Iryna Beauty

Hårstråteknik ≠ microblading

Ordet microblading används väldigt ofta felaktigt som en synonym för hårstråteknik. En kund säger: ”Jag vill ha microblading”, och efter några frågor visar det sig att hon egentligen bara vill se separata, naturliga hårstrån i brynen

Men microblading är inte ett resultat. Det är en metod. Vid microblading förs pigmentet in manuellt med ett verktyg med blade som gör snitt i huden. Hårstrån är däremot ett visuellt resultat. Hårstråteknik kan göras både med blade och med maskin

Jag arbetar med maskin. Den ger mig möjlighet att kontrollera trauma, djup, riktning, risker för huden och uppbyggnaden av varje hårstrå mer exakt, alltså att anpassa arbetet efter den specifika huden och den naturliga hårväxten

Varför arbetar jag inte med microblading och rekommenderar det inte för europeisk och skandinavisk hud? Det är ett separat, stort ämne

Så när en kund säger: ”Jag vill ha microblading”, tar jag först reda på vad hon faktiskt vill ha. Väldigt ofta är svaret enkelt: ”Jag vill ha naturliga hårstrån”

Bra. Då pratar vi om resultatet

Inte om blade

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Hairstrokes do not mean microblading. Microblading is a method; hairstrokes are the visual result. They can be created with a blade or with a machine

I work with a machine because it gives me more precise control over skin trauma, depth, direction and the construction of each stroke. So when someone says “I want microblading”, I first find out what they actually want

Very often, the answer is simple: “I want natural-looking hair strokes”

Good. Then we are talking about the result, not the blade

The dirtiest thing I’ve seen in Jämtland wasn’t in one of the toilets I clean. Once, driving through Ragunda, I stopped to stretch my legs at a tiny pull-off — nothing around. No houses. No people. No village. On the metal barrier I suddenly saw “khokhly” — a slur for Ukrainians — and “faggots”. In the grass beside it lay a used baby diaper. I stood in the middle of that beautiful emptiness thinking: seriously? Even here. Maybe that’s why safety here feels so physical

In 2022, I arrived in Sweden with almost nothing. In spring I went back to Ukraine for my son. In summer I raised and borrowed money for a pickup I had promised to leave with Ukrainian soldiers. It was my only chance to retrieve my professional tools. I drove it to Ukraine, left it with the soldiers, sent the tools back with a carrier and returned in mid-August. Then severe Covid. By late September I was scrubbing toilets about 50 hours a week. I still owed around €1,000 for that pickup. When I say I built a new life here, I mean it literally. Even the tools I needed to build it had to be pulled out of Ukraine first

I had already seen what happens when hatred stops being writing on a roadside barrier and enters someone’s home. In Ukraine I saw a house after Russian soldiers had been there. Excrement on the furniture. On the wall, written in f***s: “Who allowed you to live like this?” After that, military equipment near me doesn’t scare me. When I see Swedish soldiers here, I feel protected. Russia destroyed my home. Not here, not again, not with these people

Maybe that’s why I love Jämtland. Not because ugliness is impossible here. It isn’t. Even in the middle of nowhere

But mostly I met the opposite here. A stranger gave me a room. Cleaning paid the bills and found me an apartment — six months on a mattress on the floor, but mine. Clients returned with mothers and sisters. People gave me a chance before I had enough Swedish to explain myself

On Tuesday I wrote: I didn’t choose Jämtland. It chose me. By Sunday I can add: good choice. Thank you for this week. And thank you to this little kingdom for becoming home

Iryna Rassadina

Never say your goals out loud in Jämtland unless you want to fulfil them a couple of years later. At Pink October in 2023, I said publicly: I want to work with Region Jämtland Härjedalen on medical micropigmentation after breast cancer surgery. I could have chosen something calmer. Buy a new chair, for example

