Beauty is her business

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From a professional photographer to mastering the art of creating beautiful
brows, enhancing lips and perfecting permanent eyeliner. With her artistic eye, Mandi Barnard will help you look and feel gorgeous … permanently.

Meeting Mandi Barnard you might feel a tad intimidated. She is cool, calm and collected. And those fierce red lips tell one thing … this woman means business! But, behind that persona, you will discover someone with an infectious laugh and quirky sense of humour. No wonder she is so popular with all her clients.

Mandi’s career in the beauty industry took off around seven years ago when she had a microblading procedure – not thinking for one moment that this eventually will become her bread and butter.

‘I’ve always had fairly good eyebrows, but as I got older, the beginning and tail end of my arches started thinning out. I eventually got tired of filling them in with make-up all the time, so microblading just seemed like the best option.

‘It wasn’t the most pleasant experience ever, and also not the worst, it was just plain meh! At that stage, it was still a fairly new procedure in SA and the technique more painful than it is nowadays. Though, discomfort and everything else aside, there was just something so fascinating about microblading. So much so that I went for a short course in the art of microblading. To my disappointment, the level of training was mediocre …

‘Do I pursue this career further or continue as a professional wedding and lifestyle photographer? The answer came easy and microblading became the leap of faith I took that grew into something unimaginable.’

What we put out into the universe, we will get right back, just like an echo

Luckily, being quite artistic and a visual learner, Mandi took to the internet, did loads of research, attended workshops, courses and masterclasses.

‘Having a photography background gave me an advantage early on in my career. I knew how to market myself professionally. I started building my client base and eventually finished my training in cosmetic tattooing – permanent make-up, semi-permanent, cosmetic tattooing, micropigmentation … call it what you want, they’re all the same. Soon after, my clients started to request more procedures like liners and lips.

‘So, now I had more knowledge, experience and a decent client base … Although I was loving my work and the procedures, the results were just not what I had hoped for. I wasn’t happy with the support and training I had at the time, also not with the products I was using. I took a step back and knew something big had to change.’

Some social media snooping, a lot of research and Swiss Color (a global company with expertise in micro pigments for permanent make-up and microblading) crossed paths
with Mandi.

‘Two years later, international training, blood (literally), sweat, tears and travelling so much in 24 months that my suitcase was packed permanently, I’m finally happy where I am in my career. I have my very own training academy, Mandi Barnard Academy, and I’m a master trainer and distributor of products, pigments and digital devices for Swiss Color International in South Africa.

‘I also offer internationally recognised training courses in Microblading, Permanent Make-up, Paramedical (Areola, Scalp, Camouflage & Derma SR8) Lift Meso Therapy, advanced classes, one on one, and international masterclasses.’

For Mandi beauty and personal care are of the utmost importance, because when a woman looks good she feels good.

‘The moment I’ve finished their treatment and my clients look in the mirror is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Watching their faces light up, I know they feel like a different person.

‘You’ve given me back so much confidence,’ they say. And that’s the single most important thing to me. It’s what motivates me to achieve the best results for every single person who walks into my treatment room.’

There is nothing Mandi enjoys more than kicking off her heels after a long day and play with her three dogs and parrot. And can we let you in on a secret …?

She can sing, like really well. A few years ago she even launched a couple of albums! Multi-talented she is indeed. A loss to the music industry, but a huge gain to the beauty industry!

Details: Follow her on Facebook, @mandibarnardmicropigmentation or Instagram, @mandi_barnard

Text: RIALIEN FURSTENBERG. • Photographer: CJ Heyman . • Touch-ups: Elaine Boshoff.

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