 Hello and welcome to this edition of Create a Life You Love. This is by far one of my favorite editions. I have Laura Robinson of Sparkle Spa with me today. This is going to be a great show and I'll tell you why. Each and every one of us wants to look as young as we feel. We all feel young and vibrant. Our energy levels are high, but on the outside we might be noticing physically, especially in the face area, that we are not looking as young as we feel. Laura of Sparkle Spa is going to give us some tips and pointers today to help us achieve just that. Hi Laura, how are you today? Hi Tony, I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, it's my it's it's my pleasure. I'm so grateful that you could make it today. I know this is going to be so informative for so many people that are watching us right now. So the first question, what drew you to skincare? It's kind of a funny story because I started out as an art student. I actually majored in painting and drawing and along that journey I discovered really through my husband, boyfriend at the time, that I had this passion for skincare and makeup and all things beauty more than I wanted to be a starving artist when I finished school. So he kind of helped point me in that direction and I started to investigate further I had never even had a facial before and I went to school to become an aesthetician, just kind of knowing in my gut that this was like the right thing to do. I always say that we know deep down inside we know we feel the direction we really want to go in. We really do. It really was just like a magnetic pull into that world that I didn't even know anything about but once I got there I knew it was the right place. Yes, you can feel it. You just feel like I'm home. Yes, I'm home. This is it. Exactly. Now and in a way you still are an artist. Yes. Your canvas just happens to be different faces. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. So where did you end up going to school? So I studied at Pivot Point International in Chicago, Illinois. Nice. And so I started out in Chicago. That's where I was living for 14 years and we've been in Milwaukee now for about 10. So nice. Yeah. And so you how long have you been an aesthetician? I've been an aesthetician for 15 years now since 2002. And I know you went to school you became an aesthetician but I also know you you're such a perfectionist and you take what most people would say continuing education classes. How would you say that working on your craft and putting more in your portfolio for a lack of better. So what are some of the areas that you've continued in? So I've been training at the International Dermal Institute which is in downtown Chicago. Nice. They have a lot of post-grad classes that we can take and it's a passion of mine going to education. And I feel like in this industry if you don't continue your education you're you're not going anywhere in your career. So you have to enjoy that part of it. There's lots of trade shows that we attend to every year. Chicago has a lot of them. And you know they are realizing and learning more about skin and how for lack of a better way of saying it again how it works and how it ages. Right. What works for the aging process? What worked five years ago? It may not work today. It might have been good five years ago but today. Right. It's a completely different ballgame. There's so much more information so much more research is done. So yeah education is really constantly changing in our industry so you have to stay on top of it. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm reading off these questions and I sent out an email that you were going to be on my show. Yeah. And I told people do you on my email list if you have questions send them to me so these are the questions that people have asked. Now I know personally that you because I've come to you and I love you I love your work but they want to know what are the unique services that we offer some of the unique services. Well in a nutshell I would say we really do focus on the skin. You know we're a spa we do skin treatments of course we do waxing services we do makeup but one of the more unique services that we offer is the lash lift which is kind of strange it's actually a perm for the eyelashes and it lasts anywhere from six to eight weeks and we can also curl them or I'm sorry perm into them yes tint them for you as well so they're lifted curled and then also tinted and it's kind of cool because it works with the natural lash you're not using extensions or anything like that which can really damage the natural lashes over time so it's just another way to better the way you look without any real side effects absolutely you know you know my eyebrows and lashes are white they're almost translucent so right I wish the color of my hair was like that I just save a lot of money on hair processing but exactly but so when for someone like me who has such a light brows and lashes this is saving and it saves so much time in the morning exactly and that curling it's pretty cool it really is because we try to do that we try to lift and that makes the eyes more open it does there are so many benefits for women to do that we've seen a lot of women come in to get that service done before they go on a vacation they really love it for like a beach vacation when they're swimming a lot because they get out of the water and their lashes look great they just look done already they feel yeah they don't feel so naked faced and then they get hooked on it and start doing it more that is that is one of the the things that people should know this could be addictive yes all of your services all of our services could be addictive so if you if now you do a number of different facials and skin care techniques yes what's one of your most popular skin care techniques let's just say for someone like me I I'm not using Botox I love Botox but I'm not using it right now so what