How to Care For Your Hot Towel Cabinet

Hot towel cabinets are one of those pieces of esthetic equipment we don’t think about very much. It’s unusual to have one break, but they often suffer from benign neglect, especially in a spa environment where they are used by several therapists who share a treatment room.

Here are some quick towel warmer tips

Clean your towel warmer frequently: It’s important to thoroughly wipe the inside clean, especially if you heat products in your towel warmer or if you use essential oils on your towels. If you spill something, attend to it promptly – it’s way more difficult to clean anything after it has been baked on!

• Remove the rack and wipe it clean, and wipe the inside of the cabi.
• Pay particular attention to the rubber gaskets that seal the doors – pull them away from the metal, and wipe up any debris. This is like cleaning a fridge – it’s amazing what gets trapped in there!
• Empty the drip tray and wipe it clean. The drip tray is underneath the cabi, and pulls out completely. Lots of esties don’t even know that the drip tray exists …. so {blech} it’s amazing what you’ll find there as well!
• Wipe the outside and finish by disinfecting all surfaces; if you are finished for the day, leave the cabi door open to allow it to air out. In some spas you’ll be asked to leave the drip tray outside the cabi as a sign that it has been cleaned.

Maintenance: Every so often you should check that the screws that hold the cabinet together are still tight. The vibration from opening and closing the door can loosen the screws – if they fall out the cabi will begin to fall apart. You can see the screws behind the rubber gaskets; they tighten easily with a small screwdriver that has a very short handle.
If your cabi is getting old it is possible that the on-off switch might stop working. These can be replaced, though it is not a do-it-yourself job. Your local small appliance repair shop might be able to help.

Occasionally, you might find that the door cracks. This is usually because someone bumps into the hot towel cabinet door when it is open. Some manufacturers may be able to sell you a replacement door for your model. Again, it isn’t really a do-it-yourself job, unless you are handy. Pay particular attention to keeping the door hinge arm from falling into the body of the cabi when you remove the door – you’ll have to disassemble the entire thing if it falls into the body of the cabi!

Sanitation: A final note – don’t rely on the UV light inside! A hot towel cabi is a perfect incubator – warm, dark and damp. Never leave unused towels in it overnight – all sorts of things relish the opportunity to grow in such a hospitable environment. Not all cabis have a UV light; if yours does you should regard it only as decorative – it certainly can’t kill bacteria on the inside of a rolled towel – and doesn’t meet any state board requirements for disinfectation.

Use your cabi well and often – there are few things that make clients sigh with pleasure more than an artfully applied hot towel!

Oklahoma Nail Spa Owner Cited For Serving Alcohol

An Oklahoma Nail Spa owner was cited for serving alcohol to clients.

“We had an investigator go down there and received a pedicure and was served wine while she was getting a pedicure done.”

In Midwest City it is against city ordinance to serve alcohol in any business without a license. The owner faces a potential fine and jail term.

More information at Oklahoma News Station KFOR

Serving alcohol in a spa environment has always been a two edged sword. In some areas it is blatantly illegal, in others falls into a grey area where the powers that be turn a blind eye. Legalities aside, it also raises a considerable liability question, so best to have a clear understanding of the issues (and your entire advisory team in the loop) before hosting happy hour!

Starwood Sells Bliss Spas to Steiner for $100 million

• Starwood sells Bliss spas to Steiner Leisure
• Bliss to remain at W hotels, Remede at St. Regis

“This sale is illustrative of our long-term strategy to focus purely on our growing and increasingly global hospitality business,” Chief Executive Frits van Paasschen said in a statement.

Starwood originally purchased Bliss from LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2004 for $25 million to roll out at its W hotel chain.

Read more here Reuters

The general agreement is that this is good news for all parties concerned. Certainly this gives Steiner a ready marketplace for graduates of its 17 campus network of massage and skincare schools. Presumably it also will be an opportunity to broaden the Elemis brand, in terms of product placement, as well as potential development of Elemis spas.

