Restoration Skincare

One of the most crucial decisions for any spa professional is selecting the right oils to carry, because not only will these products be used during treatments but will also serve as a large piece of your revenue through at-home skin rituals. A blend of oils can have a robust ingredient deck and will typically offer multiple benefits compared to one oil on its own. To find the most nourishing blend, look for herbal, botanical, ingredients with high concentrations of plant flavonoids, anthocyanins, phytonutrients and antioxidant-rich polyphenols that fight free radical damage. Those beneficial properties work to increase overall skin health, brighten, and soften the appearance while the fatty acids from natural oils synergistically restore the lipid layer of the skin, reinforcing the barrier, which is exceptionally helpful for reducing redness in sensitized or compromised skin.

The right types of oils (organically grown, non-comedogenic) are specifically formulated to balance oil production within each pore which helps to normalize skin’s sebum production and reduce breakouts. Often times, acne is made worse by over drying the skin with harsh acne treatments (such as benzoyl peroxide). When the skin is stripped of its natural oils, it has to work much harder to produce oil, and that overproduction is often the catalyst for breakouts.

Taking the intentionality behind choosing the proper oil to benefit yourself and your clients a step further, you must also consider how the raw ingredients in any oil blend are grown and processed, as those factors greatly affect the quality of the oil and the skin it touches. How products are made affects their vibration from seed to stem. If the ingredients in the products are GMO, sprayed with pesticide, or overharvested and improperly extracted, the vibration and nutrient count is lowered, making the product much less beneficial than its potential.

If you’ve ever had a homegrown vegetable that comes from healthy, living soil, you have experienced the noticeable difference between that and store bought. It’s a difference you can see, taste, and smell. It is a difference your body responds to on a cellular level.

Inquire with the brands and labs you work with to find out how the ingredients are extracted, what they are derived from, and how they are grown. As much as you need to educate your client on the product, any brand needs to do its job in educating you, the professional, as well.

This not only equips you with the knowledge you need to make an informed purchasing decision, but it’s insight you can share with your clients about what makes the products you carry special. Your enthusiasm in choosing ingredients with integrity will be contagious to your client and fill them with pride for what they are putting on their skin.

Keep in mind, we are in the midst of an awakening with consumers becoming conscious to eco and animal kind ingredient sourcing. It is clear that these core values of sustainability and cruelty free product creation are what consumers want, and also what the earth needs. When sourcing from animals, inflammatory factors are always inevitable. With natural derivates, such as organically grown and biodynamically harvested olives, the ingredient is truly beneficial to the skin being anti-inflammatory.

If you take two of the same ingredients, with one grown organic and the other sprayed with pesticide, you will notice the organic ingredient fully benefiting the skin, whereas the irritating pesticide-grown ingredient will inflame sensitive skin, causing unwanted reactions.

The importance of mindfulness in sourcing also goes for the extraction process of any ingredient. For example, calendula is best extracted from organically grown flowers using C02 extraction methods.  Other options like heat and chemical extraction can still get the job done, however, loss of potency of the ingredient’s naturally abundant properties is always present when using high heat and toxic chemicals. When professional skincare companies extract efficiently, like through the slow distillation process, the extracted ingredient is also purified to remove possible allergens associated with the plant.

The greater your awareness to these seemingly subtle choices that are actually very intentional, conscious (and usually the more expensive) quality choices made by product creators, the more aligned you will find yourself to all products that you are using and recommending. These conscious decisions will only make you, the expert, more magnetic to your clients by showing them you deeply care. Afterall, the products you carry and send home with your clientele are also an extension of your expertise that bridges your client from treatment to treatment to solidify loyalty and a high lifetime value relationship.

Many clients come in for facial treatments and take the time for their at home skin rituals to drop in to a place of peace in self-care. To evoke added purpose in helping your clients relax, consider choosing oils with nervines. Nervines are hyper-targeted herbs that focus on strengthening and calming the bodies nervous system. Simply smelling the aroma of nervines like Neroli or Rose for example, is proven to reduce Cortisol stress molecules in the brain. By amping up your facial treatment offerings or your clients daily skin ritual self-care practice with the sensory experience that these nervine containing ingredients can bring, is something you may find leads one to feel like they are living an even more enriched life. Afterall, our sense of smell can bring a wave of calm over us, energize, and awaken our energy. The thoughtfulness behind the concept to creation of an oil blend and the energy in which it is made, has the exquisite capability to make you & your esthetic offerings stand out as even more of an expert.

Oil blends work by locating ”the junk” and alchemizing it into purity. The antimicrobial oil blend finds the imbalance in the under or over production of sebum and works balances the skins natural oil production. This addresses the root of the imbalance, physically and energetically. For our daily routines, we use oil blends as a pre-cleanse or part of a face and body self-care routine to hydrate and nourish. In the treatment room, we use it as a rejuvenating glide during dermaplaning, cupping, facial reflexology, vacuum therapy, Gua Sha, and lymphatic drainage massage.

Be sure to choose products rich in the omegas, anti-inflammatory properties, and antioxidants that give a lustrous glow for all skin types!