Faulty internet and new stuff!

So my internet isn’t really working at the moment and I can only access the local hub dependant on the direction the wind is blowing!

On the bright side, it has been a lovely week so far as I am off college and one of my two jobs.

Last Wednesday my uniform arrived and I have to say I do love it.  Well I love the tunics.  They fit well and look lovely, the trousers are however tight despite being a size bigger than my top doh.  Will need to work on getting those to fit right.

Thursday was facials again and we have started to do it all as if we are with a client and talking to our classmates as if they know none of the things they really know about the routine.  We have also started to feedback each other and I am pleased to say my “client” gave me great feedback this week with lots of positive comments.

We have been given our first research assignment for home, to find a “look” we want to do on a classmate.  I am still struggling to get all my research done due to the lack of internet.  I did however find a great tutorial on how to do cheetah eye make-up and so used it tonight for a Halloween look.

I have also purchased the start of my brush set, sadly they didn’t have the 3^rd set I wanted to purchase in stock and so I need to go and get it sorted tomorrow.  I will review the brushes once I have used them all – I am mainly using EcoTools with a few Body Shop brushes thrown in for good measure.

On my shopping trip tomorrow I will also be heading to lush to get one of their mascaras to try and on a hunt for a nice mineral powder make up to try out (again as my last experience didn’t work out well, but it was only a cheapy Avon one).  Any other suggestions for what I should look out for on my shopping trip or any ideas for what “looks” I could try for next week please let me know.

I want to spray tan Kate Middleton!

 

I was reading an article today about “How much it costs to stay as beautiful as Kate Middleton” and I was utterly shocked that Australian Vogue estimates that she pays almost £8,000 a year on spray tans!  Even factoring in a heavy London weighting that is SOME price for a tan.  In fact if we imagine she is getting a weekly tan all year long they reckon she pays £152.54 a week!  So you can see why I would like to spray tan her, she would guarantee a great big whack of somebody’s salary without taking up too much time.  (I am in no way confirming she does pay this or even that she gets a spray tan, I am just commenting on the situation IF the magazine should be correct).

Yesterday in class we were talking about how salons and mobile therapists come up with their treatment costs.  Having come from a background where I have worked running events or selling event space and themes I am well aware of how to set prices and all the little extras that most people don’t think of such as depreciation etc.  However many of my class weren’t and according to the tutor, this is many a Beauty Therapists downfall.

The class got into a discussion about the prices of treatments in their respective placement salons vs the costs incurred to perform the treatment.

Lets take for example an eyelash and brow tint.  This treatment would normally block out 30 minutes in the diary however I am aware it can be done in 15 – 20 mins but as blocks tend to be in 15 min intervals its safer to book the 30 minute slot right?

Most people in the class figured that tint and developer was cheap and so the treatment would be high profit.  Tint for this booking would easily cost less than 50p.  Very few of them factored in a wage!  So if the therapist is being paid £6.50 an hour, that’s £3.25 in additional costs already, not to mention a % towards the heating, electricity, rent, council tax etc.  In fact, when it came down to it, treatments like this really are not very profitable at all.

The real money makers are the treatments with higher prices and lower overheads such as a massage or reiki.

When doing beauty therapy you might not think that understanding finances and how a business runs are important but actually it’s VERY important.  Only one of us can end up spray tanning Kate Middleton (me…obviously) and making an amazing profit from it, the rest of us will be working with normal people paying standard prices and it is up to us to make sure our treatments are not only top quality service wise but also cost effective and most of all profitable.

Remember, we should charge what we are worth, we should not aim to win customers over by having the lowest prices as really who is the winner in that situation?  Not the therapists, that’s for sure.

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Make-up brushes and nail art!

As we are currently doing make up in college and brushes didn’t come in our kits, I need to buy myself a set.

I have to say, I didn’t realise it would be so hard to decide on what brushes to get.  I know some people in my class are going for the like of Mac but my problem is I want to buy from an animal friendly company…which Mac is not.  My desire would be:

• Animal Friendly
• Eco Friendly
• Cost Effective
• Good Quality Brushes

With my list in mind, I managed to shortlist two companies, they are The Body Shop and EcoTools.

Knowing that I have a few brushes from The Body Shop in my own make-up bag that are so soft and enjoyable to use however they do work out quite costly to buy a full set.  I also don’t love that The Body Shop despite all their positives are owned by Loreal.

I also have been browsing the EcoTools brushes.  The reviews look great and with them being on a 3 for 2 offer in the store I work in along with staff discount I would get a fairly good price for them.  I also love that they are made from recycled materials and are not tested on animals.  However I am yet to use these brushes and don’t know what they feel like?  If I can find somebody with a few of these brushes that would let me test them out they could be perfect.

