LadyGang - LG QUICKIE: Long Live Shaughnessy, The Eyebrow Queen!

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

The Canadian master of microblading is making her rounds in the US and stops by to talk to Becca & Jac about her humble beginnings, as well as her gift of tattooing on natural features like eyebrows, freckles and even nipples! Vote for the LadyGang for the 2018 People's Choice Award at pca.eonline.com. Follow the podcast on Instagram @theladygang and you can email Jac, Becca and Keltie at Hello [e-mail]! And check out the show page @ladygangtv! And thank you to today's sponsors: Amazon = Go to amazon.com/shop/ladygang to find their favorite products while keeping the podcast FREE! Fossil SmartWatches = The Fossil Gen 4 smartwatch starts at $255 at Fossil.com/ladygang MedMen = Visit MedMen today and mention the LadyGang for $10 off your order (limit 1 per customer) Under Armour = Download Under Armour’s MapMyRun and MyFitness Pal in the Apple App Store or Google Play store and take control of your goals today See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, The Hollywood Girl Posse, with Lady Gang Quickie. Here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Lady Gang Quickie with Becca Tobin, Jack Vanek. And we have a special guest filling in for Kelty Knight today. She is the microblading queen, probably of the world. I was going to say Canada, but she's here touching everyone's faces in the United States.

Shaughnessy. Hi. Hi. So this is crazy, but I was talking to my sister-in-law and I was like, she's coming on the podcast. Like, what should we ask her? Because we live in LA where everybody is doing everything to their faces and nothing's foreign and everyone's really comfortable.

she's like um can somebody explain to me what microblading is well because people number one like eyebrow tattooing has been around for a while but it used to be would you actually use a tattoo gun on your face yeah i mean i i don't know back in the day definitely that was the option you get a full filled in brow that can discolor over years and turn blue and you don't really get much of a shape option but times have changed and it's come so far so what exactly is it now so now it's it's still tattooing it's a form of tattooing done by hand so it's like these tiny little micro needles basically aligned in a row as like a shading needle and you are etching in tiny little hair strokes and filling them with pigment and it's just a thin little line so it creates more

of a hair stroke look rather than a filled in powdered look it's more semi-permanent right yeah so it's done a little bit more superficially in the layers of your skin so as you exfoliate or use like retinol or chemical peels or anything like that it'll eventually leave your body um it'll fade over time and kind of shrink and soften so you can change your mind yeah i'm on day three full disclosure your brows are looking tight they're so good so shaughnessy lives in vancouver and she you were the pioneer of microblading so everybody started following her that lives in la and now people are like copying her but no big deal um but so i saw on her instagram she's coming to la because she does like la new york dallas correct like a couple

times a year yeah so i was always very anti-microblading because i just felt like i'm too scared you told me not to do it like a bunch of times yeah and i told jack not to do it sorry didn't listen it's fine you should never listen to me i know um but i was like you know what if i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do it with shaughnessy i'm sending her a dm and i'm getting in when she comes to la so i'm on day three and it's like it's a life-changing experience and i've had so many compliments even though i'm like in a weird healing phase like i'm darker than they'll probably be um but i've had so many compliments and like waking up in the morning and not having to do anything to my eyebrows already i was like the next day the morning when you just wake up

and you're like i'm done i'm ready it's so magical it's the best thing legitimately that i have ever done yeah because my eyebrows were up like i plucked and tweezed them all through high school they stopped growing back there's not an amount of any kind of a serum i could have put on my face the hair follicles were dead yeah no hair so i would be so insecure because my eyebrows were so patchy and they looked ridiculous on my face and i don't wear makeup so for me being able to wake up and not have to put anything on my face is like the best thing in the world yeah and also i guess a little bit of like your history i got to know while you were microblading my brows um So you started working in a tattoo shop.

Yeah, so I was going to art university and working in a tattoo studio at the same time. And I ended up working my way up to being the manager there. Started as front desk, kind of worked my way up. And just being around the front desk all the time. We always got women coming in asking if we did brow tattooing or permanent makeup or anything. Any of those terms that they used back in the day. And I always turned them away. And then eventually I was like, you know what?