And since I have the microphone — completely off topic: anyone got 80–150 m² that could actually become a clinic — with parking, accessibility and a good view? My little lokal kingdom has been one size too small for almost two years. It’s tight. I need the next size up. 😁

Right. Back to what I said in 2023
Anyone who moved here from another country knows this pain: you know what you need, just not the Swedish word. A trolley. A medical cabinet. A public procurement. Google sends you to Britain or America while the right word — and the right person — are much closer. Two years of emails, talks, questions. Then a client connected me to the right person. Early 2026: finally, the procurement

10 July, I signed a contract with Region Jämtland Härjedalen. Now referred patients can come to me for medical micropigmentation after breast cancer surgery. On Thursday, one woman after chemotherapy turned into a network of 154 specialists. Turns out, the condition is chronic

Meanwhile, my studio did not wait politely for the bureaucracy. Around 700 clients have come through my studio here. Seriously: I have never seen so many beautiful women in one place — all different, free, bright, interesting, entirely themselves. Many clients read this account, so I can say to all of you at once:
Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for coming back, recommending me to friends, bringing mothers, sisters and daughters. Thank you for trusting my hands — and my head, which is sometimes the riskier option. 😁
I definitely need to make a list of everything else I should say out loud in Jämtland. Judging by this week, there’s a suspiciously good chance it might work

Iryna Rassadina

Om du hittade hit via den här veckan: hej. I dag ska vi prata om porer, eftersom någon måste säga det.

Porer är inte ett dragspel. De öppnas inte av värme och stängs inte av kyla.

Efter varmt vatten, ånga eller rengöring kan huden däremot kännas mjukare och se jämnare ut. Hornlagret tar upp vatten, ytan blir renare och talg mjuknar. Det kan ge känslan av att porerna har ”öppnats”. Men det har de inte.

En por har ingen liten dörr. Och ingen muskel som står där och öppnar och stänger den på kommando.

Däremot kan en por se bredare ut när den är fylld med talg och keratiniserade hudceller. Tänk ficka. En tom ficka ligger ganska platt. Fyll den, och den börjar bukta ut. Samma princip här. När innehållet avlägsnas och poren hålls ren kan den se mindre framträdande ut. Den har inte ”dragit ihop sig”. Den är bara inte lika utspänd längre.

Så nej, vi behöver inte öppna porerna före rengöring och stänga dem efteråt. Vi behöver förstå varför de ser mer framträdande ut och arbeta med det som faktiskt finns där.

Tom ficka. Full ficka. Fortfarande ingen dörr.

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If you found me through this week: hi.

Pores are not accordions. Heat does not open them and cold does not close them. After cleansing, skin may look smoother because the surface is hydrated and sebum and dead skin cells are removed.

A clogged pore can look wider — more like a pocket that bulges when it is full. Empty it, and it may look less stretched. It has not “closed”.

No little door. No open-close muscle. Just skin being skin.

I have one bad professional habit
If I see a problem, it is never enough for me to simply solve it. Before long, forms, spreadsheets, rules, a map start appearing around it — and suddenly, 154 people. That is how my oncology project began
It did not start with the idea of “creating a project.” One woman came to me after chemotherapy. I did the work for her and realised there were many more like her, but almost no clear way to find specialists who could and would work with them

And that is when the engineer inside me had another flare-up. Some people see a problem and solve it. Apparently I see a problem and accidentally start an organisation. If there is one woman like that, there are more. If there is one specialist who can help, there must be others. Once there are many people, private messages are no longer enough. You need a system
So we built a medical questionnaire, contraindications, participation rules, a specialist database, an interactive map. 154 specialists joined. The last database had 123 specialists in 47 cities in Ukraine, plus Germany and Egypt

In Kharkiv, we also worked with two oncology centres. For a Swedish sense of scale, imagine several Stockholms put together — with two major oncology centres for all that. So yes, there was, mildly speaking, more work than could be done in a couple of evenings

