Beauty Economics - How much are my beauty habits costing me each year?

I've always considered myself to be money savvy: I try to spend my money on the things I really need or get most enjoyment from. With this in mind, I've been taking a look at how much different beauty treatments cost me over an entire year and what I could do instead with that money. 

Manicures and Pedicures

Salon manicures and pedicures in London are expensive: a simple manicure typically costs around £20 in most London salons. Assuming I'd need a manicure every week, this works out at £1,040 per year. If I cut down, and only had a file and polish costing £15, this would reduce to £780. Although gel polish manicures are more expensive, they need to repeated less often. Assuming you only needed to refresh this once every two weeks, this would actually work out cheaper than the file and polish, coming in at £728. For me, this is a double win, as it also costs me less time. 

The economics are even better for gel pedicures, as there tends to be a smaller price difference between standard and gel polish pedicures and toe nails grow more slowly, so the gel polish pedicure needs refreshing less frequently. 

Of course, it goes without saying, that the real saving to be had is by doing manicures and pedicures at home.  You could buy 63 bottles of OPI nail varnish for the price of one year's worth of gel polish manicures! My inability to replicate the wonders a salon pedicure can do though, means that what mackes most sense for me, is infrequent salon pedicures, say one every two months, topped up by at home maintenance.

Hair Care

The cost of regularly getting salon painted nails is more shocking when compared to how much a year's worth of hair cuts cost. A cut and blowdry at my local salon costs £45. Assuming I do this once every two months (and let's face it, very few people get their hair cut this regularly) it only costs me just £293/year. Even more interestingly, I could get 4 £175 keratin treatments per year for the same price as getting my nails painted weekly. The amount of time saved blow drying my hair each day would easily out weigh the extra time spent painting my nails. 

Luxury Products

The extra cost associated with buying luxury products is often less than it initially appears, when measured over a whole year, particularly if the products last a long time. For example, a jar of expensive face cream may last 3 months. Assuming that the luxury brand costs £35 a jar compared to £5 a jar for the standard brand, the luxury cream would only cost £120 more over the year. Of course, this does not necessarily mean the luxury cream gives £120's worth of results more than the other cream! 

The Bottom Line

Think about how regularly you get a beauty treatment to work out how much it is really costing you and whether you'd rather spend that money on something else! Consider treating yourself to luxury products, if they'll last a long time, and you believe the results will be significantly better.

Nail Salon Speak - What are acrylic nails, sculptured nails, overlays, UV gel, shellac, gelish and tips?

Nail salon price lists can be confusing. They offer a range of different nail treatment at high and very high prices! The situation is becoming more bewildering with the introduction of gel polishes, and with the CND Vinylux polishes shortly to hit the salons it's likely to get worse still. Here is your salon dictionary to help you understand which treatment you want and which treatment will offer you value for money.

The Basic

Standard polish - This could also be called a polish change or a file & polish. It's likely to be what is included in the manicures / mini manicures detailed below. It will include a base coat, 2 to 3 coats of a standard polish followed by a top coat. Some nail tidying such as filing, dry cuticle removal and hand moisturising may also be included. You'd be wise to schedule in time to wait in the salon for a while afterwards to avoid smudging the paint. Take flip flops if you're having a pedicure as the polish doesn't fully set for an hour plus. 

Talons

Acrylics - Acrylic nails are very strong and thick, but don't always look very natural. A powder and a liquid are combined and brushed onto the natural nail. The mixture hardens (no heat/light is required) and then standard polish is applied. Tips or sculpting techniques can be used with the acrylic to lengthen the nail. Acrylics can be removed by soaking in acetone, but this is incredibly difficult to do properly on your own without damaging the nail. They should be filed professionally every 2/3 weeks along with refilling at the base. 

UV gel nails - Not to be confused with shellac/gel polishes which are more similar to the standard polish, these are very strong and can be used in conjunction with tips or sculpting. A gel is painted onto the natural nail, moulded and set under a UV light. The resulting nails are flexible and non-yellowing (acrylic nails can yellow over time). The nails have to be removed professionally by filing. Similarly to acrylics, they require refilling at the base every few weeks. 

Pink and White - These refer to acrylic or UV gel nails applied in such a way as to give a similar effect to a french manicure. A white tip or lengthening material is added to the natural nail and then overlaid with pale gel or acrylic. No polish is required and as such they cannot chip.

