Previous work
Taken out, or worked over?
These are two different jobs, done by two different people, and working out which one you need is the whole question.
To be clear at the top: Mugi works over existing pigment. She does not do saline or laser removal, and there is no price list for it here, because quoting somebody else's work would be guessing.
What each one actually is
Lightening, or removal
Reducing what is already in the skin, usually across several sessions spaced weeks apart. It is a specialist job, it takes months rather than weeks, and it is not done here.
You need it when the existing work is dark, dense or in the wrong place, because nothing new will sit convincingly on top of it and adding more only makes it heavier.
Working over it
Building a new brow on what is left of the old one: neutralising the tone where it has gone grey or ashy, and shading over the top to give the shape back its edges.
It works when the old work has faded a reasonable amount and the shape underneath is close to right. That describes a lot of what comes through the door, but not all of it.
How to tell which one you are looking at
Look at your brows in daylight, without makeup, and ask two questions. First: is the shape roughly where you would want a brow to be, or does it sit outside your own? Second: is the colour still visible from across a room, or has it faded to something you notice only close up?
Faded, and roughly the right shape, usually means it can be worked over. Still strong, or a shape that is not yours, usually means lightening first. A shape that is too long, too high or too wide is the case where covering makes things worse, because covering can only add.
Waiting is also a real option, and an underrated one. Work that is already fading may be much easier to build on in a year.
Send a photograph and find out which one you need
Bare brows, no makeup, ordinary daylight, straight on. Tell her roughly when the work was done and what was done, if you know. If the answer is that you need lightening somewhere else first, that is what you will be told.
Questions about removal and correction
No. Neither is offered at Ink Mugi. Mugi works over existing pigment where that is the right answer, and tells you plainly when it is not. If your work needs lightening first, that is a job for a removal specialist.
Broadly: work that is light, evenly faded and roughly the right shape can usually be worked over. Work that is dark, dense, or drawn well outside your natural brow usually needs lightening before anything new will look right on top of it. Which yours is cannot be settled from a description, only from looking at it, and a photograph is enough to start.
Because new pigment sits over old pigment rather than replacing it, and both fade together. Going darker to hide something dark makes the brow heavier, and heavier is the direction that is hard to come back from. A brow can be made bigger; it cannot be made smaller.
That is a question for whoever does it, and the answer depends on how much pigment there is and how deep it sits. It is generally several sessions spaced weeks apart, so it is measured in months rather than weeks. No timeline or price for it is published here, because it is not this studio’s work to quote.
You get told that, along with the reasoning and what to look for in whoever does it. Nobody is charged for being told that the answer is somewhere else.
Sometimes, and that is a genuinely underrated option. Work that is already fading and roughly the right shape can look a good deal better in a year with nothing done to it, and then be easy to build on. Patience is free and it is occasionally the right answer.
The fuller picture of what can and cannot be done about existing work is on the previous-work page, and if you are trying to work out what went wrong in the first place, the problem pages go through each of them.
Related Microblading Problems
Explore the complete guide to common microblading issues and how they're worked over with powder brows.