Lisa Pearson, Author at Espiritu Salon and Spa

Spring News!

May 3, 2017 By Lisa Pearson

Wow, we always intend to have a rest and not make too many changes at Espiritu, but I think that we love improving things just too much!

Thank you so much for embracing all the Autumn changes, we are so glad that you loved them! So what’s been happening?

Health and Wellbeing Hub

Our newest venture is to create a health and wellbeing hub at Espiritu, so that we can truly be a ‘one stop shop’ for all your needs. Sometimes you need a little more than a manicure or blow dry, so we have found the best specialists that we could for you!

Cryotherapy – the amazing power of cold can be used for pain relief, injuries and after strenuous exercise. It can even help with fat reduction, wrinkle reduction and but lifts, or more difficult problems like acne, psoriasis! (faster, pain free and more flexible areas than other options)!

Far Infrared – many of you will know how Far Infrared has helped Lisa to tackle her Lyme disease. Well, the cocoon is now back full time at the salon and ready to give you deep rest, energy, help you recover from over doing exercise/life or detox your systems. Lisa is also available for ‘Life Style’ consultations, to help you make big improvements in your life with simple changes.

Osteopathy – this is a holistic approach to injuries, back problems and postural issues. Mark can also help with medical acupuncture and ergonomics (how your work/activities might be affecting your problem)

Clinical Hypnotherapy – Saleema is a hypnotherapist with many years of experience, so she can help with the traditional weight loss and giving up smoking, as well as helping you to get over any blocks stopping you from moving forward in your life.

Coaching & Healing – Olwen is a gentle and intuitive healer and coach who can support you through difficult times in your life.

Apprentice

Most of you will have met our gorgeous Sophie by now, she has made such a difference to the salon, quietly beavering away in the background!

Sophie is now available for a ‘Junior Wash and Dry’ – this is for those days when you just need someone else to wash your hair for you! She is also available to do braids and ‘Style & Go’s’. I have no doubt she will be ready for blow drying within the next 2 months, which is really exciting.

We are hoping to create a team of apprentices during this year; as long as we can get more as wonderful as Sophie, that is!

New Offers

Double room massage/facial – there is now a specific ‘double room’ service for the Bespoke Body Ritual or Absolute Deluxe Facial, that is £5 off per person when you share a room. Bonus!

Spa Club Tuesday – Our ‘Colour club Wednesday’ is so popular that we’ve created a ‘Spa Club Tuesday’ for you. Receive 50% off a facial when you book any massage. Such a fabulous deal, and you definitely deserve it!

Gentle Reminder: Cancellations & Booking Fees

Our cancellation policy has been in operation since October, but since having a receptionist, we have been able to implement it more easily. Please remember that we are just a small family run business, and that if affects our availability for other clients if you do not give us enough notice of your cancellation or change in appointments needed (obviously we are flexible where there are serious problems).

We have changed the text reminders for your appointments to go out 3 days before your appointment, to give you plenty of time to make adjustments; we so understand how easy it is to forget in the busy world that we live in!

So as a reminder here is the policy:

Any services cancelled the day before will incur a 50% charge.
Any services cancelled on the day (including removal of just some services from a multi-booking) will incur a 100% charge.
Where there has been a late cancellation 3 times in the past, we will ask for a non-refundable booking fee of 50% to book your appointments going forwards.
Long appointments over 2hrs or group booking will require a non-refundable booking fee of 50%

What’s coming?

Our new Lash Lift, Individual Lashes and Environ facials have become so popular, that we will be training up more of the girls over the next 2 months. We are also looking to extend the reception cover to be full-time.

There will be loads more on the Aesthetic side and after the success of our ‘Hot and Cold’ open day for you to try the Cryotherapy and Far Infrared, we’ll have a ‘Health and Wellbeing’ open day for you to meet our visiting specialist. Keep your eye on our Facebook page for information.

There will also be lots of beauty tips and more activity on our Espiritu page; remember to set notifications to ‘first’ if you don’t want to miss any. Watch out for spontaneous offers when there are late cancellations and other short promotions!

I love spring, don’t you? Looking forward to seeing what the rest of 2017 will bring for us all.

Fabulous Friday – Dec 2nd – Festive Shopping Event

November 16, 2016 By Lisa Pearson

‘What can we do this year to make our customer’s Festive Shopping easier’ we thought? Instead of ‘Black Friday’ we have created ‘Fab Friday’ – an all day Shopping event where there are great deals on offer!

Any gifts PRE-ordered on the day will arrive the next week gift wrapped, plus it’s 3 for the price of 2 (cheapest product free).

Want to buy some vouchers for a loved one? Purchase a £100 voucher and it will be upgraded to £120. Purchase two £50 vouchers and you get a £20 voucher for free – maybe for yourself or as an extra present?

Plus treat yourself to a free Environ skin analysis (limited space available, please call to book) and then maybe use the product offer to treat yourself this festive season!

Not here? Give us a call on 01923 858052 and we’ll organise it for you over the phone!

And while you are here, have you heard all the news about all the changes this Autumn at Espiritu? Check it out here: loads of new services and improvements in our customer service.

Autumn News!