On the flip side, watching a major lodging company divest itself of a major spa brand raises the question of just how attractive the spa market currently is to hotel operations.

Questex Media Files for Bankruptcy

Questex Media Group Inc.,  producer of the International Esthetics Cosmetics and Spa Conference in Las Vegas, Florida and New York, and publisher of  American Spa magazine – sought bankruptcy protection Monday with plans to sell its assets to its lenders. Questex also produces trade shows and magazines for several other industries.

The Newton, Mass., company said it’s facing a severe liquidity crunch after seeing revenues from its events, publishing and advertising business plummet. A projected 50% drop in earnings for this year coupled with multiple layers of debt has left the company with no choice but to enter Chapter 11, it said.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal

In the meantime,  shows are scheduled to continue as planned.

California State Board Steps into the 21st Century

Today the California State Board stepped into the 21st century by hosting a live web-chat titled What to Expect During an Inspection. Board Executive Officer Kristy Underwood spent some time talking about the inspection process, The 10 Most Commonly Cited Violations and How to Avoid Them, and The Citation Appeal Process.

Simultaneously a live web-chat question and answer session was taking place, with Board Representatives answering questions about scope of practice, container labeling, licensing etc.

Most of the information was general for all licensees, however the following was especially pertinent for estys:
Read more »

mmm … the aromas of fall

It’s an instant Pavlovian response – clients walk in the door, their shoulders relax and faces brighten, and seconds later they say “mmm … it smells great in here!”

We often experience lower energy at this time of year, so it’s an especially good time to take advantage of the power of the warm fall aromas to subtly alter our mood and dispel the stagnation that can come with the seasonal transition.

Essential oils are perfect for this purpose; they are easily obtained and many of the most beneficial oils have very accessible price points, even when purchasing sustainably harvested, wildcrafted or organic oils.

The following oils mix and match well, are commonly available, provide instant mood brightening and have a range of other benefits that are appropriate as the seasonal transition takes place. They are easy to use to scent hot towels, or use in a crockpot, diffuser, oil burner. You can also use the oils to scent a seasonally appropriate potpourri mix.
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How To Care For Your Facial Steamer

I received some emails after previous posts about steamers: Help – My Steamer Stopped Working and Facial Steamers Behaving Badly. Predictably, there were a couple of horror stories about co-workers … the esties we love to hate. There was also one from a reader who said it wasn’t until she started a business and purchased her own facial equipment that she learned steamers should be cleaned! So, as a service to new esties everywhere, here’s some maintenance information for your facial steamer:

1. Unless your manufacturer specifies otherwise, the only thing that should go in the steamer jar is distilled water. The distilling process removes the majority of minerals from the water, minimizing the buildup of the corrosive mineral deposits that cause clogging and spitting. You won’t ruin your steamer with occasional use of tap water, but it shouldn’t be a habit.

2. Best practice is to remove the steamer jar at the end of the day, clean and let dry. You can pour any unused distilled water back into your water container. Wipe the coils dry, and periodically clean around the rubber gasket area. It’s recommended to disinfect the body of the steamer daily. Ideally the keypad and steamer arm – areas that you touch regularly – will be wiped with disinfectant after every client.

3. Demineralize your steamer monthly or quarterly – depending on how much use it receives, and whether you’ve been scrupulous about using distilled water. To do this use a vinegar solution; cheap white vinegar is fine. The smell of vinegar will permeate the entire spa, so perform this step after hours, or far away from the usual flow of spa traffic.

• Fill steamer jar and add 1/4 cup of vinegar. Turn on steamer – but don’t turn on the ozone
• Let the machine steam for 2-5 minutes, and then leave to rest until the jar is cool to the touch, about 30 minutes. Empty the jar, and refill with clean distilled water. Repeat steam and rest step. It may be helpful to drape a towel over the steamer head during this step in order to contain some of the vinegar laden steam, – don’t block the vent though. You might also find it’s best to put a towel on the floor to catch any drips.
• Refill the steamer jar with clean distilled water and begin steaming. Check to see if there is any vinegar smell. If so, complete another steam/rest cycle. If not – you’re good to go.

