Permanently Beautiful

The ever-growing popularity of permanent makeup is attracting a host of newcomers to the marketplace. Some spas and beauty salons, plastic surgeons and dermatologists, even a few tattoo parlors have started advertising permanent cosmetics services. With so many new players in the field, how do you choose a permanent makeup artist?

Artist is the key word. Many technicians have the technical skill to tattoo eyebrows or lips; but unless that technical skill is artistically applied, the results can be more Frankenstein than Angelina Jolie. Permanent makeup, a specialized form of cosmetic tattooing, is as much an art form as it is a paramedical procedure. Artistically applied by an experienced and knowledgeable permanent cosmetics artist, permanent makeup can enhance your natural features and correct minor flaws, making you appear more beautiful. Skill can be taught, but artistry comes from within. Anyone can paint a picture; there are few Rembrandts in the world.

The discovery of a Rembrandt is a precious gem that transcends the layman-like brush work of most painters, elevating art from ordinary to magnificent. In the world of permanent makeup, Melany Whitney is a Rembrandt, using the face as her canvas and carefully blended pigments as her paint. One of the nation’s most respected permanent makeup artists, Melany is a highly sought teacher of the profession. A professional artist and former makeup artist, Melany brings years of well-honed experience, extraordinary technique, intimate knowledge of facial features and a rare and unique artistry to her permanent makeup clients.

Beauty gives you a competitive edge in the workplace. It’s something most of us have long suspected but hated to admit — that attractive men and women rise faster and earn more in the business world. Known as “beauty bias,” it’s the reason the pretty girl gets the job and the cute guy gets the promotion. Fortunately, artistically-applied permanent makeup can level the playing field and make “beauty bias” work for you.

Consider these facts from an article published on Newsweek online:

• Attractive men earn 5% more and attractive women, 4% more than their average-looking coworkers.
• A handsome guy will earn $250,000 more over his lifetime than an ugly Joe.
• To compete more effectively at work, 13% of women and 10% of men would undergo cosmetic surgery.
• 57% of hiring managers admitted that unattractive people have a harder time landing a job than their more attractive counterparts, even if they have better qualifications.
• Hiring managers recommend job applicants spend as much time and money on their appearance as on their resume.
• In a ranking of desirable employee attributes, appearance ranked third behind experience and confidence, beating education which came in fourth.
• 84% of hiring managers said visibly older job candidates, particularly women, are usually passed over in favor of younger, more vigorous looking applicants.

Make the “beauty bias” work for you. Find out about permanent makeup today.

It turns out there’s more than a smattering of truth to the perception that beautiful people get more than their fair share of the good things in life. Beauty pays, particularly at the office. Called the “Beauty Premium” by economists, pretty women and handsome men do, in fact, have an easier time getting a job, earn more money and rise higher and faster up the corporate ladder than their less attractive coworkers. 

Beauty may be only skin deep, but it confers measurable advantages that affect every aspect of a person’s life. Studies have shown that beautiful people receive more attention than those who are less attractive. The bias begins early in life. Scientists have found that babies stare longer at people with attractive faces and that pretty children receive more attention from parents, teachers and friends. The beauty bias extends throughout life to bosses, mentors and potential mates. In the workplace, handsome men earn 5% more and beautiful women, 4% more than their average-looking coworkers. Hard work and merit have their benefits, but in the business world pretty people are more apt to reel in that big account, get that plum assignment or be awarded that kick-ass promotion.

Savvy businessmen and women are turning to permanent cosmetics to enhance their natural beauty, correct facial flaws and improve their competitive edge at work.

More about the beauty bias on Thursday

Melting in NYC

Ugh! The mercury climbed to 100 degrees in Central Park yesterday with no relief in sight! The heat wave blanketing the Northeast is expected to keep NYC temperatures languishing in the high 90s and triple digits for most of the week. Steamy subway platforms have turned usually crisply turned out New Yorkers into post-match World Cup wanna-bes. Until temperatures drop again, the rumpled, sweaty look will be de rigueur for city residents.