would be a skin care technique that I could come in and have you do that would really make a difference right away and or over time sure basically we offer our signature skin treatment and that kind of covers everything very comprehensive treatment and then we have some add-on services and that's what kind of sets us apart with some of the anti-aging things that people are looking for we work with more holistic type treatments that are going to be cumulative results over time you will see some immediate results but it's all about that cumulative effect LED light therapy is one of those it's phenomenal for the skin what it does red light being the you know best for anti-aging it's helping to stimulate that collagen and elastin in the skin and that's what starts to decline as we age so it really helps to oxygenize all those cells and just gets the skin stimulated and looking healthy and youthful again another great technology that we're working with is called microcurrent similar to LED it's also helping to stimulate that collagen and elastin in the skin but it has a lifting and toning effect on the skin as well so you actually do see immediate lifting to the skin we like to call it fitness for the face it's just like if you go to the gym and you're working your biceps are you going to see a big difference after one visit maybe not but if you continue to do it over time you're going to see that effect right so it's not a quick fix nothing that we provide is really a quick fix we don't believe in that you know it you have to work at this stuff and but that's the important thing to know that is if you do work at it you will get results care for your face and get absolutely that you will see those results and they'll be long lasting definitely results which is really important to now the other part that's so important is the home care you know have to say that because it really it's about 80 percent of what happens you know you're only coming in monthly maybe um so what you're doing at home is so important because you're doing that every day twice a day exactly you're not using the right products you're doing your skin a disservice so we're there to help coach you and educate you on on all of that too absolutely yeah so you said about once a month is that what you would recommend for the amount of visits that somebody should cut like once a month for that facial or that that general maintenance for the skin we usually say about four to six weeks is great for someone that wants to come somewhat regularly but maybe they don't have the time or they can't afford to come as often we ask them to come in seasonally because our skin especially where we live here in wisconsin changes pretty drastically with the climate so we go from the force yeah to that cold outside exactly that yes absolutely my hands are totally suffering from it i know now what types of events or spa nights do you hold and how often do you hold them yeah um we try to do something a couple of times a year um we do have our big black friday sale coming up i love that too it's been very popular ever since i opened the business so that's going on black friday from nine to four um that's mainly all about product specials so the deepest discounts you're going to get at our spa is that day let's let me clarify because it is black friday if that nine a.m to four p.m or nine p.m to four eight no we're not that crazy so it is nine a.m to four p.m black friday special yes so that's like our biggest sale of the year now really quick i and i want you to finish talking about that can people it can people go to your website on that day and partake let's say if they're not in that area or they have relatives in and can't get in that day unfortunately not okay so make it in you need to make it in you need to come in yeah so worth it it's worth it it's worth it you can have a mimosa and shop and have fun yeah it's great they can bring their family absolutely and say oh this would make a great christmas gift most definitely yeah absolutely yeah sounds a great gift item so you have your black friday yeah which is coming up very soon as a matter of fact i know next week already oh my goodness we just did another event recently we called it our fall refresh event and we featured a new product launch that we had with Dermalogica where we had little mini treatments happening in our retail area and then we had our rep come from our microcurrent vendor that we use and she was doing mini treatments and then we had one of our wonderful skin therapists sienna doing makeup that night so we had three stations and each client went to each station and they looked amazing they felt amazing by the end it was also a shopping event so we we tried to do that a couple times a year i love that yeah and i know that you carry jane iredale do which is the best yeah this is a product line a makeup product line for women yes who want a more holistic clean clean clean clean ingredients yeah and you know it's comparable the finish is comparable to any high end absolutely and even better i would say much better looking on the skin than any other high end makeup line let me just put it that way absolutely you do have your nights where you have your your your spa nights where you have jane iredale makeup we've done makeup events before absolutely we usually do something around the holidays with that i love but the nice thing is you anyone can come in any time and we do complimentary color matching my the entire staff has been trained on how to do that nice so even the guest services um employees know how to color match so you can come in and we can help you select the best foundation for your skin and we'll match it true to your skin tone and try it on for you that's always a complimentary service that we offer because you have to try it on to to feel it and see it and you know and know that it's going to feel comfortable right on you now one of the things i