Signature Staple Items

I'm a big fan of purchasing one staple piece each season and just wearing it until its YOUR signature staple piece.  It's an idea you might want to consider too!  It's a great conversation starter and it'll give people a sense of your personal style.  Here are some must-have pieces celebrities chose to rock:

white top, coral pants- love Eva's bold look!

For Selina, it's her Sam Edelman gray booties and that aweseom sachel!

I'm a huge fan of Selina Gomez!  She's one of the most well behaved Disney star in my opinion, what a great role model and fashion inspiration! 

For me this season, I'm obsessed with my LAMB purse:

It's my go-to bag for everywhere I go! I love the soft gray leather and the boho-y laid back look that can easily also be the center of attention in any outfit!

Share your favorite staple pieces in your wardrobe! 



Supplements?

One of my biggest hair problems is that it's too dry and not silky enough. Is that the case for your clients as well? Could it be that my hair is just naturally dry? Am I horrible at maintaining my hair? I always ask these questions to my stylist but my stylist told me honestly that there is not much she can do to provide me with longterm results.  I definitely think my hair condition has improved a lot since I've started using Armada-style products.  I'm in love with the grapefruit scented shampoo.  

In addition to deep conditioning with all natural products, I believe the key to healthy hair is your diet. Afterall, you are what you eat right? I'm currently considering taking supplements, perhaps omega-3's and vitamins.  Do you have any suggestions?

How will you celebrate Halloween?

As a stylist, you can have so much fun at your workplace!  As long as your costume isn't too outrageous, it's a great way to show off your creativity and style!  For Halloween, I hate spending too much on costumes that everyone else might be wearing.  Instead I like to buy dresses and play with hair and makeup.  That way, I can still wear the dress at another occasion!

Here are some example:

This metallic dress would make a perfect warrior/goddess dress! From Zara.

With this leopard print dress, and cat-eye eyeliner you can easily become a sexy felion!

Any black dress would make a sultry vampire or an evil witch!!

Don't forget to buy candies for local trick or treaters!  Now is a great time to let your clients know that you will be giving out treats this Halloween!  And remember to make the candies extra special so that those little monsters can remember you! 

Beyonce: One Sexy Momma

How gorgeous is Beyonce?!  One of my favorite topics are celeb moms and moms-to-be and I think Beyonce's prego style is worth a whole blog post! I found this picture of Kate Spade's blog. She is rocking the Tuxedo Hill Nadine satchel, which I absolutely adore!  Buy here.

By the way, you don't need to be pregnant to get her glow!  To get the same radiant skin as Beyonce, try using our PIDA, armada-style gentle skin exfoliator. 

How to instantly appear more friendly

Hello!

Today I would like to offer a tip on how to instantly boost up your salon's overall friendliness.  There are only a few salons that I went into that actually offer refreshments and snacks.  Do you own a coffee maker or do you have an awesome apple cider recipe? Why not make your client's wait a bit more pleasant by offering them a snack or a homemade recipe?  Do you have a favorite herbal tea?  A cultural snack that you would love to share?  It does not cost that much and it's a great way to create a relaxing, friendly environment.  It's also a start conversation starter:

"This beverage is delicious!  Is this your personal recipe?"

Clients can start conversations with each other and when a newcomer walks in, it's a great sign to see customers chatting with each other!  How friendly and warm a salon's environment is can really affect your customer retention! 

Hope that helps!  Want to know some of my favorite beverages?  Comment below and I would love to do a blogpost on my home recipes!

My Rant on Customer Service

Today I would like to blog about customer service.  Many salons certainly take pride in their excellent customer services, but let me be the judge of that. 

You, stylists have tough work days, you're constantly on their feet, working on client after client.  It's tough to always have a friendly, professional composure when you are always dealing with difficult clients and face the risk of an unsatisfied customer.  Which is why you take it out on a poor girl like me who gives you a follow up call. 

