salonsecret

[salonsecret]

Dry Hands

OK, so we are all washing our hands a million and one times a day at the moment so of course our hands are drying out on us. Mine looked like they belonged to an eighty year old at one point. here are my top tips for battling dry hands. first of all I have placed thick hand moisturisers at all sinks along with anti bacterial hand wash and gel so each time (ok most times) I can put on handcream straight away without having to search for it constantly. Apply a thick hand cream or mask on each night before you go to bed to soak in over night. Bonus points if you have cotton gloves to put on too! Treat yourself in the evenings while your scrolling through netflix and cover your hands in hand cream or mask. If you have some food storage bags use these to help turn it into an intensive treatment and cover with warm hand towels. If you have 2+hot water bottles you can place these on top too. This will help to open the pores up and the cream to sink in more. After, massage in the remaining cream and then revel in yor newly moisturised and younger looking hands.

[salonsecret]

Beauty and the Coronavirus

At this point everyones skins given up! Most people are complaining of dry skin and when it comes to hair greys and roots are showing more than they ever have and those with that problem are questioning if they should box dye. Can I even get hold of one? Does it really matter? This is what ive been asking myself these past few days and to be honest I think I’m edging more towards giving it a lot of Tlc with treatments I left one on for 24 hours ha! Giving it a cold rinse at the end of washing and letting it air dry and I’m going to book in with my hairdresser as soon as I can and is safe to I might even use the time to try a new colour! My skins been terrible for over a week and I had an eczema breakout which is staring to go down now but I’m using the bare minimum of skincare. Cleansing with plain water and a flannel because no makeup…. and then applying borage oil from the ordinary then topping it up with some skin food from weleda and that’s it! Ive stocked up on natural Natura sheet masks (The same ones you can purchase through me for door drops locally) while trying to not use so many diffent chemicals and its working (must drink more water and less caffeine. Why is that so hard?) which made me think. Yes it’s annoying that we can’t just go out and do what we want to do at the moment but maybe this is what we all need. Yes it brings many different stresses not being able to see family or loved ones, money issues along with having to school children from home. I raise my glass to you mummies! But if we all can just take a few moments in our days to just breathe be humble appreciate the little luxuries and gestures if you are well and let things be it may just be the boost we all needed. Before all this I know so many of my clients friends and family were so stressed out and felt like we couldn’t keep up with life. What if this is life slowing down for us? Yes this is tough at times but wouldn’t it be great if we all came out of this and spent a little more family time and appreciated all the things we have that bit more?

[salonsecret]

How I Downsized My Make Up Haul On Holiday

I wanted to try and downsize my makeup/skincare haul on holiday this year. To leave more room for clothes and shoes. Bonus!

I never go on holiday without having a spray tan to help me feel body confident when i get into that bikini on the first day. Especially after the long winter we’ve had (still having) Yes you can still catch a sun tan when you have a spray tan. Yes you still have to wear spf so you don’t burn.

My next ultimate holiday beauty treatment is lash extensions. I like to go Russian glam. Lets be honest a little glam never hurt nobody, but with so many options from individual to natural look volume lashes there is something for everyone (if lash extensions aren’t your thing but you still want to avoid wearing mascara but still want defined lashes you can lash lift and tint). All options mean no mascara is needed and you don’t end up with mascara halfway down your face after getting out of the pool. 

Brows are continuing to grow more and more with so many brow products around now. I took no brow products with me due to having a Henna brow tint and wax before i jetted off. Henna tint lasts much longer on the hair and skin than normal tint does and because of this my brows were filled in for the whole of my holiday without me having to make them up every day. It also meant it didn’t wash off during the day too.

You cant go wrong with a Shellac Mani pedi in a super cute holiday colour or my go to on a beach getaway is White, goes with everything and looks lovely against tanned skin. If you’re super lucky like me and prone to dry skin on your feet adding in a callus peel is a must if you want baby soft skin in those sandals.

So that was my holiday prep. What I actually took with me instead of a bulging bag of skincare and makeup products:

Under eye patches for dark circles and puffiness use on the plane before you land(first time I’ve ever not had puffy eyes after a long haul flight) can also be used the morning after a late night. Work AMAZING!

Moisturising sheet mask for extra moisture after being in the sun all day. I also took one on the plane to use but wasn’t brave enough so instead picked up a moisturiser at the airport to top up my skins moisture during the flight.

Bronzer

Highlighter

Blush

Mini Smokey Eye Palette

Lancaster Tan Maximizer. I cannot shout about how much I love this product enough. I picked it up to try from duty free as it claims to extend your tan for up to a month. I still have my tan and I’ve been back for 6 weeks now. So much so to my annoyance I still have a tan mark on my wrist from my all inclusive band! I’ve continued using this every day since I got back  and really love it even just as a moisturiser. I will definitely be restocking more bottles.