Baking between the city’s concrete towers, New Yorkers struggled back to work today after the long holiday weekend, clothes limp and hair straggling in the sweat. Putting on makeup was a farce. Less than 10 steps out the door and you could feel it melting down your face! By the time you arrived at the office you were lucky to have a few streaks of eyeliner smudged down your cheek.

Summer has barely started. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like in August? You might as well dump your makeup down the drain now for all the good it’s going to do you. Or you could be smart and get artistically applied permanent makeup. When all around you people are melting, permanent makeup keeps you looking fresh and beautiful. Permanent makeup is the only make up tip that works when New York sizzles!

Working women who have struggled for decades to crash through the glass ceiling may be annoyed to find that hard work, long hours and superior business acumen may not be enough to propel them up the corporate ladder. A new research study by finance professors at Duke University found that facial traits play an important role in whether you move up the corporate ladder and can affect your chances of occupying that sweet corner office reserved for the company CEO. The only good news about the Duke study, titled “A Corporate Beauty Contest,” is that beauty parameters seem to apply equally to men and women. Males who lacked certain facial features were as unlikely as their female counterparts to rise in the corporate ranks.

The Duke study asked 2,000 people to rate the facial traits of corporate CEOs, non-CEOs and small business owners. Researchers found that CEOs judged to look competent earned better salaries and held loftier positions even when their companies did not perform as well as others.

Executives with strong jaw lines, small, piecing eyes and low, commanding eyebrows were judged to be competent executive and rose highest in the corporate hierarchy. Less competent executives were baby-faced with large, round eyes, high eyebrows and small chins. Although judged to be less competent, they were seen as warmer, more likable and more trustworthy.

Artistically applied permanent makeup can improve facial characteristics and camouflage facial defects to give you a more commanding appearance and enhance your climb up the corporate ladder.

A recent study gives new meaning to the  phrase Femme Fatale. Apparently, looks can kill! At least if the look is from a beautiful woman and the target of her gaze is your typical male! 

In a study conducted by University of Valencia researchers, men’s cortisol levels increased markedly when they were left alone with a beautiful woman. Cortisol is a stress hormone produced when an individual is under physical or psychological stress. High levels of cortisol have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and impotency. Tests showed that the more beautiful the woman, the higher a man’s cortisol level rose.

The study involved 84 men. Two men and an attractive woman were placed in a room. One man left the room, leaving the other man alone with the woman. In each instance, the man’s cortisol levels rose. Researchers linked the stress hormone increase to the man’s perceived courtship opportunity. In other words, as he thought about hitting on the woman, his stress levels went up. Stress seemed to be directly proportional to the man’s confidence in his potential success. Women that a man considered to be out of his league produced the most stress.

Permanent makeup can help you keep your man on his toes. When you look gorgeous 24/7, imagine what you’re doing to his stress levels? Does this mean men will give up beautiful women to protect their health? Something tells me they’ll chance it!

Dr. Mehmet Oz

In a moving segment on the Dr. Oz Show (click the link to watch), Melany Whitney was able to change the life of a woman whose badly scarred face had haunted her for 27 years. At the age of 15, Suzanne’s face was shattered in a devastating car accident. It took doctors 10 hours and 500 stitches to reconstruct her face, leaving massive, ugly scars. Five plastic surgeries were able to repair most of the facial damage but not the hideous scars. Even makeup was not able to hide all of the scarring that slashed across Suzanne’s face. At the age of 42, Suzanne felt doomed to a life where people quickly turned away on meeting her and children found her frightening. Every time she passed a mirror or caught her reflection in a shop window, she was reminded afresh of the horror of that moment long ago when her life changed forever.

Moved by Suzanne’s plight, Dr. Oz sent her to Melany. Melany carefully mixed permanent cosmetic color pigments to precisely match Suzanne’s facial skin tone. She then injected and blended the pigment into the skin layers along the white scars on her face, completely hiding the scars. When Suzanne joined Dr. Oz and Melany on stage to show off her new face, she was ecstatic. For the first time, she said, her daughter had told her, “Mommy, you’re so beautiful.”