A stylist's aura and mood can really affect the atmosphere of the salon and the way clients perceive you.  Even something as simple as how you're handling a phonecall may reveal much about your attitude, your professionalism and how passionate you are at doing your job.  I believe stylists should thank me for calling them because I am prodiving them with information about new products that they would not have known about otherwise.  It's up to the stylists to order or not but new knowledge should always be appreciated.  You need to be aware of new products and services.  I've spoken to a stylist who claims to have been in the industry for decades and have never heard of a Japanese Straightening treatment, and spoke to me as if I had made that whole thing up to trick her into buying something.  She probably have her share of hanging up on people. 

I am not a customer, but I am certainly human and can judge your professionalism based on how you're speaking to me.  You are opened for business, and I am making a business related phone call, which was agreed on when you first contacted us to requested a sample kit.  I've had my share of making follow-up calls to salons and I am quite disappointed in the way stylist handle unknown callers.  I may not be calling for an appointment but a potential client would be completely turned off by a rude: "Who's speaking" or "Not interested" and "Take me off your calling list" as a greeting. And before you decide to hang up on a customer rep from a company who sent you a FREE generous sized sample kit, your clients could be watching and listening to your every word.  Your professionalism can come off as very fake if you reveal that nasty side.  And women are great at sensing this kind of nastiness. 

This blog post may be harsh.  I am not criticizing anyone in particular, this is based on my experience so far at my first job ever.  I do not take any rude comments personally but I do know that I will not be visiting that salon if I ever come across it. 

I personally let all my cold callers finish what they have to say before I kindly reject, unless it's an automated system.  I acheive the same results without having a random person hating my guts.  People are just doing their job and of all professions, stylists should be the most understanding.

Awesome Halloween Tutorials

Hi everyone!

Today I would like to share with you some Halloween tutorials from my favorite youtube beauty gurus!
I love this time of year because it's so festive, fun and I love seeing creativity in fashion, makeup and costumes! 

Jen of frmheadtotoe.com is my favorite blogger and youtube beauty guru!  She's so talented, kind-hearted, beautiful and so down to earth!  She's so different because she comes from a minority background, Korean American and she happens to be only 4'10"!  Watch this video to see how talented she is with make-up!  Here is another one of her videos, from last year's Halloween:

She also does a lot of K-pop inspired looks!  Everyone is obsessed with Korean pop-culture nowadays!

Here is a tutorial from another favorite beauty guru of mine, the infamous Michelle Phan:

I'm planning to be a vampire this year so this look will definitely give me new ideas on how I want to do my make-up!  Expect sexy vamped up Margaret this Halloween! Comment below! I would love to hear your Halloween ideas!  What are you reccommending to your clients?

Getting Cold...

You can really begin to feel the chill in the air! But that does not stop NYC from being fashion forward!  You'll see boots and booties walking fast-paced on those cement runways and flowy skirts paired with layered tops!  I love fall because it's cold enough to look cute bundled up and not too cold to still wear dresses and skirts! 

Femme Rocker Style

Loving this leather jacket from Asos. 

 I love how the rocker leather is paired with a more feminine, watercolored printed blouse.

Nude Colors with details & accessories

Absolutely loving the scallopped, layered skirt.  Also found on asos.com.  Could be paired with tights!

I love nude color outfits, you can really dress it up with accessories, shoes, tights, bags. 

Leopard Prints!

How adorable are these leopard print keds for days you want to go casual?

Great paired with skinny jeans or leggings with a skirt! 

The Bootie

These House of Harlow booties are so hot! That's all I can say really.

I have muscular muscular legs so it's hard for me to find tall boots or even mid calf boots that fit me so I like booties!  Could be found on karmaloop.com

I think fall is the season you really want to splurge on!  You sweat so much in your summer clothes that you don't really want to invest a huge amount of money in.  Fall clothes will also make winter clothes too!  I love splurging on jackets and comfy sweaters.  However, I like to find great deals on my boots and shoes.