades, and certain numbing agents.
Pigment
Microblading Pigments are the inks that are specifically designed and created for permanent makeup. Using a microblade tool, the pigment is deposited into the skin when tiny strokes are made. This technique will mimic the look of real brow hair strokes. It’s important that the pigments you use are rich, stable, and that they heal true to tone for the various skin types and skin colors of clients. Two of our favorite lines are Tina Davies and Permablend.
Pigment Rings
These are rings that will go on your finger and they have a tiny sponge in them. You will pop the sponge out, place your desired pigment into the cup, mix it if need, replace the sponge and get to work. When complete, you will dispose of this in your red hazard bag.
Microblade Needles
When it comes to needles, you can purchase the handheld tool and needles separately and then insert the needle into the tool OR you can purchase the all-in-one disposable microblading pen. We personally prefer inserting our blades into a handheld tool so we can position the blade the way we like. We also find that the microblading blades are more stable in a handheld tool of our preference when compared to the all-in-one option. Needles come in a variety of needle amounts and angles. You can work with a blade that’s at a slant or in the shape of a ‘U’. The next thing you will choose is how many needles you want your blade to be made up of. We prefer 14-16 needles. The diameter of the blade is probably the most important thing when choosing your microblades in which it should be the thinnest on the market which is a .15mm diameter. Having the slimmed diameter causes less trauma to the skin, creates the thinnest hair stroke, and gives off the least amount of pain when being drug through the skin.
Hand tools (aka Microblading pen)
As I mentioned above, you have the option to choose your own hand tools OR purchase the all-in-one option with the blade attached. If you choose to use the individual microblading pen that you put a blade in, you will need to either fully dispose of the hand tool and the blade into your sharps container after each client OR dispose of your blade in your sharps container and then have an autoclave machine to properly disinfect your hand tool. In our opinion, autoclaves are a pain and hand tools are inexpensive so we suggest just disposing of the tool and blade after each client. If you choose the all-in-one option, these are usually plastic and considered disposable tools. You will always dispose the entire tool into your sharps container after each client.
Topical Numbing Cream
You will use two anesthetics on each client. The first will be a topical numbing cream. We prefer Numb Masters. It’s usually a creamy consistency. This numbing doesn’t work well on everyone since it only sits on the top of the skin so it doesn’t penetrate everyone’s skin the same. You shouldn’t use a numbing agent that needs to sit for longer than 20 minutes. 5% lidocaine is all you should use. This numbing can also be used on Microshading clients.
Second Numbing Agent
We prefer Tag 45 although there are a lot of options out there. You will want to make sure that it’s meant to penetrate the skin and get into the bloodstream and that it doesn’t need to sit for an extended period of time. 10 minutes max. The second numbing agent is typically of gel consistency. Most clients are a lot more comfortable with their treatment after this type of numbing is applied since this one gets in the bloodstream. This numbing can also be used on Microshading clients.
Mini Plastic Wrap
You will cover your clients numbed brows with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. This will help to activate the numbing agent, lidocaine, and keep the numbing in place if your client decides to sit up while numbing. We love this little box of wrap. It’s easy to use and lasts a long time.
Ink Cups
Ink cups are great for putting your numbing agents in. They are disposable and will allow you to not keep the numbing agent bottles on your tray. Simple scoop out or squirt some numbing into an ink cups on your tray and then dispose of them in your red biohazard bag after the treatment.
Water Wipes
These wipes are amazing to use when cleaning the pigment off of your client’s brows as you work back and forth between the eyebrows. They are only soaked in water so client’s aren’t at risk for an allergic reaction.
Cotton Rounds
Buy the premium cotton rounds as they have much less lint on them. Cotton rounds are ideal for dabbing the clients skin when it’s damp. It’s much easier to work on dry skin so you’ll be using a lot of these.
Mascara Wands
These are great to comb through your clients hair intermittently while you’re microblading them. You can move the hair out of the way to see where you’ve placed strokes or find where you may need one. You can also use it at the end of your treatment to put those pretty remaining hairs in place.
Supplies for post-treatment aftercare
After you have finished working on your client, you will want to send them home with proper aftercare instructions and items they will need. We send our clients home with cotton rounds and healing balm.
Healing Balm
We prefer a specific healing balm. It’s free of petroleum oils. We instruct clients to use the balm anywhere from 1-3x per day, depending on their skin type. They are to use it again after their touch up so we let them know that they should hold on to it. You don’t want your clients to use Vaseline, Aquaphor, A&D, Neosporin, etc… The oils in those products can clog the skin and cause the microblading to not heal properly. They can also pull the ink out of the skin.
You can refer back to ‘pre-treatment supplies’ to see what you will need to clean also clean-up for your client and set up for a new one. Most importantly, you should have Cavicide wipes which you’ll use as a disinfectant. Everything that was on your tray at the end of your treatment should be disposable. Your microblading tool and blade and your razor should be dropped into your Sharps container. Everything else should be wrapped up and throw in the trash.
Invest in yourself
Investing in yourself as a microblading artist is something you should be doing constantly. It’s important to have the right tools. Hopefully your microblading training came with a kit full of everything you needed to get started. If not, hopefully this blog helped you find some things you are missing on amazon and other helpful sites to complete your Microblading kit. To be able to practice consistently at home, be sure that you always have inkless practice skin and a microblading tool with blades. You can keep these two items anywhere and always have access to them. Microblading is truly about muscle memory so make time weekly. Not only is it important to have the right tools but to have a successful microblading business, you will want to also invest in your skills. Try investing in at least one new training course a year. It doesn’t need to be something that costs thousands of dollars, unless you’re ready to add a new service. It can simply be learning a new stroke pattern, diving deeper into color theory, etc… there are a lot of continued education courses online that you can find in this industry.
Covet Academy provides training in Microblading, Microshading, and Tattoo Removal. We educate others on how to build a powerful beauty business by providing them with the knowledge and support we craved when first starting. We offer in person courses in Microblading, Microshading and Tattoo Removal and an online course for Microblading. We also offer continued education options for current artists that are striving to be better and dive deeper into big important skills like brow mapping and color theory. Our training offers hands on experience, printable handbooks, step by step guides, and online videos. We can help you whether you’re just getting your toes wet or you’re ready to dive on in.