know and i i did not know this growing up i think most of us did not know this growing up but something i learned later in life and our cosmetic companies and and uh lotion companies and skincare companies hide this they sure do that what you put on your skin goes in your skin so all these what they when they talk about these parabens and other things they go in your skin and we're trying to do something by by wearing makeup and paying for these expensive creams and foundations we're thinking we're putting the best on our skin yeah but when in reality some of these things can do more damage absolutely the chemicals most definitely in them where um the iredale line it's it's a it's a phenomenal line i did a lot of research before i brought makeup into the business because i i always had a love for makeup and really wanted to do it but when i started digging around i was really frightened by the ingredient ducks um of most makeup companies um a lot of you know fdnc dyes artificial fragrance just some toxic chemicals right you know and here i am teaching people how to take care of their skin and then i'm going to sell them makeup with all of the stuff in it that i just told them not to use so i you know i was like what am i gonna do yeah where do i go from here right so i actually discovered jane iredale at the chicago face and body trade show and was just like i can't believe this even exists you know it's like the skincare makeup yeah and then every ingredient has a benefit to the skin it's not coming to genic it's not going to clog your pores um every powder formulation is inert which means that it will never harbor bacteria and when i say never i mean never you could have a blush for 20 years and be okay with it it's it's not going to cause a problem just so amazing right so it's but there are products that you can put on your skin that are also good for your good for your skin you can feel good wearing it yeah and there are not a lot of product lines that can say that very few very few yes so some people i'm going to switch gears a little bit i'm going to go back to the facials because sure people think facials are for a treat sometimes very wealthy people pampering or and there are a lot of medicinal reasons and or just relaxation stress really absolutely we actually really don't like the word pampering at all it is a byproduct of what you will receive when you come in you're going to be relaxed beyond words i mean we have people that prefer our skin treatments over a massage any day of the week because there is so much relaxation with it um but as far as the benefits go they're huge um detoxifies the skin stimulates the skin deep cleanses exfoliates rejuvenates hydrates the list goes on and on i mean there's there's so many benefits and if you're a person that has uh some aging processes going on or if you're a person that has acne even yes adult acne or age spots absolutely facials kin can help yes definitely absolutely you know and if it's something that is more serious that we're having a hard time treating we're going to refer you to the person that can um but still what we do is the basis of all skincare you know you still need to care for your skin whether you've got acne or not and we want to teach you the right way to go about that absolutely absolutely education is a real foundation of sparkle spa i love that about your spa now my next question you also offer eyebrow care yeah i know this work bag do you do the shaping i like to call it artistry artistry so what are all the things you can do because i i'm going to tell you something a good brow will change your whole look your whole face it will frames the face it can take five years off your eyes minimum minimum right most definitely if it's done right absolutely a lot of people do not know how to manage their brows on their own we wish they would just let us do it for them i do not our favorite clients are the ones that come to us every four weeks and do not ever touch the tweezers they just let us maintain their brows for them we do a consultation for everyone that comes in talking to them while they're holding up the mirror and we're looking at what we have to work with what the goals are you know i call the brow boot camp some people have to go through that for a period of time can take anywhere from four months to a year i mean depending on how thin they are or how much growth we want to see absolutely but it is an art and and you must be skilled not just because somebody says they do eyebrows right no not they're not mean they can and because my eyebrows are so light i've had some and sometimes people they don't follow the shape of your face right they want to do what's trendy no oh lord basically we're just letting the brow become what it needs to be you know and we're hoping to to bring that out and teaching you how to keep them that way and also how to fill them in at home if you need to that's part of the service that we do i mean you know we do a really lovely um ice globe massage after all of our waxing treatments to really calm the skin very soothing feels amazing um it helps take the redness and sensitivity down a lot too um and then we always cover the skin with a tinted moisturizer with some protection and fill them in so you leave feeling like a new person just from a brow wax absolutely yeah absolutely much more than just a wax absolutely now i have nieces that range from three years old to oh my gosh she just turned 18 this past weekend what are the ages um for the services what would you because i know you know a three-year-old is not going to come in and get some of this as nor would she wouldn't want it she wouldn't need it but you know i also have an 11-year-old kind of on the edge there right yeah when's a good time to start getting brows done start getting facials to use the right makeup because some people think she's young she doesn't have to worry about her skin yeah i don't understand