Watch the video on our website to see how Melany and permanent cosmetics changed Suzanne’s life.

Melany Whitney's Artistry

Is it art or is it science? Permanent makeup is both. But when the results are stunningly beautiful, you know that an artist’s hand is guiding the science. The success of nationally renowned permanent makeup artist Melany Whitney comes from her unique ability to combine the precise medical and technical knowledge of a scientist with the artist’s aesthetic eye for color, line, form and beauty.

Before she rose to the top of her career as an innovator and national leader in the field of permanent makeup, Melany’s artistic talent led her to a career as an artist. An honors graduate of the School of Art and Architecture at highly respected Cornell University in New York, Melany worked as a commercial fine arts artist for The New York Times. You can see Melany’s superlative eye for the subtleties of color and the beauty of form in her stunning personal art portfolio. 

Melany’s interest in beauty and style led her into the related fields of fashion and cosmetics which allowed her to apply her professional artistry to new endeavors. Training at the Fifth Avenue offices of Estee Lauder and Revlon led to successful careers as a New York City fashion model, an actress and a professional makeup artist.

Next time: Mixing art with science: How Melany has changed the face of permanent cosmetics.

Melany Whitney, the Face of Permanent Makeup

The face is the ultimate artist’s canvas. The desire to inspire every woman’s natural beauty is what drew Melany Whitney to combine her innate artistic talent with a proficiency for medical technology and forever change the field of permanent personal beauty. Now a nationally renowned expert in the field of permanent makeup, Melany is the face and voice of the permanent makeup industry. Melany regularly appears on national television shows to talk about permanent makeup and was a recent guest on the Dr. Oz show.

As a professional artist Melany understands the importance of color and the subtleties of color mixing. An accomplished artist, model, actress and makeup artist, she is intimately familiar with the planes of the human face and is an expert in the use of color, line and shadow to create natural facial beauty.

 As an expert paramedical technician, Melany also understands the nuances in the human skin that can be created with precise micropigmentation techniques. Melany has been able to meld her prodigious artistic and technical talents to develop advanced techniques in micropigmentation that have revolutionized the permanent makeup industry. But it is not the national acclaim garners by her achievements that provides Melany with the greatest satisfaction. For Melany, satisfaction comes from the ability to use her art and skill as a permanent makeup artist to transform her patients with permanent beauty.

Before you even consider purchasing permanent makeup we recommend that you check out your prospective technician’s gallery of clients. On our own website we have before and after images of clients for all the procedures we offer:  eyebrows, eyeliner, lips, full face treatments, hair loss coverage, and a variety of scar camouflage procedures. As you evaluate your technician, do you see what you like? Is the skill repeated over numerous times? Is there a consistent professional application?

Take time to evaluate your prospective technician carefully. Yes, it is true that sometime client’s ask for a technician to do eyebrows in a certain color or style that the technician may not select to do normally, but if you see images over and over of a specific arch type, thickness, or color mismatch in the before and after images of multiple clients, you should be cautious in choosing that professional to do your own procedure.

As you review our own gallery you will see that Melany does not do eyebrows a certain way or with a certain color. She adjusts her own style to fit the needs of each face, skin type, and client. That is the mark of a true expert!

If your prospective permanent makeup technician does not have a photo portfolio to show you examples of their own work, I would recommend that you wait and not use that technician as they may be new in the field or not have work that they will want to show off to prospective clients.

In this field seeing a wide illustration of results will help you to make the decision of which professional you want to do your own permanent makeup. We know that when you choose us at the Whitney Center of Permanent Cosmetics that we will make sure that your permanent makeup is a beautiful, natural-looking reflection of your own personal unique beauty. Don’t just trust what we say, look at the photos of our clients that prove it!

We invite you to view Melany Whitney’s oil paintings to see her wonderful artistic abilities and eye for color and detail.