Sculptured Nails - This refers to lengthening nails by applying gel or acrylic over a form that is temporarily inserted under the end of the nail whilst the gel/acrylic is setting. Once the gel/acrylic is nearly set, the form will be removed leaving you with lengthened nails.

Overlays - This refers to applying the UV gel/ acrylic over the natural nail. 

The non-chip

Gel polish/ Shellac / gelish - This is somewhere between an ordinary polish and UV gel. A special base coat is painted on the nail followed by 2 layers of your choice of gel polish and finally a top coat. Each layer is set under a UV lamp for around a minute. The manicure instantly dries and should remain shiny and chip free for weeks. Lengthening techniques cannot be incorporated. See my full post on gel polishes for more details. 

The jazzy

Nail art - This does what it says on the tin and transforms your nails into little pictures! More spectacular results may be obtained is this is combined with one of  'talon' options.

Manicure / Mini Manicure / Luxury Manicure - This should be a start to finish pamper for the hands and nails. It may include soaking for enhanced cuticle removal, dry cuticle removal, snipping away hang nails, filing and buffing the nails, moisturising, massage and an ordinary polish.  It's worth asking at the individual salon to find out exactly what is included in each type of manicure they offer. This varies quite a lot and you can assess whether you'd like to pay £15 extra for a bit more cuticle removal and a hand massage. 

Tip

Lots of salons charge different prices for a polish change, file and polish, manicure and luxury manicure. Consider how much you have to pay for the various options and which bit of the process you most value being performed by the salon. For me, I'm quite happy to do the basic nail maintenance at home and just go to the salon for a shellac polish. I go bi-monthly for full pedicures and give myself mini-pedicures in between, as I find that my home pedicures just do not cut it in terms of cuticle removal.  

What I can't understand

Why do we have to pay so much for pedicures compared to manicures, even just for a polish change?! The extra work involves appears minimal!

How is a shellac manicure different to a traditional manicure?

I started getting shellac polishes last year after coming to the terms that until I have a life of leisure, an ordinary polish will barely last a day. I'd got into the habit of regular manicures on a 6 month sabbatical to Latin America where I never got close to a cooker, travelled by taxi and a manicure cost £3. I also had the time to watch the world go by, 'read' the local gossip magazines and practice my stumbling spanish in the salon for hours as the polish dried. The real world returned, but I still wanted to maintain my manicured nails. I thought that shellac might be the answer.

What is a shellac manicure?

A shellac manicure is also known as 'gelish' or a 3 week manicure. It is similar to a normal varnish in that no false nails are applied, therefore your nails will only be as long as your natural nails. Rather than air dry, the polish is cured using a UV light. I've found that unlike a normal manicure, the polish really doesn't chip and stays incredibly shiny, with no signs of wear. Instead the manicure only needs re-doing when your nails grow sufficiently for the bare nails at the base to become obvious. It shouldn't take any longer than a normal manicure, and best of all, it's totally dry the moment the manicurist steps away from you, you really can't chip it trying to leave the salon. 

The main negative for me is the difficulty of removing the polish. This is difficult to do on your own, you need both awesome dexterity and access to pure acetone. Shellac is removed by soaking cotton wool in acetone, placing this on the nail, and then wrapping the nail-cotton wool bundle with foil to keep contact between the nail and the acetone. This is then left to soak for 10 mins or so until the varnish can be easily peeled away. I found this all but impossible to do myself (although i'm not the most coordinated and struggle just to paint my own nails). A lot of salons will remove the shellac for free if you got it put on there, others charge around £10. 

The process

The manicurist will do some standard preparation like filing the nails and tidying the cuticles. A clear base coat is then painted on and you'll put your hand under a UV light for around a minute to 'cure' the polish. This will be followed by a couple of coats of your chosen colour and a top coat. Each coat will be cured under the UV light. Finally, the dull top layer is removed with a bit of isopropanol on cotton wool. You should now be left with incredibly shiny and totally dry nails. Actual time with the manicurist isn't much longer than with a standard manicure as you can cure the polish on one hand whilst they paint polish onto the other hand. The consistency of shellac is slightly more difficult to apply as it is less liquid than standard polish and more like a gel. 