that one but right around you know when kids are hitting puberty is a great time to bring them into us um we do a lot of middle school girls brows it's nothing more fun to do a girl's first brow wax really those virgin brows they're so big and beautiful and then we can bring out the shape and they love them and they listen to us we're like no tweezing you tell your mom to bring you back in you thank your mom for bringing you you know um so many beautiful brows walking around um girl of young girls absolutely coming at a young age and they're not going to over tweeze like we all did in the 90s um or do that laser stuff right oh my goodness yes right so you know we we have seen kids as young as 10 11 12 years old um usually they're not coming in for treatments as far as skincare goes until they're starting to see some problems in their skin um and that's going to vary you know with ages and um a lot of it is hereditary with acne so we see a lot of teenage boys and girls and um i'm always so thankful that their moms bring them to us before they go to a dermatologist yeah that makes it makes a huge difference it really does it really does it does it really does yeah so we do we do i mean we do teen skin treatments all the time and we have a whole line 14s that's yes so it's geared directly for them and it's all about the compliance with the teens so they tend to listen to us more than they're going to listen to their mom absolutely yeah absolutely yeah so i want to ask you um what are your unique skills that help your clients some of the things that you do that maybe other uh estheticians or spas wouldn't do some of the things that you really get into um well from my experience obviously i know what i do and i've gone around to other places before um i don't feel like they're doing a very thorough consultation at a lot of places they're not really understanding your you know your background um but also the education is what i think brings people back to us you know i would i would agree with that i would agree and i know some of your unique um services like the eyelash left right some of those things i just can't say enough about that right i really can't i really can't and we're also very much of a niche business you know we don't offer tons of services we really kind of focus on what we do being skin treatments the waxing the brow artistry the lashes the makeup and you know we love to teach people how to put their makeup on it's not just you come in and we put it on and you walk out and go now what now i have to go home and remember all of that so it all for me i really think it does all come back to the education and the relationships that we build with our guests and i know you're as particular about your skin care products as you are your makeup lines and i absolutely there's i you know i know you have some of the most amazing you've turned me on to a few products that i am completely addicted to so this is the only warning you're going to get for these products are addicting grand lash oh yes oh lord i used to the first time i came to you to get my brows tinted and curled or lifted the lash right yeah my lashes lifted you couldn't do it because they were too short but look at these they look amazing yeah well don't do a close-up because we don't want to look at these but i'm just saying right grand lash is amazing one of our biggest selling products and the blink eyebrow moose yep we have a lot of little specialty lines like that but the main line that we carry with skincare is dermalogica which is phenomenal but around you know over 30 years just an industry leader company founded on education so of course i love that about them right and then jane iredale of course and then we have you know we have like a fun suncare line from california called kula we've got the blink and just a bunch of other little things yeah we're also bringing in a new line currently it's a called victoria dn peptides and it's a peptide line that pairs beautifully with any skincare line so it's just going to take everything that we already do to another level i love that very exciting i absolutely love that yeah so what i'd like you to do now is please tell people where are you located sure we are in elm grove wisconsin we are in the park and shop in elm grove it's downtown elm grove we're at one three four two five watertown plank road and then your web address because people can go online and pick out some of these products they can look at all the services that we offer there we even do have online booking too yeah so it's a really convenient service that we offer the website is sparkle-spot.com and we do love it when people call though you know so people can still call of course to book their appointments and i will personally say it's if you're not in their direct area it is absolutely positively worth the drive that drive if it's just once a month you can make a day of it in the area and just go in check them out talk to lora talk to anybody on your staff you will find out that this is this spot is very different because as much as they're you're focused on beauty you're also focused on care wellness wellness for your absolutely largest organ in the body we got to take good care of it you know absolutely absolutely yeah so lora thank you so much for being on the show today i'm so grateful to have you had been able to come i said that it's my pleasure having you here for you being able to come in today i really just i'm so grateful that you were able to get this information to everybody thank you for having me it's been great it's really appreciate it absolutely and i want to thank you for joining us today laura robinson of sparkle spa and myself tony green if you'd like more information on me you can go visit tony g t o n i g dot info and you can find out all sorts of information on me but definitely visit sparkle spa and let them make your skin sparkle thanks and have an amazing day