Kwadron Cartridges Review 2026: System vs Optima – What to Choose? Kwadron Cartridge Review: Why Masters Choose Them in 2026? (Honest Breakdown System vs Optima) In the world of permanent makeup (PMU) and artistic tattooing, there is an unshakable axiom: "You can save on the massage table, you can save on studio rent, but you can never save on two things — the power supply and the needles." If the machine is the engine of your success, then the cartridge is the wheels; the "grip" they have on the road (the client's skin) determines whether you reach the finish line with a perfect result or drop out of the race with spots and scars. There are hundreds of cheap analogs on the market. But why do top-tier global masters continue to buy Kwadron, paying three times more? The answer is simple: the price of one mistake on a face costs more than a pack of the most expensive needles. When you open a video of any famous artist on YouTube, you see this recognizable housing in their hands. Experts from the "Tatushechka" store have prepared the most detailed, fundamental breakdown of Kwadron cartridges in the Ukrainian internet. We will look under the housing, study the markings under a microscope, break down the physics of pigment delivery, and explain why choosing the right taper will save you from touch-ups and dissatisfied clients. Part 1. Kwadron System vs Kwadron PMU Optima: Clash of the Titans A beginner entering a professional shop catalog for the first time can easily get confused: the site features gray cartridges, gold ones, soft pink ones, and even black ones. What is the difference besides the plastic color and the price? Can you use tattoo cartridges on the face? Let’s settle this once and for all. 1. Kwadron System (Classic in a Gray Housing) This is the "big brother," a legendary line originally created for the classic tattoo industry. It conquered the world with its reliability long before permanent makeup became a mass trend. Housing and Tip: Made of ultra-hard medical-grade plastic. The tip is quite thick and durable, designed for working with the thick, tough skin of the body (back, thighs, shoulders). Pigment Delivery: The internal architecture of the tip is designed for thick, viscous tattoo inks. Liquid PMU pigments (especially water-alcohol based) might flow too abundantly, creating "puddles" if the artist doesn't perfectly match the voltage and hand speed. A Note on Stiffness: The classic System series has a slightly stiffer membrane (rubber). This is ideal for powerful corded machines, but weak wireless "pens" might drain faster or heat up while pushing such a needle. Use in PMU: Can they be used on the face? Yes. Many "old school" masters still love using them on lips (for dense lipstick effects) or areolas. However, for the thin skin of the eyelids or "airy" brows, they can be a bit coarse. View the catalog: Kwadron System 2. Kwadron PMU Optima (The Pink Revolution) The Optima line was created by Kwadron engineers as a response to the demands of PMU artists who needed the precision of a scalpel rather than the power of a battering ram. Stabilization System (Balance): This is the main technological difference. A special additional stabilizer (limiter) is placed inside the housing to keep the needle strictly centered. Even at high machine speeds, the needle does not vibrate or "hit" the walls of the tip. What does this give the master? A perfect pixel. Your line will be as sharp as a string, not "shaky" as often happens with cheap cartridges. Sharp and Transparent Tip: The plastic is tapered as thinly as possible. This gives the artist a better view of the working field. You see exactly where the needle enters, which is critical when working in dangerous zones (interlash, corners of the lips). Plastic Texture: The internal surface of the tip has a special micro-polishing that holds liquid pigment through surface tension, preventing it from leaking uncontrollably. Our choice for facial work: Kwadron PMU Optima Part 2. The Anatomy of Quality: What Are You Paying For? Why is a Chinese copy for 20 hryvnias a lottery where the client loses, while Kwadron is a guarantee of results? AISI 316L Grade Steel. Kwadron needles are made of high-quality surgical stainless steel with added