Although it's been around for years, 2015's biggest beauty trend is set to be semi-permanent makeup. It's coming down in price, but your standards are one thing that shouldn't fall.

My earliest memory of semi-permanent makeup is standing in Buchanan Galleries in the late noughties watching a woman that couldn't have been any more Glaswegian if she had a cone on her head getting a makeover by some sponsored 'fashionistas'. The beauty guru was narrating the scene as she tried to remove the excited participant's makeup in front of the assembled throng. She was finding her deep purple-outlined lips particularly troublesome to remove when the woman uttered the fateful "they're tattooed on, hen." All of the experts looked visibly crestfallen as they realised they could take off all the gold jewellery, sort out her spiky fringed-mullet, but they'd never sort out her red-wine gob.

Thankfully, semi-permanent makeup has come a long way since then, at least in reputable spas and clinics. Looking for the best of the best, my research led me to Esteem Beauty in Glasgow's West End. It offers semi-permanent makeup for brows, upper and lower eyeliner and lips.

The upper and lower liner adds definition to eyes, with the upper thickening eyelashes and the lower really opening the eyes up. With lips it's possible to slightly over-line - I said slightly, Kylie Jenner - creating fullness without the need for fillers, as well as adding colour to compliment your own colouring. Although these both sounded great, after a consultation with salon owner and accomplished cosmetologist Kasia we decided my brows would benefit most from the procedure.

As a blonde with decidedly shady brows, I'm heavily reliant on powders and pencils. Under a bright spotlight, using a special ruler and magnifying glasses Kasia delivered the prognosis. It wasn't great. My natural eyebrows were as mismatched as they come: different height, width, length and shape. She explained that for my fair colouring the hairstroke technique - where individual 'hairs' are tattooed on - would be best. For thicker darker brows there's the option of the full block method, where brows are essentially coloured in.

While all the really handsome zombie Marilyn Monroe tattoos everyone's mad for at the moment are for life (sadly), the semi-permanent needle only penetrates three layers of the dermis, meaning it lasts for between one to three years, depending on your own skin's rejuvenation and factors like sun exposure.

There's no doubt that Kasia and the team at Esteem Beauty are complete professionals. We chatted for ages about expectations for the procedure and Kasia explained that she'd rather turn someone away than put her name to a set of brows or lips that she doesn't feel looks natural. While I initially asked for my brows to be a very defined arch and the colour a little darker (like the colour I'd have them tinted), I was told that although this would look great when my makeup was on, it would look too harsh without it. I'm quite partial to pottering around with a bare face so I didn't want to be another slug-browed sourpuss slinking around the streets of Glasgow - we already have more than enough, thanks.

My initial appointment was two and a half hours long, but the tattooing part was only around 40 minutes of this. Kasia spent 35 minutes pencilling on the shape alone - a painstaking attention to detail that I hadn't found when speaking to others who've had their brows done elsewhere.

During this time I asked about the potential problems caused by the explosion in popularity of semi-permanent makeup, and Kasia had some sorry tales. People paying for vouchers on deal websites only to discover the address is someone's home - although it can be offered significantly cheaper, it's crucial it's done in a sterile environment. Even worse, one poor woman walked in asking for revisional work after she'd asked for an arched brow, only to have her eyebrows shaved off and a new set tattooed high above hers in an arrow shape. When her eyebrows grew back in they created a triangle shape with the new brows and sadly, there was nothing that could be done to fix this.

The first question everyone asks is 'was it sore?' The answer isn't an easy one. Firstly, I have to answer through the prism of having a child's pain threshold, and therefore I think everything is sore. I think taking fake eyelashes off is sore. Secondly, while it was uncomfortable while the needle was being dragged through the skin, each stroke took seconds at most and then it stopped hurting immediately.

The best way to explain it is like childbirth - or my presumptions of. When it's happening you're screaming (in my case in my head): 'this was a terrible idea, this is horribly painful, please stop' and then when it's over you are so in love with the end result you completely forget the pain and want more.

Which is just as well because after two weeks you're back in Esteem and ready to go again. It's important to give the first application time to scab (only slightly) and heal, and then Kasia gets a proper look at where the colour has taken well and where needs a top up. There are around 20 colours available at Esteem, but on my second visit Kasia mixed up a custom colour to finish my brows.

The end result is seriously impressive. With no makeup on I feel so much better. Is it because there's not the same jump from 'going out' brows to my own pitiful homegrown fellas? I reckon so. Although I walked about with my natural eyebrows totally unfazed until two years ago, now we're all obsessed with having a perfectly pointed, thick and slick brow.

Everyone that got picked on at school for having a mono-brow is having the last laugh because they've got the perfect raw materials to create this popular look. Those of us with sparse Jean Harlow-esque efforts have been left in the past. The good thing about the semi-perm brows is that they look extremely natural (see centre picture above) but have characteristics of the brows that are currently in vogue - like an extension to a neat point. Then the brows become the perfect template for powdering a little thicker and darker for a more dramatic look (see lower photo above).

By far the best treatment I've ever had in terms of happiness with the finished result.

Semi-permanent makeup costs from £100, and eyebrows from £450. Esteem Beauty, 0141 334 3254, www.esteembeauty.co.uk