The cost

The cost of a shellac manicure varies greatly between salons just like standard manicures. I've found a salon in London that will do removal and re-shellac for £25, but most seem to charge a little more than this. I figure if you're willing to pay for ordinary manicures, it will probably be cost effective to get a shellac manicure as you'll only need to refresh every 2 weeks or so. It's also worth factoring the price of removal as some salons do not include this in the listed price.

Tips for a great shellac manicure

It's absolutely key that the varnish is applied right to the bottom of the nail bed as regrowth will become prominent less quickly and it's the regrowth that limits the length of this manicure.

It helps if the varnish is painted on in thin layers to make sure that each layer fully cures. 

Make sure that the light is turning on properly during each curing session as this is essential for the varnish to 'dry'. You should be able to easily see whether the bluey-white light is on in the dryer. 

As the varnish cures in UV light it is essential that the nail varnish brush is kept out of sunlight as it will harden very quickly (no painting nails in the garden). This explains why the polish bottles are opaque. 

Shellac polish contains different ingredients to ordinary polish so you can't use your standard polish under a UV light for the same results. 

You can also change the colour of your nails during a shellac manicure by painting over them with a standard polish. The shellac provides a wonderfully smooth base that helps the ordinary polish go on evenly, however you may see a slight rim where the regrowth occurs. This varnish can be removed with ordinary nail varnish remover without damaging the shellac underneath and you can switch colours again! I also do this as a temporary fix to cover regrowth if I can't get to a salon to refresh my manicure.  

Toenails grow more slowly than fingernails so a shellac pedicure can last a month. 

Post-keratin Shampoo: Which ingredients should I avoid?

In this article I fruitlessly try to get to the bottom of what shampoos you shouldn’t use after a keratin treatment.

I recently got a keratin treatment for the first time. I was provided with a shampoo and conditioner after the treatment and told that I must use these special shampoos to ensure the treatment lasted. The hair dresser was unable to tell me what specific ingredients I had to avoid, nor whether I should also avoid certain styling products. I had spent £175 on transforming my hair and wanted to make sure it remained sleek long enough for me to get at least some of my money's worth.

A quick google will tell you that sulphates and sodium chloride are two ingredients that a post-keratin shampoo should not contain. The only reasoning I could find was that they strip the keratin protein from the hair cuticle. Sulfates, such as ammonium lauryl sulphate and sodium lauryl sulphate, are surfectants that remove dirt and grease from the hair. They are very common shampoo ingredients. Sodium chloride’s function seems to be to thicken the shampoo. I could find no more detailed explanations on the effect these chemicals have on keratin treated hair.

The Plot Thickens

My salon gave me a special shampoo for after-care. It was from a range called L’kerabelle with the tagline ‘the world of keratin’, so it was definitely marketed as suitable for keratin treated hair. The shampoo advertises the fact that it contains no sodium chloride, but it did contain both sodium laureth sulphate and ammonium sulphate, two of the sulphates I’d read elsewhere were no-nos post keratin.

Interestingly, the tresemme deep cleansing shampoo I’d been using previously also contained no sodium chloride. Does this mean it would be equally suitable for post-keratin treated hair as my specialist shampoo?

I’m not sure. It did contain ammonium chloride, which is the salt used to thicken shampoos based on the surfectant ammonium sulphate (sodium chloride is used to thicken shampoos containing sodium laureth sulphates). I wondered if ammonium chloride could have a similar effect as sodium chloride. I couldn’t find any information that specifically stated that ammonium chloride should be avoided post-keratin. However, I’m still going to err on the side of caution, given that £175 is at stake, and not revert to my standard shampoo just yet.

Conclusion: there is very little convincing information on keratin aftercare. This, combined with the high cost of the keratin treatment, is going to make me err on the side of caution and seek a shampoo that contains neither sulphates, sodium chloride or ammonium chloride, even though I don’t feel I’ve been convinced as to why any of these are non-desirables. Check the ingredients of your keratin shampoo carefully, as mine seems to contain the things that are warned against. I’ll post again soon on the results of my search for a post-keratin shampoo.

Salicylic acid: Is this an ingredient I want in my lip balm?

Reading up on lip balm ingredients on the internet, I found a number of articles telling me that I absolutely shouldn’t buy a lip balm containing salicylic acid. Confusingly, other articles told me that this is a good ingredient for removing flaking skin more rapidly. So what’s the story?