molybdenum and nickel. The Essence: This steel has increased hardness. Cheap needles are soft. During work (thousands of hits per minute against the skin), the tip of a cheap needle can bend into a micro-hook within 15-20 minutes. This micro-hook works like a grater. You can't see it with the naked eye, but the client feels pain, and at the touch-up, you will see scar tissue and a "dirty" bluish color instead of pixels. The Kwadron Effect: The needle remains perfectly sharp until the end of the procedure, even if it lasts 3 hours. This means less pain for the client, less lymph, and fast healing. Safety Membrane. A protective membrane is installed in every cartridge (both System and Optima). It's not just a "rubber band" to return the needle. Function: It prevents lymph, blood, and pigment from entering your machine's body. Without a membrane, fluids can get into the motor, causing corrosion or cross-contamination of the next client. Stiffness: The Kwadron membrane has perfect medium stiffness. It is elastic enough to return the needle quickly (ensuring a snappy hit) but not so stiff that it overloads the motors of wireless machines (like the Mast P10/P60). Perfect Soldering. Needles in a grouping (e.g., in 3RL) are soldered with precision accuracy. Cheap analogs often have "misalignment," where one needle in the bunch is slightly higher than the others. This leads to double lines ("rails") and unnecessary trauma. Part 3. The Master’s Alphabet: How to Read the Box Markings? The inscription 30/1 RLLT can scare a beginner like a foreign language. Let’s decode this, as 90% of the procedure's success depends on choosing the right configuration. Parameter 1: Needle Thickness (Diameter) The first two digits (25, 30, 35) indicate the diameter of the metal rod in millimeters. 0.25 mm (Thin): For whom: Mature, thin, vascular skin ("parchment"), and for realistic hair-stroke techniques. Effect: Leaves a very fine, "dry" pixel. Creates a light shadow effect. Risk: Extremely sharp! Easy to go too deep and "cut" the skin. Requires very light, superficial work. 0.30 mm (Medium — The Gold Standard): For whom: Normal, combination skin. The universal soldier. Effect: The pixel is clearly visible, it’s larger, and the pigment packs faster than with 0.25. We recommend beginners start with this diameter. 0.35 mm (Thick): For whom: Oily, porous, "rubbery" skin, Asian eyelids, scars. Effect: Large pixel. Allows you to penetrate difficult epidermis and leave color where 0.25 would simply scratch the surface without retention. Parameter 2: Soldering Type (Configuration) The letters in the middle (RL, RS, MG, FL). RL (Round Liner): Needles are gathered into a tight bundle at the tip. 1RL (Single): One needle. The king of PMU. Used for powder brows, contours, eyeliner. 3RL (Three Liner): Three needles pressed tightly together. Used for saturated lip contours or dense interlash filling. RS (Round Shader): Three or five needles spread parallel. Application: Shadow shading on lips, areolas, camouflage. Does not traumatize, softly "sprays" color without harsh borders. Parameter 3: Taper (Sharpening) — A Simple Association The most underestimated parameter. It denotes the length of the needle point (cone). LT (Long Taper): Imagine a sharply sharpened pencil. It draws thinly, in strokes. Result: Neat small pixel, little lymph. Ideal for "airy" brows and hair-strokes. MT (Medium Taper): The golden mean. Delivers slightly more pigment, the hole is slightly wider. ST (Short Taper): Imagine a marker. It draws thick and juicy. Result: Delivers A LOT of pigment at once. Used for dense lip coloring (lipstick effect). More traumatic than LT, causes more swelling. Part 4. Top 5 Kwadron Configurations for Starters If you don’t know what to buy to cover 90% of your clients' requests, take this "gentleman's set" from the "Tatusheчка" store: 1. Absolute Bestseller: Kwadron Optima 30/1 RLLT The most popular PMU cartridge in the world. A universal "single" with a long taper. It allows you to create both the lightest shadow and a sharp lower brow border. Buy: Kwadron Optima 30/1 RLLT 2. For Hair-strokes and Thin Skin: 25/1 RLLT The choice for hyperrealism masters. The thinnest 0.25 mm needle allows you to draw hairs that are indistinguishable