Warning – do not leave the vinegar solution in the jar for an extended period, potentially you can damage the coils irreparably and expensively! (More than an hour is a bad idea – overnight is courting disaster!) Set a timer so you don’t forget!

Facial Steamers Behaving Badly

Every so often our facial steamer deals us a surprise. Sometimes it’s the triggering of the reset button – sometimes it’s other weirdness….

One of the estheticians at a spa I managed was convinced her facial steamer was having a psychotic break when drizzly clouds began billowing from the underside of the steamer – a place steam had never, ever come from before.

After some due diligence we found the problem was the rubber gasket that seals the space between the steamer jar and the body of the steamer. After cleaning her steamer jar she hadn’t noticed the gasket had moved – leaving a gap rather than a tight seal – at the top of the jar. Steam was escaping vigorously – a small scale version of a blown head gasket on a car.

If you’ve never looked closely where the jar seats against the body of the facial steamer the existence of the gasket may be a mystery to you; it can “glue” itself in place in a way that means you’ll never notice it. It’s good when this happens – you don’t need to fiddle around with the gasket each time you clean and replace the jar. If you have a steamer where the gasket doesn’t stay in place it’s annoying to have to position it each time because you feel as if you need another pair of hands.

If the gasket is on your steamer is old and inflexible you should consider replacing it with one that is softer and conforms better to the shape of the jar so that a strong seal is made. You should be able to buy one from your equipment vendor or a supplier like Cosmopro. Stock up on a replacement jar as well. It’s good to have a spare – they are often a victim of clumsiness (oops – didn’t meant to drop it on the concrete floor) or ineptitude (oops – didn’t know the jar cracks when you screw it into place too tightly!)

Note: as steamer technology and design improves some steamers no longer need a gasket – in this case the jar (usually plastic) is made to twist into place either with a threaded or notched mechanism that creates a secure enough seal that steam does not escape.

Help – My Steamer Stopped Working!

It’s a heart stopping when your steamer stops working. Fortunately there’s usually a simple solution.

As students we aren’t taught much about professional esthetic equipment as we hurtle through our state mandated hours. (Reason number 278 why esthetic schools fail their pupils.) Add the the proliferation of imported equipment with mangled-engrish manuals and we’re guaranteed not getting info we need.

Your steamer has a reset button. Pushing the reset button is an (almost) sure cure for steamer problems.

The most common reason for the reset button to trip is because the steamer is out of water. That’s most likely to happen when we turn the steamer on and run out of the room to do something else, absent-mindedly leaving it to steam itself empty.

Unfortunately, the panic-inducing moment of discovery is usually when the client is already on your facial bed!

If your steamer isn’t working, check to see if there is water covering the coil. If not, you’ll need to add some – but first you must check to see if the steamer jar is cool. DO NOT add cold water to a hot steamer – the jar will crack!

Once you’ve added water find the reset button and give it a firm push. Many professional facial steamers have the reset button on the back or on the bottom; it’s often inconspicuous, unlabelled and difficult to see unless you know what you are looking for.

It’s usually red, green or black. In both photos on the left it’s the green button – click the photos to enlarge if necessary. The first photo is of a newer model of Silhouet Tone steamer; the reset button is clearly marked with a large directional arrow on the back of the steamer. On the second (older) steamer, you’d need to know what you were looking for.

Once you’ve pushed the button the lights should come on and the steamer return to life.

Even if the coils are still covered with water, you should still try the reset button cure. Those of you who share a room with co-workers won’t be surprised to learn it’s not uncommon for an esty to top up the water without noticing that the steamer had run dry and tripped the reset!

Of course there are other reasons why your steamer might stop working, but this is a simple cure-all that works 99% of the time. Just in case it doesn’t though, remember that you can do a perfectly good facial using hot towels, rather than steam….just be sure to let your client know that you are pampering them specially that day!

Groupon – Changing the Face of Spa Marketing

When I was in college a bunch of us formed a buying co-op to purchase a lot of our food in bulk. It was a time consuming and flawed process with occasional dramatic organizational failures, but it did carve a satisfying chunk off our grocery bills.