September 19, 2016 By Lisa Pearson

Autumn is a great time for change, and we have a few here at Espiritu, we hope that you will enjoy them!

Time for change

Service Changes

Children: Unfortunately we can no longer offer the Kid’s quick trim cut on a Saturday. We will still be offering the Full wash & Finish for boys and girls on Saturday though (these are for Primary school age children). There will also be a slight change to the prices. Quick trims are going from £12-£15. Boys Full Hair Cut are going from £17-£20. Babies and Toddlers are going from £5-£10 (apologies for the big change, the original price was a mistake).

Hands and Feet: After feedback about confusion on our services we will be changing a few to make them easier for our clients:
The ‘Revarnish’ is now a 30min ‘File and Paint’ and has increased by £2, we’ve discovered that we hardly ever did just a ‘revarnish’, so we need a little longer.
The 45min manicure is therefore no longer needed and will be removed.
The 45min pedicure is now called a ‘File, Paint & scrub’ to make it clearer what is involved and reduce confusion.
The Deluxe Mani and Pedi will now be called the ‘Full’ Manicures and Pedicures.
The Combo packages have therefore changed a little in price as well.
We’ve also simplified a few prices: The french polish uplift for gels and polish is the same price now. We’ve also added the ‘Metallic’ option in nail art; very shiny!

Waxing: To make it easier we have changed the name of ‘Californian’ to ‘Extended Bikini’ which is 1inch into the panty line or if the bikini hair is further down the top of the leg. It’s increased a little to £20/£23. Hollywoods and Brazilians basically take the same length of time and there was a mistake in the system on the price, so they are now both £30/£33, apologies for the mistake.

Swedish Massage: After some feedback from clients the swedish massages will be slightly shorter. The Aromaworks services always have 15mins for getting undressed, coming round and getting dressed again. However, the swedish massages tend to be less for relaxation and more practical. So a 1/2hr or 1hr swedish massage will be slight shorter, with just 5mins for getting dressed/undressed.

Loyalty/Treat Cards

We have brought in fabulous little electronic treat cards – for every £ you spend on services AND products at Espiritu, you will be gaining points! Every quarter there will be different offers on services and products for you to spend your points on. We are really excited about this, as it means that we can really reward our most loyal clients.

They are so versatile, that we will also be able to use them to reward you for rebooking the same service on the day, recommending your friends and any new clients who join us.

Discount Changes

As we will be using these loyalty cards for the Rebooking, New Client and Recommendation reward points, the current discounts will be removed. However, keep your eye out for our special recommend a friend promotions, which will happen twice a year, and will be much bigger than our current discounts!

Other discounts that have disappeared are the Early Days Spa and 10% off Aromaworks products with an Aromaworks service. We are also removing the Colour Specialists from the Colour Club promotion.

Receptionists

We are really excited to let you know that we will be adding receptionists to the team! This is a massive change and will really help to improve our customer service and how easy it is to get hold of us. They will also help us to get all your information, so that we can give you the new treat cards etc.

We’ve had a Cancellation and Booking Fee policy for some time, but one thing that the receptionists will be enable us to do, is properly implement it. This will entail a booking fee for long or multiple people bookings and where there have been more than 3 cancellations or no-shows on the day. I hope that you will bear with us as everyone adjusts to the new system and it enables us to offer more flexibility and availability to our clientele. We lose up to £500 per week and many hours of potential bookings from late cancellations or no-shows, so this is an important policy for us to implement now.

Environ and Advanced Nutrition

We are now certified to offer all the Environ facials, body treatments and peels, which is really exciting! In the new year we will be adding the Collagen Stimulation treatment as well, which is incredible for scaring.

Once every two months we will be running an event with an Environ consultant who brings a skin analysis machine, so that you can actually see the improvement from your investment in their products. Please see this page for more information about Environ events and Jane Iredale Events.

We are also now certified for the Advanced Nutrition range, which means we can help you to heal your skin from the inside out, as well as the inside in, speeding up the results dramatically! I’ve been taking these supplements for a while now and can personally testify to their strength, and my skin is never looked better – I honestly had no idea that a few bottles of cream could make such a different to my wrinkles!

Eyes: The window to the soul!

We are adding a couple more lash options to the current Express (removed after 10 days). There will now also be individual lashes (requires regular in-fills), and the lash lift (a more natural curl & tint) – ready for those Christmas parties!

Late Nights – Just Thursday

We’ve dropped Tuesday late nights to finish at 7pm as it is winter, and it can be difficult for the girls to work until 9pm 2 nights a week when it is dark. So remember, that if you love a Thursday, please book it in advance; it’s unlikely that we will have spontaneous bookings left.

Christmas

Talking of booking in advance, we really recommend that you start booking your Christmas appointments now as they are already filling up. It’s advisable to book your colour in the week prior to Dec 19th. There will be no discounts or treat card services available in December, so you might also want to book your colour club appointments soon.

We will be having a special Christmas shopping event with great discounts and gift wrapping, so keep your eyes peeled to our Facebook page for more information. Remember, vouchers can make a lovely flexible treat for your loved ones, if you aren’t sure what to buy.