from natural ones. Also indispensable for mature clients 60+. Buy: Kwadron Optima 25/1 RLLT 3. For Lip Contours and Interlash: 30/3 RLLT Three liner. Allows you to create a saturated lip contour in one pass or quickly fill the interlash space, saving procedure time. Buy: Kwadron Optima 30/3 RLLT 4. For Watercolor Lips (Shading): 30/3 RS Round Shader (RS). The needles are set loosely. Softly shades without harsh borders, doesn't traumatize the mucosa, allows for a "bitten lip" effect. Buy: Kwadron Optima 30/3 RS 5. For Oily Skin: Kwadron System 35/1 RLLT Heavy artillery from the classic series. If you have a client with very porous, oily T-zone skin where pigment usually "blurs" or doesn't take — take the 0.35 diameter. Part 5. Typical Mistakes and How to Spot a Fake Even an ideal tool can cause harm in unskilled hands. Here are the main mistakes when switching to Kwadron: Incorrect Needle Hang. The Optima tip is very thin and transparent. Beginners often set the needle out too far (over 2.5 mm). Because of this, the pigment doesn't have time to flow from the reservoir to the needle tip. You end up working "dry," scratching the skin with an empty needle. Advice: Optimal hang is 1.5–2.0 mm. Voltage Too High. Kwadron needles are very sharp and polished. If you're used to working at 7-8 Volts on Chinese modules to penetrate the skin, Kwadron will slice at that power. Advice: Lower the voltage by 0.5–1.0 V when switching to Kwadron. Beware of Counterfeits! The brand's popularity has sparked a wave of replicas. How to distinguish the original when buying at "Tatushechka"? Sterile Packaging: Each blister has the expiration date, lot number, and sterilization type (EO Gas — Ethylene Oxide) printed on the back. The paper is thick and doesn't tear easily. Plastic Quality: Original Optima plastic is soft pink, matte, pleasant to the touch ("soft-touch"), with no burrs (flashing) on the seams. Fakes often have glossy, coarse, cheap-looking plastic. Engraving: There is a clear Kwadron brand engraving on the housing of each cartridge. Price: Original Kwadron is a high-tech product. It cannot cost 20-30 hryvnias. A low price is a sure sign of a fake with a poor membrane and a dull needle. Who SHOULDN'T Buy Kwadron? If you work exclusively in "old school" tattoo styles on tough skin (blackwork, solid fills on the back) and use induction — perhaps simpler modules will suffice. But for the face and delicate zones, there are almost no alternatives to Kwadron Optima in 2026. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions from Clients Are these cartridges compatible with the Mast P10 / Tour machine? Yes, 100%. Kwadron uses a universal Cheyenne-standard connection. It fits 99% of modern rotary machines: Mast, EZ, FK Irons (Xion), Defender, Bishop, Giant Sun (via adapter). Nuance: Remember that Mast P10 is a soft machine. Kwadron Optima (which is softer in action) is perfect for it, while the stiffer Kwadron System might "drag" the motor slightly during long sessions. Why does the 1RL 0.25 needle feel dull and not deposit color? This is a common illusion. If you take a thin 0.25 needle to thick oily skin, it may be too flexible to penetrate the stratum corneum of the epidermis. It "bounces" off the skin. In this case, use a 0.30 or 0.35 mm diameter — they are stiffer. Can I use one cartridge on two clients if I clean it with alcohol? Absolutely NOT! A cartridge is a single-use sterile disposable. The plastic housing and membrane will not survive autoclaving, and a dry heat sterilizer will melt them. Furthermore, micro-particles of biological fluids can remain inside the cartridge (behind the membrane) and cannot be washed out. One client = one cartridge. This is the law of safety and your reputation. What's better for beginners: LT or MT? For brows, we recommend starting with LT (Long Taper). The long taper allows for cleaner work, less skin trauma, and beautiful "pixels." MT (Medium) deposits more pigment and requires more control to avoid spotting. Ready for perfect work and grateful clients? Choosing a cartridge is an investment in your growth. Visit the full Kwadron Cartridges catalog on the "Tatushechka" website and choose original quality trusted by thousands of professionals worldwide!