I had checked Ebay for inspiration and the prices seem to be fantastic for the EcoTools brush sets, but there is always the worry that they are fakes.

I know not all beauty therapy students will struggle so much to come to a conclusion of what brushes to buy and will go straight to the best value or biggest brand they can find at a good price.  However I find it important to start as I mean to go on and am trying to build my kit with all the things I will want to use when I am fully qualified.

On another note, I was browsing some Halloween nail art ideas to get inspiration from other folks designs and I came across a lady called Robin Moses.  Wow, this lady is amazing at what she does! And so I want to share her YouYube channel with you all www.RobinMoses.com

Enjoy and be inspired!

Manic Mondays will be worth it in the end.

We all know what Monday means…. Theory!

More work on the bones and a mini test on contra indications.  Overall actually not as dull as you would think and I did enjoy the class so don’t let people have you believe that theory is a hellish as they sometimes say it is.

Mid way through the class the lecturer got talking about eczema and kinesiology.  She was advising a classmate that she may have an intolerance to dairy and she wanted to do a muscle test.  Hands up, I admit I had never heard of this in my life so I was interested.

She got the girl to hold her arm up and tested the resistance of her muscle by applying pressure.  Then comes in the milk.  Now I thought she was going to have to drink the milk but no, she held it in her other hand (still in the sealed bottle) and the lecturer tested the resistance again.  Her arm fell easier granted but I wasn’t shy in voicing my opinion that she clearly has less resistance as she is now focusing on two things, her arm and holding the milk.  I also pointed out it may as well be a bottle of water.

She decided to test the theory on me and my arm didn’t drop much at all as I had set the milk on my knee, however the tutor could argue that I am not intolerant to milk (I’m not – but I don’t think it’s the point).  I did say I would retest the theory at home with a chilli as I know I am allergic to them if I eat or inhale the fumes from them being cooked.  Still need to grab the other half to get him to test it with me.

After theory was a tutorial and ICT.  Not everyone needed to go to the tutorial but I decided to use the time to do some ICT.  Result as the tutor said I had got enough done and didn’t need to go to the ICT class but would get marked in as I had covered more than needed for the class.   It was nice to get home a bit earlier to pick the littley up and clean the house.

I really do not feel like I have enough time these days to clean my house, do dishes, laundry etc.  If you plan on working 20+ hours as well as college and placement, expect very little me time.  I just have to keep telling myself “it will all be worth it in the end” and I am sure it will.

Tomorrow is spray tan and theory.  Hoping and praying to avoid being spray tanned as I have work right after college and I can not be standing behind the till for 4 hours slowly turning a shade of orange…

But she said….

Oh dear, people don’t half like to bicker.  It seems that some of the girls in class are now starting to fall out as some of the group have been bitching about others behind their backs.  I don’t care if your 16 or 36, if you go to a beauty course don’t play this kind of game of bitching about people, it will ALWAYS bite you in the ass.  If you don’t like somebody, fine, be polite and move on.  You are going to beauty school to better yourself and to carve your future career, not to make pretend friends or to be nasty to people you don’t like.

I was paired with a girl I don’t normally talk to yesterday – only she had “herpes simplex” and so I couldn’t actually work on her.  We then became a 3 with another girl who I like only she had the cold.  Joy!  So I had to do her facial avoiding her nose and lips and just did “air facial” movements as I called them.  I.e. I did the movements but hovering over her face rather than touching it, it meant I could still do the whole routine in my head.

After lunch the quieter girl did my facial, it was hard though as she really needed to be told a lot of what she had to do as she hasn’t been to many classes or practiced much.  As the lecturer talked the whole class through the facial massage that bit was great… in fact I fell asleep and committed the cardinal sin… I snored!!! Two snorts was enough to wake me up though and I made sure I didn’t fall back to sleep again.

The afternoon was eye treatments.  I was with the same girl who had never really done a facial and guess what… she hadn’t done any eye treatments either! Gah!  I did her brow and lash tint only she opened her eye while the tint was on her lashes! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!? So she had a sore eye but was fine.  She then tinted me, grand job as I don’t look weird.  She did however get tint all over the trolley and tried to say it wasn’t her and her friend tried to agree with her.  Yes… sure… say it was me when actually, I am normally one of the few people in the class to get things as close to perfect as I can.