Team Changes

We’ve had a few team changes:

HLA have left Espiritu. We wish them all the best in their new location and are really excited to be able to increase the number of Spa treatments we can offer again!
Aggie has moved to America: we are so proud of her and truly wish for all her dreams to come true with her new adventure. Natalie Beth returned from her maternity leave, but personal circumstances mean that she had to cut her hours down to virtually nothing, so she has decided to leave for the time being; of course, the door will always be open to her to return though!
Megs Bell has moved to Bedfordshire, you’ll meet the lovely Olivia around the salon from now on.
We are also sad to say goodbye to Sophia Lorrimer who has gone travelling – definitely something to take advantage of whilst she is still young, and we hope she has the most amazing time. Joining us is the very experienced, and just as lovely Lexy, who I know you will become just as fond of.
Lana Allay (Stylist level) is taking an exciting new step into running her own print business full time. She’ll be back to help with the odd progel training session, I’m sure, but for now she needs to focus fully on her business and family to get it up to speed. Joining us is the extremely experienced top stylist Maja Berman, who has been working in London up until now. We are really excited to have someone of her skill level join the team!

Becky has decided that the role of manager was no longer one that suited her and has moved on after nearly 2yrs at Espiritu; we wish her all the success she deserves in her new ventures. We spent some time looking for a new manager and then realised that the perfect person was sitting there right under our noses. I’m sure you’ll all agree that Wendy is the perfect combination of Hair, Beauty and Spa with an extraordinary level of competence and amazing eye for detail. As she currently has a poorly wrist, she will also be carrying out the reception role and will only be performing limited services. We will be increasing her prices to the ‘Manager’ level, but obviously this won’t kick in for a while until she is back doing services. After just a few weeks in the role, Wendy has already made a huge difference, she is a natural!

It’s always sad to say goodbye to team members that we are so fond of, but it’s great to see them going off to adventures new as well. But, I know that the remaining team will help the newbies get up to speed on the ‘Espiritu way’ really quickly, and it will soon seem as if they have always been with us. Instead of adding lots of new faces, the team decided they would prefer to increase their hours, so you will now find your favourite faces in 5 days a week; much more convenient!

Top Ten Nit Tips!

March 14, 2016 By Lisa Pearson

It’s that time of the year again, and we have noticed how many of our clients are struggling with those horrid little monsters; the nit (egg) or head lice (insect)!

Firstly, please don’t be embarrassed – it happens to most mums at some point. If it doesn’t, it probably means that they are lucky, rather than that they did anything different to yourself.

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo & conditioner – tea tree oil is quite potent smelling, but that must be the key to it’s success. This is one of the techniques I use, and so far ‘touch wood’ it’s been 100% successful at repelling the nits and stopping infestations.
Tie their hair up – Plaiting your daughter’s hair or tieing it up for school is really important to help stop them from getting infested again. Boys get nits too, but girls are more prone due to their longer hair.
Leave in Spray – apparently putting product, hair spray or a leave in conditioner in your child’s hair is one way of putting off the nits, as they prefer to walk through clean hair. This is my 2nd technique personally; as both children have curly hair I’ve always used Unite 7 Seconds Leave in conditioner to help the dreaded brushing process. It’s a very light conditioner and could be used on anyone’s hair, especially as it protects against chlorine and weather damage.
The Nitty Gritty Comb – many of our mums claim that combing twice a week with the nitty gritty comb is the answer. It’s the constant attention that is the key. Check when conditioning the hair, rather than when it is wet, as the nits won’t be able to get away. Section the hair into small areas and comb carefully through. The eggs are near the scalp.
Oil – Instead of conditioner you can use any kind of oil (coconut oil is great for the hair) to help smother the nits, before you start to comb them out. It’s great for the condition of the hair as well.
Electronic Nit Comb – want to zap those little blighters for good without chemicals, then several love the electronic comb options. It’s great as it can be used dry, BUT it doesn’t kill the eggs, you’ll still have to get rid of them.
Listerine – an unusual recommendation from one of our Mums, but apparently Listerine does the job once you’ve got an infection; makes me wonder what it does to our teeth!
Look for nits AND eggs for several weeks – what some mums don’t know is that you can’t see all the eggs with the naked eye and the white eggs have already been hatched. So you need to keep going until you are sure there are no unhatched eggs as well. Once your child has been infested you will need to keep checking for ATLEAST 2 weeks to make sure that you have got all the nits as they hatch.
If your child had nits, remember to wash all their bedding and clothes on a hot wash, including hats & scarves.
If one member of the family has nits, you need to check everyone. Itching is not always a symptom, so even if they are not itching, they need to be checked. You don’t need to treat your animals.

I’m going to tell you a funny story now. My Mother was a very romantic woman and also a nurse in WW2. She decided to send a lock of her hair to her new boyfriend who had just been sent out to war. Sadly, she had to send him another letter a week later to burn the lock, as she had caught nits from the children on the ward. How embarrassing is that. (Don’t worry he returned safe and sound from both the war and the nits!).

