Photos courtesy of Salen Diep
The new-and-improved Montgomery salon NY Beauty Bar offers microblading, lash extensions, and other cosmetic procedures.
Beauty and personal care never take a back seat in the Hudson Valley. Local wellness studios, chic salons, natural skincare products, and even honey-based balms keep Valleyites looking and feeling their best. One Orange County salon specializes in luscious lashes and beautiful brows.
Montgomery’s NY Beauty Bar welcomes in-person clients to its new salon space. The renovated retreat opened its doors to customers in June 2021, offering full-set eyelash extensions, facials, and microbladed eyebrows in a wonderfully designed environment.
Right before COVID-19 put in-person appointments on hold, NY Beauty Bar owner Salen Diep began training aspiring aestheticians in the art of microblading. Microblading is a semi-permanent tattooing procedure that transforms and defines the eyebrows. Using a bundle of extra-fine needles, technicians deposit pigment into the skin to create realistic hair strokes. The process typically takes around an hour. First, before going in with the needle pen, the artist applies a numbing cream to the eyebrows. Next, unlike your standard tattoo, the needles used in microblading only penetrate the superficial layers of the skin.
Microbladed eyebrows often require a touch-up one month after the procedure. The pigment stays in the skin for one to three years. People who have their eyebrows microbladed spend significantly less time, or no time at all, filling and shaping them with makeup.
“With microblading, you’re able to transform the eyebrow shape,” Diep says. “I’ve worked on cancer patients. I worked on people that don’t have perfect brows and I give them perfect brows. The whole transformation itself just makes people smile. I have an amazing bunch of clients.”
A practicing aesthetician for over six years, Diep has garnered a loyal client base. And her business is expanding. Diep is currently booked until November of 2021 and has appointments lined up into 2023. With her new salon space, she hopes to take on several apprentices. In the past, Diep has worked with aestheticians-in-training. Many of them are high school students with an interest in the beauty industry.
Faced with an onslaught of pandemic setbacks, a resourceful Diep held microblading courses over Zoom. She provided each one of her students with a microblading kit equipped with latex sheets which newcomers used to practice. The sheets increased in difficulty over the course of the class. After each level was completed, Diep critiqued her students’ work over video or live chat.
“Once they have the depth in place, the patterns and the shape and the consistency with the blade, then it’s time for them to work on a live model,” she says.
Similarly, lip blush is a semi-permanent tattoo that heals like a tinted lip balm. According to Diep, lip blush “defines the shape of the lips and helps combat discoloration from the sun as well as aging. It brings back the lips’ youthful color.” While microblading might be Diep’s specialty, NY Beauty Bar offers a variety of cosmetic procedures including lash extensions, teeth whitening, and permanent eyeliner. The teeth-whitening procedure takes about an hour and uses hydrogen peroxide and blue LED light to remove stains.
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A relatively recent innovation in cosmetics, the microblading industry has exploded over the past few years.
“The business is definitely booming,” Diep says, “and it hasn’t stopped booming since the day it started. There are some people who aren’t doing it the right way, though,” she add, cautioning prospective clients. Before booking an appointment, Diep encourages people to do their research. “The number one thing is to make sure your technician is using the right products. Some products on the cheaper end contain a lot of titanium dioxide which has the potential to change the color of the brows and can be hard to cover up after the fact.” She also suggests that those interested in the procedure seek out an experienced technician with the proper training.
Upon entering the new-and-improved NY Beauty Bar, microblading clients will be asked to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Secondly, they will meet with their technician and discuss the shape, color and general layout of the brows. Finally, the aesthetician will draw up the proper brow shape and show it to the client.
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Diep is excited about the future of NY Beauty Bar and can’t wait to welcome clients and students into the reimagined space. Above all, she’s worked hard to foster a welcoming environment.
“I am so grateful for everything that I’ve been blessed with. I took so long designing [the new space] and I just can’t wait for everyone to see,” she says.
NY Beauty Bar
940 NY-17K, Montgomery
845.541.5673
