Waking up with perfect eyebrows is no longer a pipe dream with permanent makeup specialist Rebecca Chung around. An unstoppable pioneer in the beauty business, she intends to make women feel and look unstoppable too.
Amongst the plethora of beauty salons embedded in Hong Kong, Rebecca Chung’s PrincessBrows is frequently graced by the presence of social media influencers and local celebrities. Its innovative treatments – from Rebecca’s revolutionary technique of microblading in Hong Kong, a globally used manual semi-permanent eyebrow solution, to the city’s first hairline and lash tattoo endeavours – are a captivating draw that reflect the latest advances in the cosmetics industry. Here, Rebecca told Hive Life how perfecting the art of the ideal eyebrow saw her build a business with legs.
Rebecca first dipped her toes into the world of permanent makeup when travelling as a professional musician became less than ideal after the birth of her child. “Beauty was always my passion,” she states. “I’ve always been into beauty technology, trends, cosmetics, and skincare. I was interested in whatever made me beautiful.” Determined to develop her skills, she tried to seek out training in the latest techniques at home in Hong Kong but found the teaching lacking. To track down the latest technology, she travelled to Taiwan, Russia, America, China, picking up the best skills she could along the way.
In 2009, whilst still a novice, Rebecca’s friend begged her for perfect eyebrows, and so her first client was born, instantly becoming the new beautician’s walking advertisement. That friend’s enthusiasm helped attract more clients to Rebecca’s then one-woman salon PrincessBrows, and the next thing she knew she was overseeing a staff of 18, developing her own line of products including G.E.L Lashes now sold in America, Canada, and Asia and operating an increasingly high profile beauty centre that regularly saw social media influencers and celebrities walking through its doors.
The turning point came when Rebecca took the popular technology of microblading and put her own spin on it, using smaller blades to give clients more natural hairline strokes. Her own manufacturer created nanoneedles for her to debut her version of microblading in Hong Kong, a manual, semi-permanent version of your grandma’s tatted brows with a more realistic looking finish achieved using a bundle of 12 to 15 needles to infuse the pigments as they cut into the skin. This successful take is now used worldwide and has proved perfect for many. For those who can’t quite hack it – Rebecca included – they offer an alternative. “I don’t like the idea of the blade cutting my skin,” the beauty therapist admits. “Also, I have Keloid skin type, so the scars from the cuts would raise. So, as an alternative, we have a machine to do the hair strokes without cutting the skin.”
Alongside this signature treatment, PrincessBrows also offers other services that reflect the latest in permanent and semi-permanent treatments such as slimming treatments, areola tattooing, body whitening and more. All require a careful, methodical approach. Some, such as their fairly new Plasma Skin Regeneration treatment, where blemishes on the face are burned for facial and skin rejuvenation, only work on certain ethnicities. “It doesn’t work on oriental skin types because we have hyperpigmentation, so when the scab comes off, you are left with a dark brown spot that will take six to nine months to fade.”
Adamant that she will always do what’s right for each specific person, Rebecca takes an honest approach to her clientele, saying of those who refuse to take her advice, “I will advise them to go to someone else. When I work on their face, their face represents me, so I do not want to do something that is against my beauty judgement. I don’t follow trends, instead, I follow what suits my clients and what harmonises their face, what makes them look good.” With plans to expand her shop in the offing, it’s a method that’s clearly gained traction, one perfectly manicured brow at a time.