Please let us know if you are worried your child might have nits before your appointment and we can check for you. I’m sorry that we can’t help by de-nitting your children at the salon. Unfortunately for us, if we got infested it would be disastrous. If a child comes in with nits, and we start the service without noticing, everything that was in the vicinity of them is either boil washed or bleached to high heaven afterwards. So instead, we thought we would try to help by coming up with these top tips. If you have any more tips yourself, please do add them in the comments, we’d love to know!

How Many Changes Can We Fit Into 12 Months!

June 12, 2015 By Lisa Pearson

I know many of our lovely clients have been thoroughly enjoying the constant stream of changes over the last 12 months; it’s been very exciting and almost as though we have started from scratch! We are really grateful to their patience as they stuck with us as we went through every service, room, product and solution with a fine tooth comb to ensure that it really matched our ‘Espiritu Ethos‘. I know their stock question each time they arrived has been ‘So what’s changed now?’!!

So what has changed? Here is a quick summary to entice you to pop in if you’ve missed all the fun!

Private Room (Grace Kelly)

We snuck in a whole new room for private hair cuts, for those clients that need a little privacy or find the noise of the hair dryers too stressful. It’s perfect for Weddings, when the bride decides she would prefer to pop out for her hair and makeup, instead of have us visit her on location. (All haircuts using this room need to be booked in advance).

It also seconds as the Tanning room; we love a spray tan, but are less keen on it spraying all over our beautiful vintage dressers 😉

Most importantly it makes for a useful extra beauty room, now that the beauty and spa area has grown so much!

Aromaworks

What a breath of fresh air Aromaworks has been! The products arrived in November 2014 and immediately the Spa services sky rocketed. Within a few short months they asked us to become their Flagship Spa, acknowledging our commitment to excellence, service and providing gorgeous, natural, effective products to our customers. It was a huge honour, and we can’t thank them enough for all their support over the last year.

With a much larger Spa team for 2016, this area will be growing massively and we will be able to meet the demand and reduce the waiting lists at last.

Pamper & Polish

We realised that Pedicure clients tend to like a little peace and quiet, whereas Manicure clients tend to chat a little more. So we we created a new ‘Polish and Pamper’ area with an extra manicure desk by adding not just a new wall, but a beautiful arch covered in buttons. This created the ….

The Greta Garbo Lounge

The ‘Fabulous room’ has become a chill zone, and is now called the Greta Garbo lounge, entrusted to Pedicures, Luxury manicures, Small Parties and a quiet cup of herbal tea after your Spa treatment. It is a harbour in a storm after the busy lives we all live.

The Kitchen Moved

Oh yes, we don’t do things by half! There is a lovely new Kitchen up by the reception desk to reduce the throughput through down the corridor to the new Spa area. There is also a door to the corridor, to help reduce the noise of the hairdryers filtering down. Strangely, rather than make the reception area feel smaller, it now feels much cosier and welcoming.

Oh and the ‘Borrow Corner’ is back, with lovely books for you to read while you are with us, Hair magazines, and toys/lego for the children to play with.

Barber Area & Salon

So what happened to the Barber area you ask? Well, we realised that we are not the type of salon for a colour only area, and we won’t be adding more hair stations as once considered, so that gave us lots of room for manoeuvre. The Barber chair is now near the window on the opposite side of reception, and the styling units have angled round to give a more open, welcoming feel to the salon.

With the beauty area becoming busier, we’ll be able to use the barber chair for quick eyebrow threads, quick 15min facials and of course it is still the Children’s favourite!

For the time being we are not offering wet shaves, sorry gents! But they are planned to return in 2016!

New Beauty Room

This created a much needed new beauty room; the Sophia Loren. We’ve replaced our wax system with Waxperts, which is giving much improved results, and have upgraded all facial and intimate waxing to the use of hot wax only to ensure we protect your sensitive skin and give better precision.

Team

Of course all this change, this has meant some more difficult changes at the end of 2014, and therefore for those customers who haven’t popped in for a while won’t recognise many faces. We’ve had a wonderful 18months with Kirsty who was promoted to Spa manager, but she is off to gorgeous pastures new in Cumbria; we are hugely grateful to her for her input which carried us through such a busy time. The wonderfully yummy Natalie is off for a while on maternity leave, but will be back, don’t you worry!

We have a new Salon Manager (we were very lucky to persuade the gorgeous Becky to join us), but there is no ‘Hierarchy’ here. Instead there is a system of support where the less experienced staff help reduce the load on the more experienced and therefore more busy staff, who in return repay their help with passing on all their knowledge, skills, hints and tips. And they all take very good care of me <3

Our new team is so amazing that you will feel right at home straight away. I count my lucky stars every time I walk into the salon. These girls truly understand our commitment to customer service and excellence, plus you can feel the support system they have created amongst themselves. Plus their skill level and flexibility means that we now have much more availability for all the different services that we offer.

Awards

To be so new, we would never have expected to be winning awards already. So imagine our delight when we won Best Hertfordshire Beauty Salon and ALSO Hair Salon in the Muddy Stilletoes Small Business awards. Apparently we missed out on Best Day Spa by just a couple of votes to Sopwell House (just wait until next year!!).