This was no longer “I helped one woman”: a nationwide network on one side, two oncology centres on the other. It had to make sense even when I wasn’t standing next to everyone. Eventually, it could keep moving not because I was holding every person by the hand, but because there was a structure underneath it

This seems to be one of the things I brought to Sweden, although it definitely wasn’t in my suitcase. I am rather bad at doing “just a service.” If something works for one woman, my brain immediately starts asking how to make it work for the next hundred without explaining everything from scratch every time. If chaos also makes Excel open automatically for you, we’re in the same club. 😁
Yes — the bad habit survived the move to Jämtland

Iryna Rassadina

My first impression of Östersund after Kharkiv was simple: the kingdom is a bit small
But everything here is so close that if you sneeze on one side of town, someone on the other might say, “Bless you”

I drive everywhere — with my workload, there’s no other way. But getting anywhere takes so little time I sometimes don’t even finish my coffee. Blink — arrived. Add two hours of commuting and by week three someone would have to fold me neatly into a box

Our little kingdom has its own airport. One hour — and you’re in Stockholm. In theory, the world is open. In practice: jobba-jobba, you know. To use it, you need free… what was it again? Free time. Right. We established on Monday that I have no idea what that is. Although technically I am free — I’m single. Just not in the useful sense

In February I moved into my top-floor birdhouse. Compact, but plenty for one
The first night I got the keys, there wasn’t a single light bulb in the apartment yet. But I wanted to be there anyway. So I sat down on the floor and stayed there for a while in the dark, just feeling the energy of the place. This home is my charging station. And this view is part of that energy
A view fit for a queen. Me, obviously

I moved in during winter and worried the sparkling winter magic might disappear.
Nope.
Summer sparkles too.
I had to create a bo***ir with blackout curtains: wall-to-wall windows + northern summer = one very bright aquarium. But the northern lights should look spectacular straight from the window

I wanted to watch the ice disappear from the lake. In the morning it was still there. I left for two hours, came back — gone. Turns out, two hours was enough for an entire season. Oh well. Wiiinter is coming. And it is long
Since 2022, I’ve been recovering not from my old life — it was beautiful — but from having it destroyed. Somewhere along the way, Jämtland took on part of the repair work. Now every morning I look out of the window at the lake and mountains and think: “I live in paradise”

Then, of course, I get up and go jobba-jobba
Paradise is paradise, you know

Iryna Rassadina

Om du hittade hit via den här veckan – hej och välkommen. 👋

Pigment kan lura ögat. Men inte vävnaden.

Och det är precis där medicinsk mikropigmentering blir riktigt intressant.

Jag arbetar alltid med färg. Men frågan är större än så:

Vad behöver ögat börja uppfatta annorlunda?

Formen?
Volymen?
Texturen?
Kontrasten mellan två områden?

Med färg, ljus, skugga och kontrast kan vi påverka hur allt detta upplevs visuellt.

En ar**la kan få tillbaka en tydligare form och ett visuellt djup.
Ett ärr kan bli mindre framträdande.
En ojämn struktur kan upplevas mjukare när kontrasten runt den förändras.

Men pigment kan inte göra allt.

Ett upphöjt eller ojämnt ärr blir inte fysiskt platt av pigment. I vissa fall behöver man därför först arbeta med själva vävnaden och hudens kvalitet – och först därefter använda medicinsk mikropigmentering.

När de här delarna kombineras på rätt sätt kan resultatet bli väldigt imponerande.

Vi förändrar inte bara färgen.
Vi förändrar hur ögat läser form, volym, textur och helhet.

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If you found me through this week – welcome. 👋

Pigment can change much more than colour alone. With colour, light, shadow and contrast we can influence how the eye reads shape, volume, texture and balance.

But pigment cannot change the tissue itself. Sometimes scar or skin quality needs to be improved first, and micropigmentation comes afterwards.

When these parts work together, the visual result can be remarkably different.

