Review: Blink For Beauty, Minneapolis MN

Gail Lewis
The importance of well groomed eyebrows should never be underestimated.  After all, eyebrows frame our face and also has the power to transform it.  Yet there are still many of us out there, who will invest in facials and top of the line skincare and makeup, but then kind of forget about the brows...or worse yet go to an inexperienced aesthetician and get our brows completely hacked in five minutes after we have spent the last three months growing them in...ok I digress. I was given a referral (from a pretty reputable source) of a place to get my brows done before a photoshoot and ended up having a good amount of my eyebrows waxed off in a few minutes and left with horribly thin and dramatically arched brows that I have to constantly fill in (which for someone who likes to spend 5 minutes or less on her daily makeup routine, is very annoying.)  Plus I cringed every time I looked in the mirror because I looked like I was constantly surprised or tired and older...sometimes all three at the same time.  Being that I had just moved to South Beach and knew absolutely no one, I had no idea of where I should go to get them fixed, if that was even possible nor would I have trusted another "referral."  My only option was to continue filling them in and hope that since I was in the Sunshine State my eyebrows would grow in faster...because everything grows faster in the sunlight...right?

My brows did start growing in...to their natural shape and not the hyper arched scrawny line that was waxed on to my face.  While I was ecstatic (and still continue to be) about my brows growing in, they now looked a hot mess.  I needed a major brow overhaul.  Lucky for me a trip to my hometown of Minneapolis, MN for my friend's wedding was in my near future so instead of taking my chances on an unknown salon/spa and have my brows defiled, I decided to wait until I was in Minneapolis to go to the only person who understood my brows and their needs (she was actually the first person to clean and shape my brows to perfection) and immediately after booking my Flight to MN, I booked at appointment at Blink For Beauty to see THE brow guru herself, Christina Snead. Christina has been in the aesthetics and fashion industry for 12 years and is an absolute expert, you only have to glance at her brows to know that you will be in the best of hands. The first time I saw Christina was after a makeup artist shaved off most of my eyebrows and filled them in with brow powder to hide the deed (imagine my surprise after I got home and washed my face!)  I don't know how she did it, but Christina saved me from looking like something out of Star Trek and I've never looked back since.  I was hoping that she would again be able to work whatever magic it is she does and save my brows for the second time. The next morning after my flight to Minneapolis, I woke up and headed straight to Blink For Beauty (I would have gone right after my flight landed but the studio is not open at 11pm).  Upon walking through the door I immediately felt reassured and relaxed.  The space is absolutely breathtaking. It is modern and sleek yet very relaxing, warm and welcoming...much like Christina herself.  It's always a great idea to get there a bit early to browse the great selection of jewelry, dresses and beauty products that Blink For Beauty carries, I especially love the wrap bracelets and products from Coola. I didn't even need to explain the torture that my brows underwent in Miami; Christina pointed out where too much had been waxed off  and explained to me what she would be doing to clean them up as well as to make sure they would grow back into their natural shape.  In twenty minutes my brows were transformed...as well as my entire face.  No longer did I look like an surprised, angry, tired Klingon, but my face somehow looked cleaner and more refreshed.  I swear her chair has magical powers because although she is removing hair from your face, she manages to make the process absolutely relaxing and painless.  I always get a bit sad when the service is over because I absolutely love being in the Blink For Beauty studio surrounded by calming music, relaxing scents, the nicest aestheticians I have ever met and the pretty great, but hard to find beauty products.  When I did manage to tear myself away from Blink For Beauty, I of course, had to leave with a bracelet... In four weeks, when my brows are again ready for a tune up, my plan is to fly to Minneapolis and once again head straightaway to  Blink For Beauty.  I am convinced that paying for a plane ticket is a much better choice than walking around and having people speak some weird language to me because they honestly think I might be a Klingnon (thanks to my brows) and to be honest Blink For Beauty is definitely worth the plane ticket, after all they have transformed hair removal into an art form.  Now, if only I can convince founders Christina and Brook to start traveling and teaching their "art of hair removal" secrets to the rest of the nation...first stop of course would be Miami.

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