I feel like there's a need for this. everything i've seen around vancouver is very fake looking and um i have a lot of drawing background i draw portraits and have realism painting experience and it's like i think i could do a pretty good natural looking eyebrow yeah and yeah luckily i was already working in a studio that could take clients right away and it just kind of blew up on instagram how did you like make that take the turn of like actually taking someone's face no no who was the first person that you did microblading on how terrified how scary were they how terrified were you i think you asked me that too the other day and i don't know i don't feel like i'm a very nervous person

when it comes to stuff like that like i don't know i'm not a very shaky i have a very steady hand so that first stroke didn't scare me i don't know i was in my course too so it was kind of under supervision with a lot of other people but yeah i don't know i've never really been scared so all these girls ask when we discuss it on the podcast because kelty and jack both have had microbladed brows for a while now and girls are always like how do you know when someone's good how do you what do you look for yeah i think that's the scariest thing is there's so many people doing it these days and people will be like oh my nail salon does microblading i'll just go there and it's like they just hear the term and they don't look at the portfolios or look at the healed work

and it's a little terrifying it's your face yeah exactly so i do a lot of cover-ups so like what What questions should you ask? I mean, ultimately, look at their work first. Unfortunately, with Instagram, you see so many photos, and you don't know if it's actually their work. So it's really hard. I mean, our photos get stolen all the time, and it's horrible. But I don't know. Just do as much research as you possibly can.

Are there, like, big no-nos on if you see them doing something like? well it's hard because the general consumer is probably not going to know what sort of like health board things they went through or there's licensing and stuff you need and nobody knows what questions to ask so i feel like i need to do a blog post i'm like what to ask what to look for in an artist yeah um okay before we get into like the really fun things that you're doing jack's very excited to talk about it um we have a lot of like lady gang girl bosses like starting their own business using social media to get themselves out there like you for you to be living in british columbia and to have people demanding you come to dallas to touch their faces

like it's definitely the power of instagram oh yeah percent yeah so like what advice would you give to girls who are trying to there's so many makeup artists out there and hairstylists like to get out there and get their work noticed honestly i find like taking good quality photos really makes a huge difference i've tried so many different iphones and different cameras and like i feel like i'm always trying to strive for the best lighting and you got to kind of keep up with that you have to always have the newest phone and make sure you're taking really clear photos and not only do you want to showcase your work but you want your client to look beautiful like you don't want to show someone who's just come from the gym and is all greasy like you kind of got

to stage it a bit but obviously it's your portfolio so you want to show your best work Yeah, and you're really good at interacting with people who follow you, Jack included. I'm like, please, I don't know when I'm going to go up to Canada, but please do my eyebrows. Have you ever done anything specific on social media to try to get your following to be where it is? Or was it an organic thing, people kind of tagging their friends in photos? I mean, I'm lucky enough, before I even started tattooing, I had a bit of a follower. I think I had around 21,000 before I started tattooing, which was cool, but that was back when it was a lot of tattooed girls and people would just follow you for your selfies and it was awesome. But luckily, I think I was kind of one of the first to post before and after photos and for clients to relate to that before photo and be like, oh, that kind of looks like me.

Maybe I could look like that. Yeah. That makes a huge difference and people will tag their friends and it just is like a snowball effect, which is so cool. so true because i actually was i think i was converted when i saw before and after oh really yeah because people would always be like no your brows are they're not like they're not bad they're fine yeah so don't do it it can mess them up so badly and then i would go on and see i think you were the only person doing before and after and i was like oh if that looks like my brow and she can make it look this much better like sign me up you also do other than eyebrows freckles which

char i love a freckle so cute they're so cute i feel like it's gonna be the new wave of oh yeah people are doing right it's already happening has anybody that has freckles gotten mad that you tattoo freckles oh all the time really i feel like on instagram my comments are 50 50 for freckles or against them like people are like i spend so much money lasering these off and you guys are paying money to get them put on oh my god yeah i can see people getting mad about yeah it's like boob jobs it's like yeah a lot of people get reductions and i'm sure they're like why on earth would people want them totally when i just paid to get rid of them right the freckles are so cute you guys have to go over to her instagram it's like i never wanted freckles i

have like weird moles on my face so i wanted nothing and now i'm like damn it they're cute they're so cute like sun-kissed and youthful and did you start this trend i don't know i always feel weird saying that like i started it i was the first but i i don't know i honestly feel like when i was working at that tattoo studio i would draw on freckles on my face and this was probably like six or seven years ago now and i remember asking some of the guys like would you tattoo these on my face and they're like no way i'm never tattooing your face so as soon as i was certified and ready to tattoo i was like i just tattooed my own face and posted it on instagram and now Everybody wants freckles.