Huge bottle of Aloe Vera purchased at the airport duty free 

Cleanser (for your skin type)

Toner (for your skin type)

Spf for face (I go 30-50 on the face to try and stop premature ageing)

Spf for body 

By downsizing my holiday makeup and replacing with longer lasting beauty treatments before I went left more room for clothes and shoes and more time to enjoy and relax on holiday without having to spend ages getting ready 

[salonsecret]

My Skincare Routine and First Blog!

I thought I would start my first blog post with some skincare help especially as I have had lots of clients asking for it.

Its that time of year when we all look at our dreary winter skin with cries of urgh! January has come and gone and with the cold drawn out Winter and central heating meaning our skin has taken a bit more of a beating and needs more TLC than normal but with so many products available and new must have products being released almost daily its no wonder it leaves us confused and grabbing for any product that shouts hydrating, glow or wrinkle reducing.

I was lucky enough to be gifted some great new skincare this year which I've been testing in a quest to give my poor skin the boost it needs to look and feel healthy.  I'll let you know how I'm getting on with them so far and let you know if they are products I'll be restocking once they've run out at the end of the Month.

OK so I'll start with my skincare routine. I've been using Estee Lauder Gentle Eye Makeup Remover to remove my eye makeup. This is oil and fragrance free which means it can be used on eyelash extensions also. Major plus! and it removed my eye makeup really well. They say to sweep over closed eyelids with a cotton pad, Wait a few seconds then wipe gently downward. I've even used it on some extremely naughty clients that come to there lash appointments with mascara on tut tut! and it took it off fairly easily YAY! I haven't tried it on dreaded waterproof mascara but I hear that works well too.  

I ALWAYS double cleanse my skin. The reason for this is you do the first cleanse to remove your makeup and the second cleanse is to really get into the skin and clean any dirt in your pores to stop blackheads :-)  I tend to mix and match my cleansers depending on what I feel my skin needs most. My go to is Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing facial wash. I use this most days which encourages skin cell renewal and helps exfoliate the skin to make it brighter and smoother. I use this one a lot in my facial treatments also as it works with most skin types. 

If I've worn lots of makeup in the day I use the Elemis Pro-Radiance cream cleanser which you massage into dry skin until it has warmed leave it on for 1 minute and then remove. I normally use a Makeup Eraser cloth to wipe it off which you can use on its own with just water to remove makeup but I like to treat my skin with cleansers too I just feel they really get in there and nourish the skin.

On days when I feel my skin needs a little wake up I use Elemis Biotec Skin Energising Cleanser to brighten my skin.

Once my skin is  squeaky clean I've just started using Estee Lauder Advanced Night repair which I LOVE! I've been using it for just over a week now and have noticed a difference already. Maybe because I've been using it in the day too oohps. I'll regret that when it runs out but at least my skin should look fab. This is meant to help with aging and with fine lines and to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. I do feel like this is helping to do that and also give my skin the boost it needs. I've already had comments from people lately saying how good my skin looks at the moment. They do say it takes 3 weeks to see results so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks then. The best way to apply is to put a few drops into your hands do a therapist hand sweep to warm up the products in your hands and then press it into the skin on your face and neck. I've also been using the matching eye cream to help with my unwanted eye baggage and my normally dark under-eyes seem lighter and less puffy.

After the serum has soaked into my skin I top it up with Elemis Hydra-Balance day cream to give that extra moisturisation that's so badly needed this time of year.

Finally around once a week or more if i feel I need to I'll use a face mask to really treat the skin. I rotate between using Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing Gel Mask to help slough off any dead skin or for a more gentle exfoliating mask I'll use there papaya enzyme peel mask both can be left on for around 10 minutes. 

For when my skin needs a bit of soothing or if it's that time of the month and I get break outs I reach for my  Elemis Herbal Lavender Repair Mask which is another one of my cult products and I use this a lot in my facials too. Its super gentle but really calming on the skin. You can also leave it on overnight which really helps reduce any break outs.

A couple of other favourite products I use and always restock whenever they dare to run out is Bioderma Hybradio Masque and LA ROCHE-POSAY Hydra intense masque. I absolutely love these two brands and used to ship all my Bioderma products over from France for peanuts for years before the UK highstreet started stocking them for about 3 times the price. So I now try to stock up if I'm travelling there. If you are going to France look out for them in the pharmacy's and you can stock up too. However I do occasionally buy from Boots if I need to as its such a great skincare brand they use minimal ingredients and no harsh chemicals. My skin literally loves it!

and that's pretty much my daily/weekly routine. I was lucky enough last week when one of my lovely clients treated me to a microdermabrasion treatment with her. Shout out to Gina :-) I might do a blog post on that at a later date as I feel like that might is something that I will start working into my skincare routine also. 

Sorry if this first blog post became a bit long I just felt like I've had so many skin care questions lately and so much to say about it already and I have so much more.

If  anyone has any skincare questions they'd like answered please drop me a dm on my instagram  @salon_secret I might even get the guts up to do a live q&a on there at some point so make sure you follow or of course you can book in a facial with me and I can help you with your skincare issues and recommend some products. I don't have any affiliations with any skincare companies I just use and recommend products that I love.

Thanks for reading 

Zoe