FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Semi Permanent Makeup is an invasive skin pigmentation technique that is commonly applied on eyebrows, lips and eyeliner area with the use of semi permanent makeup needles or microblading blades. 

Microblading is one of the semi permanent makeup techniques available, which is applied on the eyebrow area with the use of manual microblading blades or sometimes digital SPMU machines usually named as "machine hair-stroke technique". 

The goal of Microblading is to simulate eyebrow hair by means of drawing individual lines. Multiple and exciting Microblading patterns exist and can be used.   

The names "Nanoblading" or "Korean Nanoblading" are commonly used for the same technique, often referring to the use of thinner blades or more elaborate hair-stroke patterns or sometimes for machine hair-stoke technique.  

Ombre Brows is a semi permanent makeup technique applied on the eyebrow area with the use of a digital SPMU machine and SPMU needle. A gradient of a colour tone (often shades of brown) is applied on the eyebrow area to reflect a "pencilled makeup" look.

Powder Brows is an alternative SPMU shading pattern that simulates a powdered eyebrow makeup look. Powder Brows results in an overall dotted pattern which simulates a "dusted & powdered" makeup as opposed to a "pencil shaded" look.

GMA Ombre Brows training course teaches both Ombre Brows and Powder Brows SPMU techniques.

Combination Brows is a semi permanent makeup technique applied on the eyebrow area with the use of microblading blades and digital SPMU machine. 

Combination Brows combines microblading and shading techniques achieving more natural look compared to only microblading or ombre brows. Learning Combination Brows is essential for covering up discoloured eyebrow tattoo applications, often referred as "Blue Brows" or "Red Brows".

GMA Combinations Brows course teaches how to apply Combination Brows SPMU technique as well as covering the curricula of Microblading course and Ombre Brows course, plus Powder Brows technique.

The short answer is yes, Semi Permanent Makeup is a highly profitable business. 

SPMU is one of the highest paying beauty services, inn relation to per hour spent and consumable costs. It's fairly easy to start a registered business with small capital, even in years as challenging as 2021 and 2022.   

Microblading or other SPMU services are exceptional careers that a complete beginner can take up as a growing side income, full time job or a lucrative addition to an existing beauty clinic.   

Semi Permanent Makeup training and certification would open the doors of your business for higher paying clients.   

Microblading, powder brows or lip blush services start from £240, with 6 months of experience. 

All GMA semi permanent makeup courses and microblading courses are designed for complete beginners.

Prior training, experience, qualification or certification is not necessary to attend and complete any one of our SPMU courses.

You must acquire a licence from the council you are planning to operate at and a public liability insurance from a UK based insurance company, to be able to offer semi permanent makeup and microblading services. 

Semi permanent makeup licensing requirements of councils do vary and can prove being not only time consuming but also costly. We highly recommend you to review the requirements of the council you are intending to operate at, before reserving a course with an SPMU academy.

GMA SPMU Courses are fully insurable by Insync Insurance in U.K. and internationally accredited by IFBC.

Our semi permanent makeup training material is designed for complete beginners, ensuring that our students grasp a clear understanding of the foundation and application of chosen semi permanent makeup techniques on a real person, leaving the course confident and well informed. This approach applies for microblading courses, lip blush courses, ombre brows courses, combination brows courses and eyeliner courses. 

Expecting perfect spmu results immediately after the classroom sessions and guided case studies is not realistic. Getting better will take time, that is why ongoing support and unlimited amount of visits to the academy has always been a part of GMA spmu courses. 

We recommend our graduates to allow 2 to 3 months to achieve excellent results.

GMA semi permanent makeup courses take place at our main training centre located in Brentwood/Essex. 

Most of our graduates commuting for more than 4 hours (per day) choose to stay at Premier Inn Brentwood Hotel which is located 10 minutes on foot from GMA SPMU Academy.

Microblading course prices are offered from £1,790. SPMU courses range from £790 to £5,890 depending o the type of the course. One to One SPMU courses are more expensive than group courses. 

That being said, completing an SPMU course does not cover all costs associated with offering SPMU services. 

Upon completion of your course, you will likely face further immediate and ongoing costs, such as licensing, insurance, advertising and consumables, that must be taken into consideration before you can start offering SPMU services. These costs could be substantial in some cases.

Many academies who offer "Finance" or "Buy Now/Pay Later" payment options, would prefer not to mention this fact. Please budget your business plan well before you decide entering the SPMU Industry.

We do go over such costs and how to effectively minimise them during our "Business Setup" session at our SPMU courses.

Learning, in its simplest form, can be defined as the transfer of information and experience from one individual to another.  Learning microblading can take place via face to face sessions, online training, Youtube videos or even books. 

Unfortunately video tutorials or online training modules remove the teacher out of the learning process. Although you can go back and forth in a video, a single training  scenario is recorded in the video and you can't ask questions, get feedback or instant correction on your work from a video file. 

Lack of a teacher providing live feedback on your work during a microblading training session, significantly decreases the quality of transferred experience hence the overall spmu training.

In our 14 years of spmu training journey, we were lucky enough to test every training method under the sun and realised that online courses, video tutorials or books are not enough to fully transfer our experience to our students. That is why we do not offer online spmu courses or pre training video modules. 

ALL GMA SPMU courses and case studies takes place face to face, while student and teacher sharing the same physical classroom.

We prepared a 3 step checklist in the hope that it would help you choose the best semi permanent makeup course or academy.

1) What are the credentials of my teacher?

Find out the full name, picture, evidence of previous work, period of treatment and training experience of the teacher who will train you. 

Established academies would make this information openly available on their website without the need for you to ask. If you are not immediately seeing the name and picture of the person who will train you and her/his credentials on the website of an academy, this should be considered as a red flag. Some academies may even resort to hiring inexperienced SPMU artists for the day of your course.

Remember, the more experienced your teacher, the more experience she/he is likely to share with you. 

Experience only comes with time. It is commonly accepted that 10.000 hours of experience is the bare minimum to master a new skill. This means that your teacher should have a minimum of 8 years of active training experience (not artist experience). 

Gina Lee, your teacher, has 14 years of traceable active SPMU training experience. She is also an SPMU Certification Judge since 2012.

2) How many graduates does the academy have?

Established academies will openly share this information on their website as this would be in their best interest, reflecting positively on the training experience of the academy in question.

Lack of this information should be a red flag.

3) How well did graduates do after completing their spmu courses?

Expecting immediate success from every single graduate is not realistic but if the academy in question is operating long enough with a good track record, there must be a natural string of evidence of successful graduates. 

Established academies would share the work and success of the graduates openly as this would be in their best interest.  

If you are not seeing this information openly, it is probably because there is none. 

We hope the above helps you in choosing the best SPMU academy!