Glam up for grad and wedding season!
It’s your special day. And you want to look beyond gorgeous! Even if you don’t typically fuss much, your wedding or graduation is a great time to go for glam.
When wedding and grad season comes around, the experts at Merle Norman are thrilled to enter the excitement of those special days and help young brides and grads prepare.
Achieving the glam look begins with preparing your skin. “We like to see clients several months in advance of their special occasion so we can help them prepare their skin to help create that glamourous look,” says Paulette Schumacher, owner at the Scotia Centre location.
Grads tend not to start as early, but brides can begin coming in for deep cleansing facial treatments six to eight months in advance. “It’s good to start with facials and brow shaping and any waxing they want done,” says Schumacher. After the initial facial, clients need to return every six weeks to two months for maintenance and compounded benefits.
The next step is to begin a daily skin care regimen, morning and night with the big three: a cleanser, toner and moisturizer. With these as a foundation, Merle Norman then moves to a personalized approach. “Then we customize for their needs, choosing from a large selection of products. If there’s acne or pores that are causing their skin to look grey, there are lots of ways we can help to prepare their skin.”
Clients can do some of the preparation at home, like using exfoliators two or three times a week. Merle Norman offers other products for at-home use, such as masks and scrubs. Free make-up lessons are available in store, allowing brides and grads to educate and empower themselves.
A new acne line helps kill bacteria in the skin and has been quite successful. “You need to start that early enough because you may have more breakouts when using the new product initially. You need some time to clear the skin and let it get used to the changes,” says Schumacher.
The result is skin that is radiant and flawless. Each face is unique and when necessary, the experts at Merle Norman can hide things as well, like birthmarks and blemishes. While they will remain raised, their appearance will be minimized.
Let’s not forget the eyelashes! False eyelashes were popular in the 60s but interest gradually died off in the 70s and 80s. These days we’re seeing a lot of elongated, false eyelashes again. They tend to bring out the eyes and make them look bigger. Besides the glam factor, false eyelashes are a good option for people who are allergic to mascara, who don’t have eyelashes or have short eyelashes, or who have medical issues. “It gives them a chance to at least have eyelashes,” says Schumacher.
“With eyelashes, a lot of girls are choosing to do the extensions, but in some cases it’s not cost effective. Buying false eyelashes and doing your own application is more cost effective for a lot of people,” she says. Choose eyelashes based on your requirements. You can pick something natural for everyday wear, and choose something more dramatic for evenings out. Some eyelashes produce more of an almond shaped eye, or a cat-eye look. More recent glue products are latex free and safer for sensitive skin.
Merle Norman will either teach people how to apply the lashes or do it for them. “It takes practice. Nobody ever gets them on perfect the first time. Once you catch on they’re easy to apply,” says Schumacher. “If you’re going out in the evening it really glamorizes your makeup.”
Probiotics are creating a sensation in skin care. A new line by Merle Norman called Skintelligent offers probiotic technology in a ‘smart’ system that features ingredients that create balance and support the skin’s natural process of shedding dead skin. It has anti-stress benefits, improves the texture of the skin and has anti-aging properties, which will be of interest to the moms of these brides and grads.
Merle Norman celebrates your special day and is delighted to help you prepare. Visit the store today, located in Scotia Centre at 123 2nd Avenue South.