Then we won Phorest’s ‘Customer Excellence’ award for all the reviews that we receive from our clients – apparently only 2% of salons receive this award, so big thank you’s to our clients for taking the time out to let us know what they think of their experiences!

Battlers Green Farm

Even the shopping village has changed. We said goodbye to one of the Interiors shops and gained a ‘Physio Zone’ next to CycleZone. Osprey Outlook store arrived (one of my big favourites, so I have to hold myself back from going in too often!) and coming in 2016 is a New Restaurant.

The monthly Farmer’s Markets have been a big hit, creating a lovely buzz around the farm and they put on the ‘Music on the Farm’ festival for charity, which we thoroughly enjoyed and managed to raise a resounding £300 with ‘Pampers for charity’ on the night.

New Promotions

Our promotions have been simplified a little, but those we have are packed full of value:
– 10% rebooking discount is still there of course!
– 1/2 price colour with a cut on Colour Club days is very popular!
– 20% Introductory Discount
– Share the love and we reward your friend with a 25% discount and you £10 off your next service
– Mummy Mondays moved to Wed and is now back to Monday for 2016
– And we have some lovely Product Promotions too

New Packages

No Spa is truly a Spa until it has a pile of enticing Spa packages for you! There are rewards for our regulars and early birders, and special pampers for the pregnant ladies in your life. Of course tea and cake is still a popular choice with our Fabulous Friends or Double the Spa packages. There are combos with hair, beauty and other spa services to make the ultimate treats. Then reminders to take home for the family to enjoy and treats for Mums and daughters.

New Parties

Want to bring more than 1 friend with you for a pamper or perhaps you need ideas for a hen party? Or maybe you’d like to throw a pamper party for your Teen or Little Lady? Check out our gorgeous Party choices with lots of lovely ideas.

Lates, Sundays & Mondays

Gradually we have been extending our hours and days. First came late Tues to 8pm to match Thursday, which is now 9pm as of Feb 1st 2016. Then we reopened on Sunday WITH beauty/spa this time and it will be extended to 9-5pm from Jan 2016. We are finishing the year by extending Wed and Friday to 7pm. Finally Mummy Monday is returning which is very exciting. So we will be open 7 days a week!

Hair and Beauty Therapists

At the beginning of the year we started an experiment to see if it was possible to have team members who could do both hair and beauty. It’s turned out to be a resounding success, so it will be something that we will keep doing. How lovely to be able to have your massage or manicure with the same girl who then does your blow dry! The remaining stylists were feeling a little left out, so have been trained in manicures and makeup, so they’ll get the fun of doing the ‘Girls Night Out’ pamper parties and packages.

New Levels in Beauty

To highlight the difference in years of experience and offer different price points there are now 2 levels of pricing in beauty: Beauty Therapist, Spa/Senior Therapist.

We also have new uniforms for the girls who combine hair and beauty services. They have attractive grey uniforms that they can pop on for their beauty services and remove for their hair services.

Colour

Oh it’s been a long journey to find a colour with no nasty chemicals, that can also actually cover grey. But at last we have found one! It’s created by Keratin Complex (a sister company to Unite), and is not only PPD free (that’s what tends to cause all the allergic reactions), but is full of Keratin to improve the quality and shine of all our customers hair. Our stylists (a cynical bunch normally when it comes to new products), were jumping up and down with excitement to use their new bleach and have had fantastic results. The full range will be arriving at the beginning of 2016 and replacing our Wella range.

We also now have Olaplex which fixes heat or colour damaged hair from the inside (rather than covering the damage in a layer of silicone, which actually increases the problem, often literally melting the hair from the inside) and is changing industry dramatically.

Unite have asked us to potentially become a training hub and centre of excellence for them in 2016, which is another huge honour and really exciting.

New Colour Levels

The quality of the colour that you receive from us will always be the same, however there is a difference between the stylists that ask for advice (very much encouraged) and those that don’t need any input. Therefore we have 2 levels for colour from now on: Technician and Specialist.

We will also always have 2 stylists involved in every colour correction plan and bring in a new special colour consultation discussion and form for new clients.

New Stylist Titles

The concept of our 3 levels of stylist sounded good: ‘Graduate’ i.e. New, ‘Stylist’ i.e. can cut all types of hair and ‘Master’ for nervous customers. But then we realised that as they are also standard hair names, it meant that it confused comparisons with other salons. So we now call them ‘Stylist’, ‘Expert’, ‘Top’ and have a new ‘Manager’ level. (‘Manager’ is to take into account that Becky has less availablilty). Whilst we did this, the gorgeous Wendy was being promoted to ‘Top’ level to recognise her years of experience, skills and talent.

Price Changes

Having been open for 20months, we had to make a few minor adjustments to the pricing levels, especially as now knowing the market and the competition we face, we realise that there are some mistakes to be rectified. We spent 2 months working into the early hours, looking at the prices, working out options for regular customers who this might affect and making sure that the changes are spread as evenly as possible.

Remember there is the rebooking discount, packages, and great team members at all levels of the pricing structure; so there is something for everyone.

For 2016 there will be a change within the Spa pricing structure. We will be offering the Beauty Therapists to do the Aromaworks Facials and Massages, but at a much reduced price (£5-£10). They make a great option for someone who doesn’t need the many years of Spa experience of our more senior therapists.

