Hi! My name is Collette and I am the owner of Highbrow Clinic located in Bedford, Nova Scotia. A lot of people are surprised to hear that I am not an aesthetician and have never worked in (not in my wildest dreams) the beauty industry. In fact, I worked in the automotive industry my entire adult life, and was eventually planning on going back to school to become an electrician. That is, until I got my eyebrows Microbladed, and the rest of my life changed. You see, like most people, I over plucked my already thin eyebrows in the early 2000’s to match that horrible trend! Pairing that travesty with the fact that my hair is so blonde it’s practically see through, and well, I essentially was left with so little brow hair that when you stood ten feet away from me, you couldn’t see any eyebrows at all. This was a constant source of embarrassment for me and severely impacted my confidence. I think a lot of us who are faced with the lack of brows understand what I’m talking about. I remember going camping and waking up at an ungodly hour to get that brow makeup on before anyone else awoke. Or taking a nice swimming break but constantly asking my friends if my ‘brows were running’. Or, the most dreaded brow test of all, sleeping over at a new boyfriends house and desperately trying to fill those suckers in before he realizes! Anyways, all this said, in and around 2009 I remember visiting a local tattoo shop and flipping through their catalogue of tattooed brows…. I wanted the service so desperately, but, something just didn’t quite sit right. I still thank all that is holy to this day that I didn’t take that plunge and something told me to hold out. Fast forward a few years and it’s 2014, I’m working at Porsche at the time and a new colleague of mine tells me her beautiful blonde eyebrows ‘aren’t real’. I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. I walked over and literally began touching her eyebrows and gasped in shock to hear that they were, in fact, Microbladed. I became obsessed with the idea and immersed myself in all things Microblading. I booked an appointment with the woman who did my colleagues brows, Jodi Stowski at the Cinnamon Girl Clinic in Calgary. I was at stoked. I would stare at Jodi’s gallery day and night and just count down the moments. Then came the positive pregnancy test, and there went my dreams of perfect brows (at least for that moment). But, what came instead, was the incredible concept of Scar Camouflage, something Jodi Stowski essentially invented and brought my attention to, and it quickly became something that inspired me and left me with a feeling that one day I knew I would want to return to. An additional 2 kids later, and a move across the country, lead me to Halifax, NS. A little time out of the auto industry and I knew I didn’t want to go back. I knew in my heart that after I was finished being a stay at home mum, I wanted to become a permanent makeup artist when I ‘grew up’ and it was something I would begin once my youngest started school. In April 2020, my father, my best friend in the universe, died suddenly and it shook my entire world. It was soon after that the concept of ‘life’s too short’ became something I began living every moment by. Literally. And through that, I decided it was time to do the one thing I hadn’t stopped dreaming of for nearly a decade- to fully emerge myself into the field of Permanent Makeup. I got my own Microblading done by someone local, after nearly 2 years of watching and waiting for the right artist for me. I went to my appointment eager for a transformation that was over 12 years in the making but also to discuss their career and what I could expect. I bent her ear and asked as many questions as I could, and lucky for me the artist was happy to share her experiences and expertise. When I finally saw myself with my new eyebrows, I broke down in tears. I knew right then and there that not only was this the best decision I had ever made for my self confidence, it was something I was going to be able to personally be able to do for others, each day, with my eventual career. From that moment on I lived and breathed Microblading and Permanent Makeup. I took multiple courses, including Scar Camouflage with Jodi Stowski. I spent countless hours practising and honing my skills. I knew this was something I wanted to be 100% skilled in before going live, and I knew (especially as a perfectionist) that it needed to be the best. In January of 2021 I opened the doors to Highbrow Clinic and opened the doors to the rest of my life. I can proudly say that I absolutely love going to work each day. I leave my clinic in a better mood than when I go in. I have spent time with clients who have touched my hearts in ways I cannot describe. We have shared stories and laughter and tears and moments and each one of them I can proudly say I have helped bring them that same experience I felt the day I got my eyebrows. That feeling I spent 10 years working towards, I still feel it each morning when I wake up and see myself in the mirror, and I feel it each time I hand the mirror to my clients. Sometimes people know from a very early age what it is that they want to be when they grow up. Some people go through career counselling, some people have multiple degrees (some people like my father, go back to school at 50 because they still didn’t nail it). At the end though, it doesn’t matter to me how I got here, all that matters is that I know for me, this is it. This is what I am meant to do. When I give someone new brows or I blend their scars from past trauma, I am giving them a piece of my heart (yes, I know, corny, but true!). I know the feeling, and I’m so unbelievably ecstatic to help bring that feeling to each incredible person who trusts me enough to walk through my doors.
Here is an actual picture of how I used to draw on my brows in 2008!! EEEEKK!!
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