Make Six Figures Doing Permanent Makeup With A 1 Day Training For $1999!

Permanent Makeup
Jan 29
5 min read

Updated: Jan 29

One Day Certification & All Your Dreams Will Come True...and other PMU grifts.....

How to Choose a Permanent Makeup Trainer in an Unregulated Industry

(And Avoid the PMU Grift)

Choosing a permanent makeup trainer is one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your career—and somehow, it’s also one of the most overlooked.

Whether you want to learn microblading, machine methods, powder brows, eyeliner, or lip blush, it all falls under the umbrella of permanent makeup. The real question isn’t what you should learn.

It’s who you should learn it from.

And in an industry with little to no regulation in some states (hello, Arizona 👋), that question matters more than ever.

The Problem With “Change Your Life in 3 Days” PMU Marketing

If you’ve spent more than five minutes researching permanent makeup training, you’ve seen the ads:

“Change your life forever!”

"Be your own boss"

“Make six figures FAST!”

“Just take my super simple 3-day class and you’ll MASTER permanent makeup!”

🚩 Red flag. Giant, waving, neon red flag.

Anyone who has actually worked in permanent makeup knows this is fantasy marketing. You are not walking out of a weekend class making six figures—no matter how talented the trainer is.

Even if you learned from the best PMU artist on the planet, you would still need to:

Build your skills
Build a portfolio
Build a clientele
Build confidence
Build time and experience

That doesn’t happen overnight. And anyone promising otherwise is selling emotions, not education.

A common trick in PMU marketing is to focus almost exclusively on money—as if permanent makeup is a shortcut or “hack” to instant wealth. When you see technicians bragging about income but saying nothing about skill level, safety, technique, or credentials, take a step back.

👉 Look past the dollar signs and ask:

What exact techniques are being taught?
How much hands-on training is included?
What is the instructor’s real experience?
Are their credentials verifiable—or just pretty paper?

The Arizona Problem: No Regulation, No Guardrails

This issue is amplified in states like Arizona, where there is currently no formal regulation of the permanent makeup or microblading industry.

That means:

Anyone can call themselves a permanent makeup artist
Anyone can call themselves a trainer
There is no governing board verifying education, experience, or safety standards

Some “trainers” are entirely self-taught through YouTube. Others attend questionable online “conferences” that hand out 10, 15, even 20 certificates in a single day—often for procedures they never performed.

Let’s be honest: that’s not training. That’s a certificate factory.

The Truth About Online PMU “Conferences” and Certificate Factories

Many of these so-called conferences are:

Not in person
Not live
Not interactive

Some don’t even require you to attend the Zoom sessions to receive certificates. You pay, download, print—and suddenly you look “highly credentialed” on paper.

I attended one of these conferences myself after it was advertised as legitimate PMU education. What I found instead were mostly pre-recorded demos that were thinly disguised advertisements for more classes and products.

Some demos were poorly recorded. Some were just sales pitches.

And here’s the kicker: I received certificates for demos I did not even watch.

Those certificates are not on my wall. I did not earn them, and displaying them would be deceptive.

This is how we end up with an industry flooded by technicians who look impressively trained on Instagram—but lack foundational knowledge, hands-on experience, safety training, and accountability.

Students often walk away confused, underprepared, and financially burned. What they paid for wasn’t education—it was a cash grab.

How Other States Handle Permanent Makeup Training

To understand how broken this system is, look at how other states operate. I'm very familiar with Nevada because I've been operating there for over 20 years.

In Nevada, for example:

Artists must complete at least six months of training and apprenticeship
Training must occur under a licensed, inspected, approved facility
Trainers must have four or more years of documented experience
Trainers must hold a mentor card through the health district

In short: not just anyone can teach.

Many states have even stricter oversight. Arizona does not—and that’s exactly why students must do their own due diligence.

So How Do You Choose a Legitimate Permanent Makeup Trainer?

When state regulation is lacking, third-party credentialing becomes essential.

One of the most respected organizations in the permanent makeup industry is the

Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals (SPCP).

The SPCP has been the industry’s gold standard for over 30 years and is the first and largest permanent makeup organization in the world. Many states now require SPCP credentials for licensure or trainer approval.

In states like Arizona, SPCP credentials are among the only credentials that are legitimate, meaningful, and verifiable.

Understanding SPCP Membership vs. Certification

Here’s where confusion often happens.

Affiliate ASSOCIATE Membership:

Anyone can purchase this. It’s essentially student-level access to vetted educational resources. It does not indicate experience or professional qualification. Those who do not qualify as professionals can purchase an associate membership. This is to encourage them to seek out appropriate and legitimate training so they can eventually gain PROFESSIONAL SPCP MEMBER status.

Professional Membership:

This is strictly regulated. Artists must verify legitimate training, documented hours, and hands-on experience.

Only professional members are eligible to sit for the CPCP (Certified Permanent Cosmetic Professional) board examination.

The CPCP exam is no joke:

Over 100 questions
Safety, theory, case studies, ethics
Proctored and reviewed by the board

It is earned, not bought.

What to Look for in a Permanent Makeup Trainer

Ideally, your trainer should be:

✔ CPCP Board Certified
✔ SPCP-Approved Trainer

To become an SPCP-approved trainer, an artist must:

Be a professional SPCP member
Have at least 5 years of experience
Verify the number of procedures performed
Submit detailed curricula and protocols
Participate in ongoing continuing education
Complete SPCP Train-The-Trainer programs

This requires real investment—of time, effort, money, and accountability.

Why Verifiable Credentials Matter

In an unregulated industry, fly-by-night schools appear and disappear constantly. Many issue certificates printed at home with no testing, oversight, or standards.

SPCP credentials are fully verifiable through the SPCP website—meaning students can confirm claims instead of trusting marketing.

Does having an SPCP-certified trainer guarantee six figures?

No.

What it does guarantee is that your trainer: