While I’m traveling around the world, meeting with clients, attending important conferences and trades shows and conducting advanced education classes, I’m always on the lookout for the latest trends in skincare. I find that even though I have traveled non-stop for over 30 years, there are still so many things to learn and new ideas to discover. It is so important that we, as estheticians, continue our education and professional growth, especially when it comes to finding new opportunities to apply our valuable skills in more varied, life-enhancing ways.
On my recent trips around the globe, I had the pleasure of encountering several ground-breaking spas that have found interesting new ways to combine technology and skin care treatments. Here are my important takeaways for you to consider:
The Next Level of Dental Spas
The spa experience is all about relaxation and rejuvenation, two words NOT synonymous with the dentist’s office! Many dental practitioners have sought to amend this by incorporating spa-like services and amenities to their treatments, creating a dental spa experience. As we know, the best compliment to a beautiful smile is beautiful skin, and I am gratified that this concept has been spreading across the country. More and more, dentists are realizing that by incorporating Repêchage facial treatments in their services, they are ensuring their patients get the best of both worlds.
Recently, we partnered with a dental spa in Italy that has taken this truly taken this concept to the next level! On my recent trip to Bologna, I visited Microdent Dental Spa where owner Dr. Simone Stori has installed flotation tanks as part of his patient’s pre-treatment protocol. Here, just prior to their procedure patients float in water that is at body temperature. This not only induces a state of total relaxation, but has been shown to reduce inflammation and pain both during and after the procedure! As part of our collaboration with this interesting, promising project, Dr. Stori has incorporated our Lamina Lift™ Mask into teeth whitening treatments, and is testing a prototype dental mask I created for use on the teeth and gums to reduce inflammation.
Baby, It’s Cold Inside
Along with the dental spa, cryotherapy is very big in Europe and beginning to blossom here in the United States as well. Cryotherapy reduces inflammation, reduces pain and spasms, and helps to constrict blood vessels You may not know it, but you are practicing cryotherapy when you put an ice pack on a wound to bring down swelling. The cryotherapy found in today’s spas, however, is a bit more involved. With this, you put on protective gear, then walk into a succession of rooms which get progressively colder. Temperatures can reach as low as 200 degrees below freezing! Reports are that some feel energized after a cryotreatment, others feel relaxed, and some even report better sleep and reduced depression. This treatment is gaining in popularity with sports teams: the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks reportedly use it for their injured players. Something to consider for spa treatment use, no doubt!
Oncology Esthetics
What could be more important and gratifying to an esthetician than to help provide real comfort and care to an individual undergoing cancer treatment? Oncology esthetics is a new field which customizes spa treatments to suit cancer patients and their specific needs. Cancer patients suffer from distinctive challenges such as dry skin, elasticity issues and rashes due to the various therapies that are administered to them to combat this terrible disease. Special attention must be paid to the selection of skincare ingredients, making sure to choose products without any sensitizing agents. Massages, nail care, skin care and hair care are all be tailored in accord with the procedures and medications patients are employing. By developing this area of expertise at a spa or salon, you would be able to offer a truly healthy total body and mind therapy to those that need it most.
Smart Stress
This final trend solves a problem which I myself noticed plagues our era, the idea of “smart stress.” We all have smart devices we have become completely dependent on, yet these same devices can be just as detrimental to a healthy lifestyle as they are convenient. We cannot eat a meal quietly or have a conversation with another person without someone’s pocket buzzing or beeping in constant interruption! When a ringtone goes off in public, it seems at least 5 people all check their phones to see if it was them! This problem is particularly endemic with teens and even tweens. In fact, tweens use an average of 6 hours of media, not including time spent using screens and devices for school or homework. Teens use an average of 9 hours of media per day.
As you can see, we are all overwhelmed by the technology meant to simplify our lives. This was one of the reasons why I created the FUSION Express Bar & Spa Masks & At-Home Products. This sensory-immersion experience allows those who have no time for a traditional facial a chance to be pampered, and receive the maximum amount of nutrients in a minimal amount of time. Our FUSION flavor actives contain powerful anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals from matcha tea, strawberry, blueberry, beet root, vanilla, cocoa and pumpkin. These masks were intended to de-stress and decompress from the “smart saviors.” The best part? These treatments can be enjoyed and provide tremendous skin care benefits for all ages, from 8 to 80! This means that spa time can help us reclaim family time without distraction.
Caught up in the whirlwind of our own daily lives and business, we may tend to forget just how much more there is we can be doing to grow our business. That is where traveling and opening ourselves up to new ideas and paradigms becomes so essential. As you can see, bringing in cryotherapy treatments to a spa, when in the past we have focused on saunas and heat therapy, is a revolutionary concept. Managing the skin care of someone in their most vulnerable time, undergoing cancer treatment, is of the upmost importance to get right. Meeting with dentists in order to mitigate the stress of doing our biannual checkup can impact so many lives by encouraging people to maintain proper care of their teeth with the added benefit of spa treatments. Helping a working person or a stressed student of any age find some time out of their day to disconnect from the outside and online world, and finally relax in a full sensory experience. Creating moments that last a week is our hope, creating moments that last a lifetime is our goal.
