The 200 Hours You’re Wasting on Your Face Each Year — And How Cosmetic Tattooing Gets It Back
- Ira Bale
- Jun 26
- 3 min read
By Ira Bale
Founder, Ira Bale Brows – South Yarra & Toorak Village, Melbourne
Let’s stop pretending daily makeup is “just a quick part of the morning.”
If you fill in your brows, line your lips, dab on lipstick, and hope it lasts past your second coffee — you’re not saving time. You’re stuck in a loop.
At Ira Bale Brows, I’ve had hundreds of clients tell me some version of this:“I just want to wake up and look like myself — without spending half my morning doing it.”
Here’s the real question: How much time are you actually spending on your brows and lips every year? And what would happen if you got it back?
Let’s Do the Math
We broke it down based on average beauty routines our clients have shared:
Brows
Filling + shaping: ~5 minutes/day
Fixing midday smudges: ~2 minutes
Weekly maintenance (plucking, cleaning, shaping): ~15 minutes/week
→ Total: ~40 minutes/week → That’s ~35 hours a year on brows alone
Lips
Lip liner + lipstick: ~5–7 minutes/day
Retouching after meals: ~2–3 minutes
Searching for “the right shade”: unquantifiable emotional labour (but we’ll say 10 minutes/month)
→ Total: ~50 minutes/week → That’s ~43 hours a year
Total combined: ~78 hours/year And that’s being conservative.
But here’s the kicker:When we asked our long-term tattoo clients, the real number was closer to 200 hours/year when including makeup removal, mirror checks, and reapplications before events.
That’s five full work weeks.
What Cosmetic Tattooing Does (That Makeup Can’t)
At Ira Bale Brows, we don’t believe in overfilling or overcorrecting. Our brow and lip tattoos are designed to make you look like you — just sharper, healthier, more polished.
Brow Cosmetic Tattooing (Ombre, Feathering, or Microblading):
Custom brow shape tailored to your bone structure
Natural pigment shades matched to your undertone
Semi-permanent results that fade evenly
Saves 90% of your daily brow routine
Lasts 1–3 years depending on skin type and lifestyle
Lip Blush Tattooing:
Restores natural lip shape and symmetry
Creates a soft tint — no lipstick needed
Boosts definition without filler
Lasts 2–3 years
No more reapplying colour or worrying about fade
Together? These two services eliminate the most time-consuming part of your beauty routine.
Real Client Story: Yasmin, 38
Yasmin came into our South Yarra salon saying she “just couldn’t keep up anymore.”
She had two kids under 5, worked part-time, and said she was spending 15–20 minutes daily just on her brows and lips.She wasn’t doing it for vanity — she just felt “unfinished” without it.
We did Ombre Brow Tattooing and Lip Blush over a 6-week window. She returned after her final touch-up and said:
“It’s not about how I look. It’s about how little I think about it now. I’ve reclaimed my mornings.”
But Isn’t Tattooing a Big Commitment?
Let’s flip the question: Is doing your makeup every day for the next 5 years not a bigger commitment? Because that’s what you’re really choosing when you skip cosmetic tattooing.
With our techniques:
Fading is gradual and graceful
Pigment colour can be adjusted during touch-ups
Shape can evolve with you
Results never look harsh or boxy
And all services are performed by me, Ira Bale — not a rotating tech.
Ira Bale Brows: Where Time-Saving Meets Aesthetic Intelligence
There are salons that follow trends. And there are salons that solve problems.
At Ira Bale Brows in Melbourne, we:
Design every brow based on your face, not a template
Perform Lip Blush with a focus on lip health, not just pigment
Create looks that hold up to daylight, real life, and years of evolution
Because beauty shouldn’t cost you 200 hours a year.And once you realise that, you’ll never go back.
Final Word
Cosmetic tattooing isn’t about skipping makeup. It’s about reclaiming your time, your mornings, your mental load — and still looking good doing it.
If you’re ready to stop drawing on the same parts of your face every day, let’s do something smarter.
Book your Brow or Lip Tattoo consultation with Ira Bale in South Yarra or Toorak Village. 200 hours is a lot of life. We’d rather you spent it living — not pencilling.
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