Do you do the freckle tattoos with a real tattoo gun, right? Yeah, with a machine, yeah. God, that's so crazy. It's so cool. Maybe next time you're here. So you also do nipples. I do nipples. We need to talk about the nipple tattoos.

Number one, you are the most incredible artist ever. Oh, thank you. Like these are the most realistic nipple tattoos I've ever seen in my entire life. That's probably why they get taken down. Yeah. Because they look so real. people are like what is this report it right away i mean how did you learn to do that it's it's like mind-blowing when you see these before and after it was really difficult when i was like

first drawing nipples just to like see how realistic i could get them to find like good quality high def nipple photos you can they're always blurry so i had some friends send me photos of nipples and oh yeah nipple and yeah i don't know i just i drew a lot and i do draw a lot of portraits and stuff so i think that detail and realism just comes a little more naturally which is nice do these women get emotional like oh yeah yeah lots of hugs lots of tears it's so sweet sometimes they'll bring their husbands in and they'll just get so excited and it's especially when it's like a woman who's had a mastectomy but hasn't gone through that final phase and it's been over 10 years and they just kind of like left it yeah with nothing and for

them to be like oh my gosh this is what i used to look like that's so awesome amazing yeah that's so sweet and assholes on instagram flag your photo and get it taken down and i start screaming she gets very guilty i'm like who the would flag that it is like are you kidding me it is the most wonderful thing for somebody to experience and to get back and reclaim from themselves and And I feel like everyone knows someone or has a family member who's gone through that. Like, I think maybe there's not enough awareness of, like, what the actual progress is when you have to go through these kind of procedures. Like, people don't know that you lose everything or what kind of scarring is involved. So maybe that's why I need to keep posting.

Show people what happens. No, honestly, you need to. And I feel like, I mean, I guess with Instagram's, like, weird guidelines or whatever, but I feel like if something like that got to the top of Instagram. Yeah. And somebody high up being like, these are the type of photos that are getting flagged for this reason. It's the most ridiculous thing ever. Totally. People send me messages all the time like, how is this photo up?

And your photos don't even stay up. They send me very provocative photos. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know where the rules are. But it's getting better. I think there must have been someone who's gone through my account and been like, she's good. She can stay. And then don't you first post a photo of a drawing or something like that?

and then you just swipe to see it. Yeah, like I don't want to just force people to look at that because sometimes I open my phone and it's left open on one of the tattoos that I've done. I'm like, oh, I'm in a restaurant right now. Maybe I should close that. So if you don't want to see it, then you don't have to swipe, right?

It is such a wonderful thing that you're doing and I think that a lot of people can appreciate it. I don't think people realize what it's like to go your whole life looking one way and then one day you look in the mirror and you're naked and you're in your bathroom or whatever and totally it's a shocking image like and you have to get used to that again yeah so i can only imagine getting that back and like you already go through so much with your body and emotionally and

you know that's just it's so cool that's true well we were even saying like when we wear those skin colored pasties like it's a shock if you forget you have them and you take your shirt off that looks different very like a cyborg yeah like a robot yeah um okay so what are your least favorite beauty trends that people are doing right now that you wish you could be like please stop when it comes to like microblading or just anything anything anything but maybe anything start with microblading like what's your biggest pet peeve when you see microbladed uh i think for me when they're so perfect that it looks fake like i always try to make everything look as organic as possible i want it to blend with your hairs i want it to look like the wind has blown

them and just brush them into the perfect spot um but when they're so perfect and every hair is so parallel with the next one it looks robotic it looks like a machine did it and it also makes the rest of your face look crooked if they're like so perfectly symmetrical so a little bit of imperfection is good you don't want people to know that you had it done no your your brows are like the fluffiest ones and it looks so good like they all look so great they're so good um what about i've seen some people start starting to do like lip tinting and stuff like that oh yeah do you do that we don't do it at our studio we've had a couple of our artists who are interested in learning i feel like i've seen a lot of artists in australia who do a really great job at it

how long does that last for though i don't know it's hard to say it's done with a machine as well so it could definitely last but i feel like your lips are constantly exfoliating yeah i don't know I personally don't know much about that type of tattooing. That area is just such a different type of skin, too. Right. But I think it could look nice if it's a really natural, sheer color. Okay, and then I also learned a fun fact about Shaughnessy. Her husband is her business partner.