**larestoration

My dog came to me when Russia first invaded Ukraine. I took an adult untrained Doberman from a shelter: he needed a home, I needed protection. A woman alone with a young son is a tempting target.

I trained him: obedience, protection, tests. But inside there was still a little s**t checking: what about here? What if I do this? You know how they do it
If you’re a doggy parent too, you know how dogs love: they don’t care what we look like, how much we weigh, how much we earn. Gone five minutes / gone a month — same happiness when you come back

He’d seen my life before Sweden, linking my “before” to my “now”. Huge for a Doberman. Basically, a small pony. Passers-by once called him a serious argument on walks after dark 🙂 Evacuating Kharkiv in 2022, this serious argument spent seven hours curled like a bagel on my lap. Quiet. Like a bunny

Here he got a bunny. Near our first home, every walk: where’s our neighbour bunny? I had a new country, work, housing. The dog had a bunny. Everyone has a private life

He liked absolutely everything here. Everything. But the lake was something special. Especially whitecaps — Swedish vita gäss, “white geese”. Gold medals: obedience, protection — gone. WHITECAPS! He completely lost his mind trying to catch them and bite them. Waves were hard to bite. In winter he ran there for them — and found ice. Where are they? Aaaa!

A couple of months before his last Christmas, he was recovering from major surgery. That Christmas Eve: lake, ice, no whitecaps 😭 But deer tracks! Spring switched on. I called him that because when happy, he jumped straight up on all four paws. He jumped. A clot broke loose. Fifteen seconds later, he died in my arms

Many names: Little S**t, Serious Argument, Spring, Handsome Boy. Officially: Statham Dangerous Beauty. Years ago he came to me on Christmas Eve. He left on Christmas Eve too — here by the lake in Jämtland. His toys are still at home. All of them. I can’t throw them away

And when the whitecaps appear again, I think: there, mama’s boy. Your whitecaps... I can see him charging off to bite them. And how much he loved being here

Iryna Rassadina

My profession is a very simple question. Usually takes twenty minutes😅
By education, I’m an engineer and a vocational teacher. Teaching is a separate degree: I can teach a profession and build training programs. My engineering specialty was nowhere near eyebrows — chemical production automation, thesis: natural gas separation. And yes, I worked in the gas industry. Engineering and makeup. A perfectly obvious career path😁

Then came makeup, my studios and salons, a school, lots of students, PMU and medical micropigmentation. My professions don’t replace one another — they pile up in layers. Like clothes in Jämtland: tank top, T-shirt, long sleeve, jacket, scarf, maybe a vest. Just in case
I’m from Kharkiv — a huge city, Ukraine’s first capital, just 40 km from the Russian border. My business was there, my work with the opera and philharmonic, friends, favourite cafés, travel — my whole established life

Then came 2022. In March, I drove alone to Mariupol amid fierce fighting to evacuate people. Azovstal — heard that name? That’s there. I was on the next street.
I won’t turn that trip into an Instagram hero story...

Then I ended up in Sweden.
I’d love to tell you I compared regions, mountains and lakes and chose Jämtland.
I didn’t.
It just happened.
Östersund was the nearest big city. A stranger let me stay in her room. Now we’re business partners. Not bad for someone with no strategy

Then came cleaning — a professional introduction to toilets and, unexpectedly, a very effective real-estate radar: cleaners sometimes hear about an empty apartment before it reaches the queue
Then a clinic room by the hour, first clients, recommendations. And somehow — boom — I’m living in Östersund with work, a studio, clients, and that company I told you yesterday I won
After huge Kharkiv, Östersund felt like a tiny pocket of the world

I didn’t choose Jämtland as a place to recover.
It was where I landed. But somewhere between the toilets, the borrowed room, the first clients and that AB, I looked around and realised: well, this is my life now
So: I didn’t choose Jämtland. It chose me

Iryna Rassadina