Luling’s Bella Faccia to host live demonstration
When many people think of permanent makeup, they often imagine scores of rosy cheeked women with brightly colored eye shadow who will be forced to live with those color choices for the rest of their lives.
And while those techniques can be applied, a majority of permanent makeup clinics, including St. Charles Parish based Bella Faccia, go a much safer route. Instead of focusing on enhancing the color of the face, these businesses instead turn their focus to brightening up the lips or improving the appearance of the eyes by adding eye liner or eyebrows.
Because the color choices in these two areas often remain the same for long periods of time, the decision is a lot easier to make for most that choose to have the procedure.
“They have started eye shadows and blush, but I’m not into that,” Roxanna Trosclair, owner of Bella Faccia said. “If you do either of those, you’re stuck with that choice, so I wouldn’t even get into that.”
Permanent makeup is a cosmetic technique in which pigment is applied under the skin as a means of producing designs that resemble makeup. It can also be used to produce eyebrows, particularly in people who have lost them as a consequence of old age, disease or a genetic disturbance.
“To me, eyebrows are the most important feature on your face because it keeps you looking young,” Trosclair said. “I’ve had my eyebrows and liners done because your face needs to be framed and your eyebrows frame your face.”
Trosclair says that she has a lot of customers who come to see her because they have lost their eyebrows or have gradually lost their pigment over time. By applying pigment to the eyebrows, it gives them shape.
“When your eyebrows go away or get gray, you begin to look older,” Trosclair said. “When I first got mine done people were looking at me like ‘what did you do and why do you look so good?’ People still give me compliments like that.”
Trosclair first received her new eyebrows when she was a student at Premier Pigments, a Texas school that offers an intense three-week course to those interested in performing permanent makeup procedures.
“The course was a constant bombardment of hands-on training,” Trosclair said. “They would get live models in and that’s how we learned. They also taught us a lot about color charts and things of that nature and if someone wants a certain color, I can blend it for them. A lot of people bring in their lipstick so I can match it.”
Though Trosclair and her husband owned a commercial cleaning business at the time, she decided to get into the field of permanent makeup when she bumped into a friend she had not seen in 25 years. When this friend told Trosclair to take a closer look at her lips, which had been permanently tattooed, Trosclair was blown away with how good they looked.
“It was beautiful and she had just had the procedure done two days before,” Trosclair said. “I immediately started doing research on this particular type of procedure and I was fascinated.”
Soon after that fateful meeting, Trosclair went off to Arlington, Texas to attend the Premier Pigments school. In August, she opened up Bella Faccia.
Now, Trosclair relishes the opportunity of getting to see her customers take that first glance in the mirror at their enhanced eyes or lips.
“A lot of people are blown away when they are done, especially with eyebrows,” Trosclair said. “Most of them have never had eyebrows before.”
While the results are often impressive, there is still the question of whether or not the procedure is painful. Ivllon Zachary, who drove from Baton Rouge to get her lips and eyebrows done at Bella Faccia, knows first hand that even though the same instrument is used in both tattoo parlors and permanent makeup clinics, the pain is not even close to comparable.
“I have a tattoo and I cleared out the shop when I got it because I cried and screamed so bad,” Zachary, who has been a registered nurse for 25 years, said. “You just feel pressure with this, but no pain. If it hurt, I wouldn’t be doing it.”
Trosclair, who uses anesthesia to numb the pain, agrees.
“I’m not here to inflict pain on anyone,” she said. “I’m not a tattoo artist. Those guys like to inflict pain.”
While the application of permanent makeup may not cause as much pain as the application of a tattoo, it is still, well, permanent. If someone does not like the color they chose, they are stuck with that color for the next five to seven years, which is when the color usually begins to fade. Common techniques used for removal are laser resurfacing, chemical peeling, and surgical removal.
Since this is the case, Trosclair always recommends that her customers use a lighter color first. That way, if they decide they want to darken their lips or eyebrows, she just has to re-tattoo the area a darker color. Plus, light colors on the lips can always be colored over with lipstick.
And while the change may be permanent, many people are willing to take that chance because of the amount of money they will save. Trosclair charges $600 for lips and $350 for eyebrows. To Zachary, that represents a huge amount of money she will save by not having to purchase lipstick.
“I’m a typical southern lady, so I wear lipstick all the time,” Zachary said. “What is cost me a year in lipstick would pay for this procedure, and this will last for years.”
Because of the misconception most people have about permanent makeup, Trosclair will hold an open house at Bella Faccia on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. During this time, people interested in the procedure will get to witness Trosclair perform it on a live model. There is limited space available and those interested must call Bella Faccia at 985-308-0540 to register in advance.
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