NATURAL AND ORGANIC
“People are recognizing that a lot of the stuff out there is not good for them,” says Ferdinand. “My philosophy is back to basics, less is more. I try to pick products that I recognize all the ingredients. I try to teach my clients that it doesn’t need to be fancy. It doesn’t need to be expensive. You just need to make informed choices.”
MELDING OF NATURE AND SCIENCE
“This stems from scientific and clinical research into natural ingredients,” says Stafford. “It is the best of both worlds when you can base products on botanical ingredients, but also have confidence that the end product is also effective on treating skin concerns, without sensitizing the skin.”
FACIAL MASKS
“Consumers have learned what we pros have known all along: A good facial mask can turn your skin around for a week or more,” says Stafford.
Here she offers a few tips to do this trend right:
Thoroughly cleanse your skin first. Masking on skin that was not properly cleansed can drive impurities further into your skin, and/or decrease absorption of the beneficial -ingredients.
A gentle exfoliation before a moisturizing or purifying mask is also recommended, just be careful of over-doing it. If you want to do multiple masks or steps at home, just check with a licensed esthetician to be sure the products are compatible and won’t over exfoliate or sensitize the skin.
You get what you pay for. The popularity of this trend means that inferior, cheap masks are flooding the market, lining drug store shelves, etc. A really high quality, professional-tier mask once a month will do more for your skin than a bargain mask weekly. Our favorites are the Kantic Brightening Moisture Mask by Alchimie Forever and the wide range of convenient and effective sheet masks from Patchology.
(May 2018)