New Services

We have added some exciting new services over the last 6 months, all still with our 100% guarantee of a fix or refund if you aren’t totally satisfied:

Spa Body Treatments and Facials – what’s the difference between a massage and a Spa massage? It’s the experience and pure yumminess of it. These facials and body treatments will take you to a whole other level of relaxation.
Stress Buster Massages – you’ve got tense shoulders and neck, but don’t have the time for a full massage? Then a 15 min massage fully clothed, on a Shiatsu Massage chair is the perfect solution.
Style&Go – A dry blow-dry, perfect for the party goer, or lady who doesn’t mind washing their hair, but struggles to control it and would like us to finish it off for her.
GlamBlowDry – For those BIG Blow dries when you are after a glamourous or curly look, enabling us to book an extra 15mins to make it last.
QuickBraid – A fun quick braid for a festival, night out or party (30mins max)
Restyle – Extra time booked for the consultation for your restyle, so that you get the style you deserve and time during the service to adapt your ideas if you need.
Parting – For when you just need those pesky greys/colour along the parting covered.
Pre Lighten & Tone – for those ladies who love to be all over blonde.
More Highlighting options – Short and Long options on half-head and full-head highlights, to enable us to give a better quality option that a ‘T Section’ and Regrowth and a maintenance option.
Hair Extensions – have been back for some time, but I think I forgot to mention them, oops!
Revarnish – A quick removal and varnish for those in a hurry; only 15 mins.
Full Manicure – This is a 45 minute manicure, with a file, cuticle push back and paint. But leaving the massage and cuticle removal to the Deluxe manicure (60 mins).
Quick Makeup – We don’t always need a full makeup that will last a whole day for a wedding. So instead we’ve added shorter ‘Quick and Fresh’, ‘Smokey Eye’, ‘Natural’ and ‘Vintage’ makeup services for you to choose.
Hot Wax – All our intimate and facial waxing is now done only with hot wax because it protects the sensitive skin and enables us to be more precise.
Threading & Electrolysis – Did you know we added these last summer? It’s possible that I didn’t shout enough about them at the time.
Semi-permanent makeup came for a short time and was really popular. But with Monika’s move to Ireland, it has been put on hold for a couple of months until we find someone who is as skilled.

Did we have some Fun too?

We had a really chilled low key team event day with cake and bubbly, mediation and vision boards! Culminating in discovering that Becky is bizarrely bendy and we are never playing the cornflake pack game with her ever again! (She was also the winner of the bucking bronco at the Music on the Farm, but has bribed me to never show you the photos!).

In November we raised over £100 for Kids Like Fifi (a gorgeous little 18month old, whose Mum knows she is going to need so much help from Young Epilepsy that she is planning on raising a humungous amount for them. Aroma works and Unite kindly provide us with presents for a raffle, and we turned 5 lovely ladies hair purple so that they could raise more money through sponsorship.

We had a small Christmas party to thank a few of our clients, with live music and lots of pressie options, which went so well that we are going to make our parties a regular thing and invite everyone from now on. Keep your eyes on our news boards in the salon and Facebook, as they are going to be very fun!

My Health

Sadly in June my body rebelled against the level of change and late work nights and I was hit by a massive Fibromyalgia flare. So I have another huge thank you to the team who have managed the day to day running from June-Oct; how amazing are they! And thank you to all the kind clients who have asked after me, and are so welcoming when I do actually make it in.

I’m still frustratingly on a very slow recovery and not up to speed, but we’ve looked on it as a learning experience; i.e. use more project management and stop making so many changes all at once!

Jane Iredale Makeup

Last but not least we have brought in a fabulous new skincare makeup range by Jane Iredale – their mineral makeup was the original mineral makeup. It is a true mineral makeup, with no nasty additions to it, and will help to continue to heal and protect your skin after your normal skincare regime; it’s so good that we can put it on straight after facials. It’s very sparkly and pretty too!

To Come in 2016?

There are still lots of exciting changes to come, just at a slower pace than 2015:

Laser Hair Removal using Soprano Ice (Feb 1st)
NIR Facial skin tightening (Feb 1st)
Online Booking
Mummy Monday Coaching mornings
New Eye lash options
New Eyebrow extension options
New Facial Peel range
Treat/Loyalty Cards
More regular blogs and vlogs
Monthly SMS updates of important news
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter newsletter
Charity of the Season
Employee of the month
More support for local authors & musicians
Monthly hints & tips newsletter
Keratin Smoothing Treatments
The return of wet shaves and more male services
Lots of fun parties!

Phew, what a year that has been, seeing it all written down is quite emotional!

If you feel strongly that there is something that you would like us to prioritise looking at or improving, please do let us know; it will definitely help us in fine tuning our project mgmt skills!

Huge thank you’s to the team for supporting me and keeping me in one piece, and for taking such good care of each other; you are all diamonds!

Also thank you to our customers who have seen us through the last year and been so patient and supportive. Remember to share the love as often as you like, so that you can get your £10 rewards. From February to March if we get only 3 refer a friend cards with your name on them, you will receive a £40 service!