Yep. How do you do it? Because... Oh, everyone always asks me that. It's so fascinating. It seems like you have such a good thing going, and I'd murder Zach. Are you guys around each other all the time? we are but at the same time i'm with clients all day long and i'm kind of in the zone there whereas

he deals with like the payroll and ordering supplies and just constantly running errands and by the end of the day we're like how was your day like barely even saw you so we're in and out we're in the same building all day but yeah we don't i don't know i think we complement each other really well he's very organized and likes to plan the entire day out and he'll he'll kind of repeat himself to make sure that everything goes smoothly which i think is cool i'm kind of like let's just go and see what happens let's just figure it out whatever so it's good and bad about like big decisions like does he let you kind of because you're the face of the company and it's like essentially your skill that's yeah i mean anything creative he'll just leave to me like the branding

the website everything i've done he's like that's your thing go for it but when it comes to like decisions when we're spending money or like what type of products to carry like he does have a say which i appreciate and he has really good taste he's got great style so i do lucky yeah is he creative yeah he's a musician as well but even just like fashion wise he always looks put together he's always like that would be so intimidating yeah yeah he shops more than i do i would say does he shop for you too yeah he dresses me half the time shut up i want that i know and you have the coolest style like oh thank you yeah you can see it on instagram i feel like these people are really missing out though the in person is good oh yeah okay so you just got married i did advice

for brides when it comes to like deciding on your dress and like the makeup that you're doing like we get a lot of people that are like they go overboard yeah they don't look like themselves oh yeah i i definitely wanted to look like myself i mean i don't wear a ton of makeup naturally i have my brows done i don't need to um for me i always tell people not that i'm like an old seasoned veteran or anything but don't have too many expectations when you're planning a wedding like i found a florist i loved on instagram and i told her just do whatever because i love your work and i walked into the room and it was beautiful and i didn't even care what color the flowers were or anything what is your astrological sign scorpio are you serious

yeah that's so not is that opposite of scorpios no not like necessarily but you're but i'm like the last day i'm november 21st so i don't know what that means does that mean i'm more sagittarius maybe i mean more but like you're not you don't seem to have like that like aren't scorpios like super meticulous like really like mysterious yeah do you get jealous a lot um i wouldn't say so maybe a tiny bit nothing unusual okay you're not you're a rarity was your husband a bridezilla at all or we're both just like chill he we're both i think pretty chill i don't know he was just like cool whatever i'm wearing boots you guys are like i got myself a pair of boots i know i need like some of your zen for my life i know i mean she's an artist i would have guessed like

a pisces really pisces are really creative they're very easy going they're not like big planners yeah it's like my mom's a pisces really is she is she an artist yeah okay she's very creative yeah um all right well thanks for coming by thank you and we're gonna so everyone go over and she's just shaughnessy like madonna so good luck spelling that i mispronounced your name the entire time i'm like i think her name is shaughnessy it's shaughnessy right that sounds like an irish yeah yeah okay spell it s-h-a-u-g-h-n-e-s-s-y oh my god what do you get at starbucks all of it everything i think your name is like sharon yeah shagginess it's the g that throws everyone off it's silent do you use a fake name no i always try to see

what happens it's fun ballsy all right if you live in canada she has a studio sashiko yep okay she's there she's a lot of very talented people working for her she's a lady boss and um follow her on instagram if you live in dallas new york or la do you go anywhere else i might be here a lot more in the future yes there might be something brewing can you tell no very well okay no Preliminary, but you local ladies might be able to get her hands on you more easily soon. All right. Thanks for coming. Thank you.

Follow us at the Lady Gang. And what do we say for the quickie? No. We're not here for a long time, but we're here for a good time. That escalated quickly. Thanks for joining us on Lady Gang Quickie. Check out new episodes of Lady Gang every Tuesday and more quickies every Thursday on PodcastOne.com, the PodcastOne app, and Apple Podcasts. We'll be right back.