If you’ve ever had a client return for a touch-up with brows that have healed grey, you’ll know how frustrating it can be. Brovi’s Carbon Cut technology was developed to address exactly that, by rethinking how much black goes into a brown pigment.
What Is Carbon Cut?
Carbon Cut is a technology developed in the Brovi laboratory for formulating permanent makeup pigments for brows. Its core principle is simple: reduce the concentration of black pigment (Carbon Black, or Pigment Black 6) by 50%, using specialised equipment that mechanically grinds dry pigments to an ultra-fine particle size.
The result is a range of brown shades with significantly less black than many other pigments on the market, without losing depth or stability.
How It Started
Carbon Cut was created by Brovi’s owner, Bogdan Meskhi, who has led pigment development since the company was founded in 2018.
Interestingly, the technology began with a mistake. During production of the Brovi One inorganic series, the team was testing new equipment for grinding and mixing pigments, a method that wasn’t yet central to their process. Two shades were used in the trial: Warm Light Brown and Warm Dark Brown. Both came out as very dark browns that were barely distinguishable from each other.
Rather than writing it off, the team asked why. Their answer was to halve the concentration of black pigment, remix the formulas and repeat the grinding process. The outcome was a stable pigment in the intended shades, with a lower black concentration than comparable products.
How It Works
In the lab, Brovi discovered a key property of black pigment: the finer it’s ground, the more strongly it tints the entire batch. At the black concentrations typically found in standard tattoo ink, finely ground carbon makes a true light brown practically impossible to achieve.
By cutting the black content in half and grinding it finely, Brovi can create browns that stay warm and true to shade, from the lightest tones through to deep browns.
Why It Matters for Your Results
When healed brows turn grey, it’s usually a sign that there was too much black in the pigment. Healed colour can also look different depending on skin depth, skin tone and the lighting in which the result is viewed. In black-and-grey artistic tattooing, a softer grey heal is expected, but in brow work, it’s rarely what you or your client want.
Because Brovi pigments contain a low level of Carbon Black, they’re formulated to heal as brown rather than grey.
The benefits at a glance:
- Stable colour: Black pigment is distributed more evenly through the suspension, giving a highly stable formula.
- Efficient implantation: The fine grind helps pigment settle into the skin quickly and evenly.
- Even fading: Colour softens gradually and evenly over time, without shifting to grey or ashy tones.
Are There Any Limitations?
The softer, warmer heal may not suit clients who want a very dark or intense brow result. For those clients, Brovi offers its deepest browns: Bitter Chocolate (Brovi Essentials) and Deep Dark Brown (Brovi One).
Updates to the Brovi Organic Hybrid Series
Following the development of Carbon Cut, Brovi’s core pigment series was updated in two stages:
- α-modification: A 50% reduction in black pigment across all Brovi brown shades, compared with the 2022 formulas.
- β-modification: A reformulated base across all Brovi pigments, using copolymers and a higher glycerin concentration. β-modification pigments also contain 50% less Carbon Black.
