Sheer winter-cool lip tattoo when tint fades in Gangnam: Lamoon Brow

Why I decided on a lip tattoo at Lamoon Brow

My lips were dull and asymmetrical, so I declared October my beauty month and got a lip tattoo (semi-permanent lip makeup) at Lamoon Brow, a lip specialty shop near Gangnam Station. A woman's getting-ready time is usually about 2 hours (is it just me?), and maybe that's why makeup has felt like such a chore lately,, I've been going out bare-faced, but my lips are the one thing I can't leave as they are. Why? Because they look seriously dull.

My natural lips,, depending on my condition, the humidity and the weather, sometimes come up a little pink, but most of the time they're pretty washed-out, so I mostly use staining tints. Some days the inside wears off completely and only the outline of my lips is left, which gives me a very 1970s-ahjumma lip look. And I didn't know this, but when I decided to get a lip tattoo and took a photo of my bare lips, they were asymmetrical,,?

Anyway, I was getting quietly annoyed with all of it, so I told myself October is beauty month and went to get my lip tattoo!! The place I chose was Lamoon Brow, a lip specialty shop near Gangnam Station. From the reviews, it isn't a factory-style lip tattoo shop; it offers 1:1 custom consultations to find a personal lip color for your skin tone, so I went.

Getting to Lamoon Brow and parking

Lamoon Brow is super close, about a 2-minute walk from Gangnam Station Exit 5, but the entrance is tucked inside so I got a little lost. Sadly, parking isn't free. The building's lot is ₩1,200 per 10 minutes (wow). I'd recommend the Modu Parking app or public transit!

There are 2 elevators, so just press both and take whichever arrives first, haha. The shop is right in front of you when you get out of the elevator.

Since it's 1:1 treatment, there's just one bed~ The artist seems to like Maenggu (a goofy Korean cartoon character). I think her phone case was Maenggu too, haha.

Dark skin tone but winter cool? Personal lip color consultation at Lamoon Brow

The consultation at Lamoon Brow began with a consent form, then the artist flipped a lip color guidebook over my lips to find my personal color. They say no two reds under the sky are the same, and there really are a lot of colors used for lip tattoos. She holds the guidebook against your lips, flips through quickly and finds your personal color.

My skin tone is a bit dark, so I thought I was warm, but she diagnosed me as winter cool. When I had a personal color diagnosis at my old company I also got cool and figured it must have been a mistake, but cool?! The left side shows colors that don't suit me, the right side colors that do. Good thing I don't like pink.

Show your usual lip products and photos of colors you want

I figured photos would help more than explaining in words, so I'd taken pictures in advance of lip colors I liked after doing my makeup and showed them. During the diagnosis she asked to see the lip products I usually use, and of my 4 main ones, only one was even close to my tone^^,, haha. The lip tint I mostly used was so-so, and the color glow balm I layered with it was a color that doesn't suit me. I'd been using it diligently for years without knowing^^,, haha.

Lip tattoo prep: exfoliation and moisture starting 5 days before

I heard the color doesn't take well if lips aren't properly exfoliated and moisturized, so I took care of exfoliation and moisture from 5 days before my visit. The 2 photos above are my lips taken when I booked via KakaoTalk, and the one below is my lips taken at the shop on the day of the treatment.

How painful is a lip tattoo? The line was the painful part

At Lamoon Brow, after a thorough consultation and an explanation of the color, she first applies numbing cream to your lips. I'd heard a lip tattoo hurts less than a hairline tattoo, so I figured I'd get through this one easily?! Nope, it hurt ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ haha. The inside of the lips didn't hurt at all, but the line did. Still, it was bearable with my fists clenched.

Result right after: line correction makes the mouth look like it's smiling

Ta-da!! The result!!!!!! The after isn't a brighter smile, haha. I smiled the same as in the before; the line correction just makes the after look more smiley!! If anything, because of the numbing cream I wasn't even sure I was smiling properly in the after. Also, right after treatment my lips were a little swollen and plump, which goes down with time. But I wish it would stay like that,, hahaha.

This is right after I left the shop!! Ah, it's so pretty. I rarely look in the mirror when I'm bare-faced, but the lip color was so pretty that I kept checking the mirror and my phone camera, haha. The color was supposed to go in deeper than this, but she said she made it a little clearer in case I felt awkward. So I'm going to try a deeper one at the touch-up,, haha.

How do you do lip tattoo aftercare?

They say aftercare matters most for the color to come out well. For a week you apply regeneration cream morning and night and keep your lips from drying out by moisturizing often. To help with that, Lamoon Brow gives you regeneration cream and lip essence.

Natural-light color the day after

The day after, the color was still so pretty😍 All the photos above were taken in natural light with the iPhone default camera, no effects. You can see my skin bumps and peach fuzz, right? A truly plain default camera! The top 2 are with nothing applied, the bottom 2 with only lip essence, and the color is so pretty!! Everyone who saw me said my lips were so pretty, haha.

Peeling starts on days 2–3, the hardest stretch

Peeling starts around days 2–3 after treatment, and in the photo, if you look near the third front tooth from the left, you can just see peeled skin starting to show. We talk, eat and brush our teeth, so we use our lips more than we think, and I guess peeling starts sooner there than on other areas. You must never pick at it with force; you have to let it come off naturally, and this is the hardest stretch. In the mirror I could see the peeled bits but couldn't pull them off, and I talk a lot for work, so every time my lips touched the flakes got in the way ㅠㅠ haha.

Changes at one week

This was taken indoors the same day~ The lip color indoors is also so, so pretty😍 Today, when I'm posting this, is one week since the treatment; the peeling is almost done and the color has faded slightly. Lips follow the same 4-week cycle as skin regeneration, so I'll take good care of them and make them pretty💋 They say that if lip care goes well, the color comes out nicely with just the first session, no touch-up needed, so let's go care for them~!!