• Product Knowledge – How well you know the different types of skin care systems available at your facility, their active ingredients, and how they work on the skin.
• Facility Setting – How you are set up and trained to do a product presentation for a walk-in client, as well as to explain to a client during the course of a treatment.
• Type of Client – Can you start a friendly and caring conversation about a client’s needs and expectations? Having the ability to quickly read a client by asking questions will tell you about the client’s knowledge and experience with skin care products. This will allow you to take the best course of action from here on.

Listening and Building Customer Trust
Before taking any plan of action with a client, skin care professionals should listen and pay attention to key words and phrases that express the client’s main skin care concerns and product likes and dislikes about their current usage of skin care products. Oftentimes, a client’s choice of everyday products is self-prescribed and not suitable for their skin type. Therefore, they are not getting the results they want and need.
Once you learn about the client’s goals with skin care, it is essential to focus on both immediate and long-term expectations of how long it will take to treat, correct, and prevent a skin condition such as wrinkles or pigmentation. Once the client understands and agrees with the clinical assessment, it is time to introduce a personal skin care system and method of application that will help achieve their ideal skin!
Always keep in mind to use the appropriate level of skin care language with a client to ensure it is a two-way communication in understanding and connecting for an effective skin care consultation and product recommendation.

Skin Bar
As a skin care professional, having thorough in-store product knowledge and experience with the purpose, types, and method of application of a moisturizer on the skin will facilitate you for a winning product demonstration and sale. The set-up and display of skin care products on the counter or skin bar should visually tell a story on its own with the use of postcards and demonstration videos with one or two staff members available at the workstation for greetings and mini-treatments. Creating the urgency of needing a skin moisturizer to clients who come into the spa sparks interest and curiosity in them. It offers benefits to skin care professionals by building and creating a loyal client base and provides a solution to clients’ needs.

Function of a Moisturizer
Now it is time to communicate to the client the purpose and benefits of using a moisturizer as part of their daily skin care regimen. First, explain that a moisturizer will provide a protective barrier on the stratum corneum by reducing and preventing damage from free radicals and environmental stressors. The active ingredients in the formula will nourish and hydrate the epidermis skin layers with essential nutrients and help boost the dermis metabolic functions, which start to slow down with age.
A moisturizer can treat, prevent, and correct any skin condition that is present on the surface of the skin such as acne, pigmentation, wrinkles, sensitive, sensitized, and dehydrated and dry skin types.

Active Ingredients
• Acne – A gel to light-weight moisturizer, combined with hydrating and mattifying properties, will help break-out prone skin, regulate sebum product, and clear congested skin. Active ingredients are salicylic acid, glycolic acid, benzoyl peroxide, LHA, niacinamide, licorice, tea tree, witch hazel, sulfur, and caffeine.
• Dehydrated/Dry – A light- to heavy-weight moisturizer, combined with antioxidants and ceramides, will help boost the effects of locking-in hydration for a more resilient and healthier skin barrier. Active ingredients are hyaluronic acid, shea butter, glycerin, aloe, omega 6 oils, pro-vitamin B5, and vitamins A, C, and E.
• Sensitive/Sensitized – A light- to medium-weight, pH-balanced moisturizer, free of inflammatory agents such as parabens, fragrance, gluten, mineral oil, and talc to prevent inflammation and reduce skin redness. Active ingredients are colloidal oatmeal, hyaluronic acid, bisabolol, licorice, vitamins C and E, and silicone.
• Pigmentation – A medium- to heavy-weight moisturizer that minimizes discoloration by brightening and improving surface clarity and luminosity. Ideally, it will contain some exfoliating properties, along with sunscreens to help defend skin against pigment-inducing ultraviolet light. Active ingredients are lactic acid, hydroquinone, kojic acid, niacinamide, glucosamine, vitamin C, white tea extract, and licorice root extract.
• Wrinkles – A medium to balm texture moisturizer that helps reverse the signs of aging and defends against future free radical damage. Ideally, it will contain lifting, firming, and tightening properties, along with hydrating, exfoliating, and a broad spectrum of UVA and UVB sunscreens. Active ingredients are retinol, glycolic acid, lactic acid, salicylic acid, peptides, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, glucosamine, and vitamins C and E.
Keeping in mind at all times the choice of active ingredients, the percentage of actives concentration and a limited number of preservatives will dictate the efficacy and tolerance of the moisturizer on the skin. It is also recommended to choose and use primarily a high broad-spectrum UVA and UVB sunscreen made up of both chemical and physical sunscreens for long-term benefits. The best way to go about choosing a sunscreen will be according to a client’s lifestyle and personal needs.
The above skin care ingredients are based on results of treating numerous clients of mine and personal usage. Every client is different and what works well for one client may not necessarily be the best course of action of product choice and recommendation for another.

Crosslinking Products
While educating a client about skin moisturizers, it is essential that during the conversation with the client to crosslink complimentary skin care products that will enhance the efficacy and benefits of moisturizing. Such products will be the use of a toner and serum. A toner’s function is to open up the surface of the skin for deeper penetration and absorption of active ingredients while a serum helps to enhance the benefits of a moisturizer at a deeper level within the skin layers. And let us not forget that sun protection is a must-have product all year long.
Educate clients about the importance of sun protection in a daily skin care routine and introduce something new such as a multipurpose day-time moisturizer with built-in hydrating properties, light coverage, and sun protection. Another option is mixing equal amounts of products together, such as a moisturizer and a sun protector for day-time prevention against aging and pigmentation and applying the same moisturizer alone or mixed-in with a serum at nighttime for repairing and rejuvenating the skin’s vitality and functions. It is also helpful that a client visually sees how much of each product to mix together and how to apply it to the skin.

Developing a Daily New Habit
It is important to remember to engage in conversation and client feedback throughout product demonstrations and skin treatments. Feel free and confident to ask a client personal questions about what may be taking place in their life right now, what new types of skin changes are present that were not there before, and the main reason they have come to seek help from a professional. Remember to always treat clients and their skin together in a holistic and nurturing way. Skin conditions can affect anyone very deeply in a physical, mental, and emotional way that can lead to serious and detrimental self-esteem problems.

The final goal is to make sure that clients understands that developing a new lifestyle requires commitment, patience, and understanding that realistic results come gradually. We are in the business of protecting our client’s skin investment by offering valuable and results-driven skin care products that maintain their skin’s health and personal beauty. This must be the message clients remember when they walk out with their purchase from the spa.

Monique Enriquez is a certified natural health practitioner, skin expert, and anti-aging skin therapist. She has studied and trained with international experts in the holistic health care and beauty industries, giving her the expertise to create educational workshops and preventative programs that allow the mind and body to rejuvenate and heal naturally. Her passion and continued learning for skin care has helped her transform her own skin problems into successful personal experiences. Enriquez has an affinity to aromatherapy treatments and cosmeceutical skin care products for their proven and results-based active ingredients. She enjoys yoga, cooking, spa retreats, volunteering at pet shelters, and is writing a book on lifestyle and skin health for the professional modern-day woman.

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