To those customers who may have disappeared for a while, we totally understand; how’s about popping in and seeing what you think of all the changes? We’d be happy to offer you the 20% introductory discount until the end of March 2016.

Support Homestart This Christmas – With Presents and/or Christmas Shopping 6th Dec

December 4, 2014 By Lisa Pearson

As many of our customers remember from last year, we are big fans of Homestart – it’s a local charity with really practical support for struggling families.

Last year we did a present collection for them under our tree, and collected nearly 100 presents with the help of our lovely customers.

This year we’ve managed to up our game with the support of the rest of Battlers Green Farm!

Present Donations before Friday 19th December

All of the shops are helping to collect presents for the kids in these struggling families (and there are a lot in our local area of Watford and Three Rivers). You can deliver your present to any of them, or straight to us. We’ll collect them all together under our tree and get them to Homestart ready for Christmas.

This year we’ve been asked for more practical presents; after all, toys are great, but sometimes kids need the basics.

The theme is ‘Keep a child warm at bedtime‘, so anything like:

Onesies/Pj’s
Dressing gowns
Slippers
Books
Little teddies
Or something your kids/grandkids love at bedtime

They need to be new, wrapped, and labelled girl/boy and the age/size.

Thank you to all the shops for getting behind this great charity, and for all our customers who are already delivering presents, buying raffle tickets and planning on coming up to see us on Saturday!

Christmas Shopping Event – Saturday 6th December

This Saturday, you can come and do your shopping, with lots of treats at each of the shops to make it fun and enjoyable, whilst helping Homestart*:

Hair Chalks with us (generally for the kids, but we don’t mind doing adults!).
Christmas Decoration making at Hertfordshire Craft Collective
Carol singers and band throughout the day
100’s of pounds of lovely raffle prizes **
Mulled wine, mince pies and balloons
Fun cycle races at Cyclezone

Plus, BGF is the perfect place for getting those extra little presents, or something for someone where you are at a loss.

* We’ll be asking for a small donation in return for a treat
** Buy the raffle tickets at any of the shops, then at the end of the day they will all be put together and the raffle will be drawn. Your chances of winning a prize are huge!

Aroma-Works Spa Services, Products and Gifts LAUNCH Party!

November 20, 2014 By Lisa Pearson

Party!!

To Celebrate the launch of our new Spa Services (Oh my they are Amazing) and Aroma-Works Home and Skincare ranges, we are throwing a party!

Have fun, have a pamper, and do your Christmas shopping all at the same time! Tuesday Nov 25th 7-9pm.

There will be bubbles, nibbles, pampers and the chance to try out and smell the gorgeous new products. Plus a lovely raffle prize in aid of Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers , and the chance to pick up some big money saving discounts.

Are you fussy about your products – what is in them, what isn’t and how they affect the environment? The MD of AromaWorks Luxury Candles , will be there to explain how we are helping the bees, keeping the Orangutans safe, and making sure that nothing damaging hits your skin.

We can only fit a few lovely customers in, and we already have a number on the list, so if you fancy it, call/email/facebook us ASAP! – 01923 858052 or Lisa@Espiritusalonandspa.com

Aroma-Works

I must admit when I realised a few months ago that I was going to have to change our skincare range, I did swear a little! But I’m always of the opinion to make the most of a change, so off I went to try and find something even better. I had a long list! No palm oil, No mineral oil, No animal testing on the products or ingredients, Gluten free, Nut Free, Dairy Free, No nasties at all (alcohol, artificial fragrances, artificial colours, cetearyl alcohols, formaldehydes, petrochemicals, phenoxyethanol, phalates, sodium lauryl sulphate, laureth sulfate, Triethanolamine, Diethanolomine, Monoethanolomine), better price point AND more spa-like.

The moment I heard about Aroma-works from a friend on twitter I had a lovely feeling about it! That weekend I met them at a beauty show and immediately new they were even more amazing than I could have hoped for (although I did get some incredibly well connected and experienced friends to check them out for me too!). Then I discovered that they are all suitable for pregnant mums as well – even more than I was asking for!

But it wasn’t until I tried them myself that I really realised how wonderful they are. I have rosacea, but I thought I was managing it really well, but the improvement has been incredible. I’m so sorry I didn’t take photos, I just didn’t expect an improvement. I can show you the red spot on my forehead though, which is now 1/3rd of the size.

I also ‘knew’ that aromatherapy oils were ‘good for you’ and ‘healing’. But I didn’t expect them to actually make a difference to my health and Fibromyalgia symptoms. However, for research purposes I ‘tested’ the ‘Full body Ritual’ for you many times (I’m all heart!), and discovered completely different and repeatable results from the 3 different massage oils. From Nurture I get relaxation and amazing sleep (very difficult with Fibro). From serenity I get calmness and reduction in the head discomfort and fog from the fibro. From the Purify (detox), I got better sleep (not as good as nurture) and a reduction in the stomach swelling and lost 2lbs (I was doing a simple, mild detox at the time as well). They are just plain brilliant.

But don’t take my word for it. Come and smell them and try them yourself!