Salicylic acid is a common ingredient in acne treatments as it has a peeling effect: it works as a keratolytic to accelerate the shedding of the skin’s outer layer. This also explains why it’s a common wart treatment. It’s highly penetrative as it is soluble in lipids, which might help absorption of other ingredients. It also may ease the pain associated with cracked lips, as it is a mild analgesic (pain-killer). Indeed, the body converts aspirin to salicylic acid.

BUT

Dryness and peeling are commonly listed side-effects of acne treatments containing salicylic acid. Is more peeling what my already lips need? Typically, the flaking I get is so severe it’s possible to cut off the crusty skin with nail scissors anyway.

Furthermore, I’m not sure whether the concentration of salicylic acid in lip balms would be sufficient for it to demonstrate its peeling qualities. Standard bazuka gel contains 12% salicylic acid, whilst extra-strength contains 26%. However, over the counter cosmetics may only contain 2% salicylic acid. The Clearasil website recommends that acne sufferers with dry skin should ‘look for 0.5% or 1% Salicylic Acid instead of 2%’. This implies that salicylic acid may not be great for dry lips.

The bottom line: It’s really not clear, but I’m going to try to find a lip balm that won’t contain salicylic acid and possibly promote further flaking. 

Mission to find an effective lip balm (Part 1): How do lip balms work?

My lips get very dry and flaky in wintry weather and aeroplanes. I religiously apply lip balm when they get like this, but often I feel like it makes little difference and they continue to be chapped and peeling. I’ve sometimes felt like applying a balm actually makes them worse. I’ve been doing some research to try and find out whether that could be true and to find a lip balm that is effective.

It seems that lip balms can work in two main ways: to prevent existing moisture from escaping and to actually add more moisture. It looks like there might be other ways they can help, like masking the appearance of flaking skin cells and helping skin cells be shed more quickly, but I’ll focus on these another time.

The majority ingredient in most lip balms will be an ingredient like petrolatum/mineral oil (that’s vaseline), lanolin or beeswax ( an unreliable source on wikipedia says that the first lip balms might have been ear wax!). These are ‘occlusive’ ingredients which act like a barrier to prevent moisture evaporating from the lips.

Lip balms might also do some moisturising themselves, by including ingredients that help the outer skin in the lips draw in more moisture from the body. Examples of ingredients that do this include amino acids, lactic acids, alpha hydroxy acids, propylene glycol, glycerine and urea. One of the articles I read, suggested that humectants on their own might increase drying, as they bring moisture to the outer layer of the lips more quickly where it would be evaporated, unless combined with a occlusive ingredient.

I’ve checked out the ingredient lists of some of the lip balms I’ve tried in the past to see how they compare, and whether they contain both humectants and occlusives. (I’ve written the ingredients lists in full so if you think I’ve missed an ingredient that is a humectants or occlusive please do let me know.)

	Carmex	Vaseline	Chapstick (original)	Chapstick (moisturising)
Occlusives	Petrolatum, lanolin	Petrolatum	White petrolatum, lanolin	White petrolatum, lanolin
Humectants	None	None	None	None
Ingredients	Petrolatum, Lanolin, cetyl esters, theobroma cocao seed butter, cera alba, paraffin, camphor, menthol, salicylic acid, aroma, vanilla	Petrolatum	White petrolatum, Padimate (sunscreen), arachidyl propionate, camphor, carnauba wax, cetyl alcohol, D&C red no. 6 barium lake, FD&C yellow no. 5 aluminum lake, fragrance, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, lanolin, light mineral oil, methylparaben, octyldodecanol, oleyl alcohol, paraffin, phenyl trimethicone, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, white wax	White petrolatum, octinoxate, oxybenzone (both sunscreens), aloe barbadensis leaf extract, carnauba wax, cetyl alcohol, fragrance, isocetyl stearate, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, lanolin, methylparaben, mineral oil, paraffin, propylparaben, tocopheryl linoleate/oleate, vitamin E, white wax

Conclusion – The popular lip balms I’ve tried contain no humectants! I am going to search for a lip balm that contains both the occlusives that these lip balms contain, but also some humectants to simultaneously restore the moisture, in the hope that these balms will be more effective. I'll write an article soon on how my hunt goes.

Whilst researching lip balms, I’ve also found articles suggesting that menthol, camphor and salicylic acid are controversial ingredients. Each of these ingredients is contained in at least one of the lip balms above. I’ll write an article soon trying to get to the bottom of whether these ingredients are friend or foe.