A couple of decades later group buying has picked up a head of steam. The discount orientation is obviously appealing for muddled economic times, even if many of the items offered trend heavily toward the nice-to-have rather than need-to-have. Taking the process online (for example Woot and Goldstar Events) has made the process a lot simpler than our years ago epic treks to the produce auctions.

One of the newer entrants in this group buying arena is Groupon. Deriving its name from a combination of Group + Coupon, Groupon offers a daily deal on service, retail or experience related purchases as diverse as skydiving, city tours, restaurant meals, exercise classes, acupuncture or haircare. As long as a predetermined amount of people sign up to take advantage of the daily offer the deal is on! You can readily get an idea of how a groupon works by checking out the photos on the left.

Currently Groupon operates in more than 20 cities in the United States, and additional locations are being added all the time.

Many spas, estheticians and massage therapists see participation in a Groupon as an attractive alternative to advertising as it offers a relatively painless way to access both a influx of new customers and a chunk of cash.

Typically Groupon does all the heavy lifting; crafting and copywriting an enticing offer, publicising the event via its robust local list, collecting payment, distributing the “groupon” to successful buyers and – after subtracting their fee – cutting a check for the business offering the groupon.

If you are a spa or skincare therapist hosting a groupon the process can be risk free in the sense that there are no out-of-pocket costs, unlike traditional advertising where substantial upfront expenditure does not necessarily guarantee clients.

The downside, of course, is that after the price of your service is heavily discounted (around 50%) and Groupon takes its fee (about half of the discounted price) you are left with the small-ish remainder. As a result, it’s worth crunching your numbers. Naturally, selling your services at a low price will reduce your gross profit margin – you job is to figure out if the end result is an improvement to your bottom line.

You might be thinking right about now that maybe Groupon isn’t such a good idea after all. For some, that’s definitely true. In order to have a truly successful Groupon promotion – regardless of whether you are a solo esty or work in or own a spa or clinic – you must be comfortable upselling, retailing and rebooking. If all you deliver to the client is a cheap service – and it’s a sure bet that is the primary thing your group buying customer is looking for – then it’s likely your effort to generate new business won’t be successful. You need to have a strategy to capture, captivate and cultivate clients so that they return.

If you’re tempted to participate, consider the following strategies:
1. Maximize your return without devouring your time: This could involve bundling services, creating a special treatment. Alternatively you might want to offer a groupon for a dollar value rather than service.
2. Create a natural pathway to a return visit: have your groupon be for more than one visit (used by one customer) so that you have time to make improvements to their skin, and build a relationship; have the first treatment be a logical prep for a second visit; devise a special series the client can take advantage of in conjunction with the groupon, or construct an offer to encourage a second visit.
3. Negotiate your percentage with groupon: 50% and 25% need not be graven in stone.
4. Place limits on redemption: e.g mornings only, subject to availability, not available on Saturdays; how many groupons can be purchased, who they can be used by, and when they expire.
5. Have a plan: know what to say to the groupon guest when they book, when they arrive, during treatment and when they check out in order to best meet your goal for the groupon
6. Get contact details; email, phone, twitter, facebook. Ask if you can follow up with them, and then do so!

It’s especially important to take a cold, hard look at your ability to service what you sell. Will a successful groupon stress your resources? Will you feel resentful, if after 10 months you are still working on groupon clients …. even though you spent the money you received aeons ago? Do you want to place a limit on the number of groupons sold?

Clearly there is an upside if you are a brand new business – there are few quicker ways to create a large scale awareness of your brand. So much the better if you can leverage the influx of new guests to bolster your Yelp reviews as well!

The ability of web 2.0 to use social media to turn large amounts of users into shoppers (albeit by exploitation of heavy discounts) is game-changing. As this trend accelerates it’s also changing the face of spa marketing. Unless you give clients a very good reason to return to your business, they are very likely to be seduced by the next good offer that comes their way.

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