We also got a peep at when we will be doing our exams, I was sad to see my tanning exam isn’t until January.  Something to do with having to learn more about the body and skin before we will be ready.  Shame, because I so want to get a spray tan machine to start tanning people and trying to make a few extra pennys

You’re Fired!

Don’t worry, it wasn’t me who got fired.  The other girl who was doing a placement on a Friday in the salon I am at (she came from another college) has been told not to return.  Take note, when you get a placement, they do not have to keep you there and if you are being lazy or doing anything wrong they can get rid of you.  Let’s be honest, why should they not? They need to prepare you for the real work and that is exactly what would happen.

 

From what I can gather this other girl would just sit about most of the day with her feet on the sofa (that clients sit on when waiting) reading magazines!  She also took a booking and put it in the book incorrectly and didn’t check if the client had been patch tested for tint – she hadn’t and thus couldn’t have her treatment performed and had to come back another day for it.

 

I try to embrace the opportunity no matter how dull it is to just be answering the phone, brushing the floor, dusting and replacing couch roll or damp cotton wool.  I know that despite it being dull, I am learning more about the process of how a real salon runs, of the little details that are important when dealing with a client and how long treatments take etc.  So when I rock up to work I hang up my coat and bag and I dust.  I dust the display units and any surfaces that need it.  I then brush or hoover if there are no clients in the salon and when each client exits a treatment, I scoot in and replace the couch roll, straighten the room up and check if any more damp cotton wool needs to be prepped.  I have never been fired from a real job and have NO intentions of getting my ass fired from a placement.

 

I mean think about it, how embarrassed would you be to have your tutor advise you that you no longer have a placement due to being a lazy/silly girl?  So my advice is when you get your placement, make the most of it.  Even if you end up in a chemist where you won’t learn much that will be of use to you, try your best and build up your own good work ethics as it will still help when it comes down to getting a reference for job applications.  They may not be able to say what you are like in a beauty related manor but they can say you turned up on time, that you were friendly, hard working and helpful etc.

 

Back in for the long haul tomorrow and the 10 hour day.  I am so knackered after today’s placement and working after it that I am very much looking forward to my facial!

Spray tanning, comedone extractors and health and safety!

Today was spray tanning.  Honestly MUCH easier than I expected it to be.  Most of us got to practice little bits of it on the models.  I got to do legs.  I did a grand job and it all looked fine with the guide colour.  Another girl did however WAY overspray an arm and didn’t stop spraying between arms? and so resprayed the models neck. Doh!  Overall though I think the class did very well and I can see it being nailed first time by most when it comes down to doing our tests.  I wasn’t however impressed with the gun we use.  It apprently needs turning off between each spray tan as it gets so hot it can burn people.  Not what I have read about some of the machines out there.  Personally from what I have read I like the look of the TS50 but in college we are using one by He-Shi.

After tanning we went on to our health and safety class to do our exam.  I scored 86% and so easily passed.  Each person in the class completed a different test and we did it online.  This prevented anyone being able to copy from somebody else and I think it worked very well.  A few did however fail (mainly the girls who really just don’t put any effort in at all) and will have to re-sit the exam next week again while the rest of us move onto the next module.

 

Another 2 girls in the class have mentioned to the tutor that they want to leave.  That could be a total of 3 drop outs from our class alone in just over a month.  One wants to leave to move with her boyfriend and the other wants to leave so she can be at home and sleep in? Hardly the best reasons to give up on training but a well, I guess they will look back on it in the future and either move on or regret it.

 

On another note, I had a spot on my lip, well it was a small white lump to be honest.  It wasn’t red or sore, it just bothered me. The other night I decided to squeeze it and I have been squeezing at it ever since!  It’s sore and red and looks like I have “herpes simplex” (see what I did there beauty students!) and I just want it gone! Any ideas?

 

My comedone extractors also arrived today, brilliant quality!  For 99p for 5 from Hong Kong I thought they would be plasticy and poor quality, I was wrong.  They are well made and cast in stainless steel!  I had got them from e-bay and would happily recommend the store should anyone ask me where I got them from. Find them here!

 

Back to placement tomorrow, fingers crossed it will be a little more interesting than it has been.

Pop quiz and beauty bargains

I turned up 10 minutes late today, the littley was sick and so delayed me getting in.  Sadly for me it was also pop quiz day on the skin.  I had forgotten about it and not revised and the others who had arrived on time had been given 10 minutes to revise.

Needless to say I didn’t get 100% so it’s a good job it was just an example of a test and not the real thing.  I got 77% so I would still pass with no revision but I will be honest and say I really do want to get as close to 100% as I can on the real test.  That said, some others got as little as 40% so in that respect I did quite well!

