When Shpresa “Elssa” Duli, worked for high-end retailers — including Neiman Marcus, Berdorf Goodman, Harrods in London Harvey Nichols, and Saks Fifth Avenue as the Director of Business Developed — she’d listen to her makeup clients complain about their brows.

Seeking a solution for them, the native of Montenegro became intrigued by microblading, a technique that uses a small blade to add pigment to the skin and create hairlike strokes. This led to her becoming a licensed Paramedical Cosmetic Tattoo Artist.

Paramedical Cosmetic Tattoo License goes hand in hand with her Cosmetology License and Aesthetician License. It helps to understand the anatomy of her client’s skin tone and undertone when performing permanent makeup and semi-permanent makeup.

Today she calls herself “the face architect” and is recognized as a top PMU artist in Edgewater, NJ.

“I soon realized microblading isn’t only for women. I have given brows to firefighters who have been burned in a fire, men with alopecia where brows don’t grow, and chefs who have lost brows to hot stoves. …I also have worked with women whose eyebrows didn’t grow back after chemotherapy,” said Duli, who began her career as a hairstylist and makeup artist in 1999 for high fashion runway shows and top fashion magazines.

“Being in the beauty industry for over 15 years, brows have always been my favorite part of the face. No matter how great the makeup and hair looked, if the brows weren’t perfect, everything else didn’t matter,” she said.

Unlike tattooing, microblading only works on the surface of the skin and looks very natural.

It’s very important for clients to feel comfortable with the artist. My favorite quote I say to everyone is ‘it’s not you, it’s your brows’.