It was a day of theory and so after the test we started to go over elements of face masks and moisturisers and their properties.  What naffed me off is the bunch of layabouts who tend not to put any effort in just didn’t pay attention!  One of them actually FELL ASLEEP! I kid you not, fell asleep and her friend had to kick her to wake her up.

We also did our nominations for class reps, I am proud to say I was the unanimous choice with half the class putting my name in the hat.  The second rep was between 2 others who are going to split the year between them.  I’m pleased to be the rep, not so much because it was nice people wanted me to be but because it means I can be 100% certain that the things that are bugging me will be heard.

We had our first meeting with the head of the college today and I voiced my opinion on the fact we have zero recycling facilities, no water fountains forcing people to buy fizzy drinks from vending machine when their bottle of water runs out on a long day in college.  So much for encouraging healthy options…  I also wasn’t impressed that the canteen staff didn’t know if their gravy or curry sauces are vegetarian when I asked this week?  Now yes, not a huge deal, I just don’t eat there however, another girl in the other class does and she has a serious nut allergy.  What on earth would happen if they sold her something that had nuts and they didn’t even realise? They really need to address the little things in order to make the college a better place – as to if they will, well that remains to be seen.  At least my points were more valid than one of the other class reps who spent 15 minutes going on about how the timetable should take the bus timetables into account and couldn’t understand why the college can’t and won’t do that!

Back in for a day of tanning and theory tomorrow.  I am supposed to be one of the guinea pigs but not sure it will be a great idea as aunt flow hasn’t gone yet.  The good thing is the lecturers do take this into account with relevant treatments and so you won’t need to worry about this when on the course.

I would also like to share my bargain of the weekend with you!  I spent about £6.50 in boots and got the no7 hot cloth cleanser, no 7 tonner for normal skin and a lip gloss.  This was through the 3 for 2 offer, their 2 no 7 vouchers for £3 off make up and £5 off skincare.  Then take off my staff discount.  Total saving was £21!  Now granted I do have staff discount which is amazing and I appreciate it BUT if you are looking cheap items to use on people, I genuinely believe the no 7 vouchers and 3 for 2 offers will see you well.

I have tried the hot cloth cleanser, I don’t really rate using it with the muslin and do feel it needs an actual hot towel or face cloth but other than that it is a nice product and I bought it based on another bloggers review.  It is a creamy product and leaves the skin feeling soft and clean after use.

 

I will also be decanting the toner to a spray bottle to mimic the application process we use in our facial routine rather than using it straight from the bottle onto cotton pads.

The art of face masks

I had the misfortune of being paired up with one of the wayward members of my class today.  At the start of my facial her hands smelt of beef monster munch crisps!  As to why she did not wash her hands, who knows?  It really turned my stomach while she did the eye and lip cleanse.  Thankfully the superficial cleanse took the smell away due to the oils used.  The rest of her treatment went okay and I wouldn’t complain too much about anything else she did.

It was fun getting to wear a mask today.  Mine was made from Orange Water and Magnesium.  In theory my skin would have taken a stronger one containing Kaolin but we will try that another day.

I felt very confident with the start of my performance of the facial.  Everything up to the facial massage I feel like I can do perfectly.  I really do need to nail the massage routine though!   Mixing the mask was rather fun too and I really enjoyed painting it on.  I don’t imagine I will have any problems with that stage in the future either.

All that is left to learn is our Indian head massage routine to perform while the mask is on and our facial routine is complete.  Crazy to think in theory from next Thursday onwards I will “know” how to do a 1 hour facial routine!

In case you didn’t know, when doing the Beauty Therapy course some of your “exams” take the practical form (clearly) and we have been advised that from next week we will be starting out “formative assessments”.  We must do 3 formatives in any treatment before we can do our “summative assessment” which is the one we are graded on.

It is more than likely that next Thursday we will start formatives on eye treatments.  The thought of this gives me butterflies in my tummy! I am confident in my application of individual lashes and lash tinting but I didn’t do too great at putting strip lashes on tonight.  They just never sat right on the lash line for me.  I would also like to do a few more eyebrow tints to perfect that.

I do worry a little for others in the class.  Today is our long day and it is the 4^th time we have been in a long day, yet it was the first time one girl in our class had showed up for it!  She had never been patch tested for tints, glue, wax or tan.  When asked to put lashes on (as she couldn’t have them put on her due to no patch test) she said she didn’t want to!  She did it in the end with a lot of coaxing from the tutor but I can’t help but wonder why the heck she is even doing the course?