Children’s Competition

August 1, 2014 By Lisa Pearson

Are you trying to get to see us at the salon, but worried with what to do with the children during the visit?

Are you struggling with what to do with the children during the holidays without spending a fortune?

Would you like to win them a fun pamper?

We have an idea!

Bring them up to the salon and get them to design a hand or nail for us. We’ll put all the pictures up on our Facebook page and the two with the most likes wins!

You don’t need to have a booking to enter – just pop in anytime this week, then maybe take them to see the peacock, the vintage shop to see all the funny old stuff and Destiny Rising for a little crystal and you might get lucky to see all the other shops!

(In the meantime, check out the list of all our children’s services)

Under 5’s

Just draw round your hands and colour them in with whatever colours or patterns you like.

Imagination is key!

Get a chance to win a mini manicure or hair chalk colours in your hair (great for those creative boys who don’t want their nails painted)

Primary School Age

Draw a picture of a design for nail art or makeup.

Put lots of ‘you’ into the design – what do you love to do/watch/read/talk about?

Get the chance to win a mini mani-pedi or hair chalk colours in your hair (we don’t want the creative boys to miss out).

Terms and conditions:

Mummy needs to have liked our Facebook page.

Please put their name and age on the front and Mummy’s contact details on the back.

There will be one winner from each age range, picked by the most likes on Facebook.

The competition runs from Saturday Aug 2nd to the end of Sat Aug 9th.

Winners will be announced on Monday Aug 11th.

The prize is available until the end of September

If two pictures have the same number of likes, we will pick the winner at random with something like ‘eeny meeny miny mo’ or a blindfold.

Your Guide To Looking Good At A Festival!

July 10, 2014 By Lisa Pearson

It’s summer yay! Which means it’s festival time!

I didn’t start going to Festivals until I had my children – I decided I’d better start then, or I would never go! (I have a secret plan, that by taking them now, they will take me to Glastonbury when they are teenagers; we’ll have to see if that one works out!).

If you are unsure on where to start, then just look locally for 1 day festivals initially; Folk by the Oak is lovely (20th July). There are a couple of festival websites for families: Festivals for all and Festival Kidz. Many festivals have ‘glamping’ options as well, so that you can take your first visit more easily, and have everything set up for you. There are lots more tips here on camping and festivals.

Here are some tips on how to ‘Look Festival’!

1) Clothes that adapt to all weathers!

The problem is that the weather changes all day long, so you literally have to take a whole wardrobe.

– Take wellies and flip flops, make sure they are fun and bling (amazon is packed with festival wellies)

– Have a colourful pack a mac! These are light enough to put on and off.

– Leggings under a skirt work perfectly – you can take them off if it gets warm

– Scarves/Paschmina’s are a light way to add some warmth when needed

– Have lots of light layers e.g. a vest top, floaty shirt and hoodie

– If you are brave enough to wear wings and a tutu, of course that is a bonus 😉

– Remember your sun tan lotion – try to find one like the Arbonne range that have as few chemicals as possible. Think of sun tan lotion as the ‘new clothes’ – something you never go out without.

2) Wet Wipes Rule

The big question is how to keep clean for 3 days and the answer is WET WIPES! If you are lucky there might be showers, but they maybe pretty grim by the end of the festival. Wet wipes will get you through the weekend in pretty good order. (But be careful – just because they are for babies, doesn’t mean that they are free of nasty chemicals – make sure you get natural ones).

For best result, have a few beauty treatments that mean you don’t need much makeup:

– Spray tans will keep your skin glowing and mean you don’t need lots of foundation

– Eyebrow and eyelash tint mean you don’t need mascara

– If you tend to wash your hair frequently, then get our Unite dry shampoo (you put it on straight after the first wash and then each morning).

– Otherwise buy some of the Unite Beach Day styling product, and go for that ‘Festival hair’ look

3) Hands and Feet

With the potential for flip flops, you definitely need those feet seeing to!

– We sell a great Arbonne cooling foot cream at the salon if you like to ‘do it yourself’, otherwise a pedicure is a lovely treat

– If your feet and ankles tend to swell, then try the Arbonne Body Gelee

– Try gels on your toes as well as your hands, to make sure that they last the whole weekend

– Remember to add some bling! We have a gorgeous range of nail art

The most important thing is to remember that it’s about building lovely memories, so don’t let nerves hold you back.
Go out there and HAVE FUN!

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) for exam/performance stress

May 27, 2014 By Lisa Pearson

We have the most amazing EFT practitioner at the salon. Being a mum herself, Melanie Bundock from TherapHealing has used these techniques over and over on her children, which shows how much she believes in this simple but powerful therapy.

Here is her article on using EFT to help children and teens with exams, which shows how versatile it is as a therapy – it could be used for anything that you are nervous or anxious of.

I recently wrote a blog post about Emotional Freedom Technique or Tapping as it is also known. In this post I talked about the effectiveness of this amazing therapy can have on children of all ages for issues such as childhood fears and worries, boosting performance before a sports game and even physical symptoms. I have had a few people ask me if EFT can help with exam stress, and the answer is absolutely yes!

Rewind 20 or so years ago, I can honestly say that this was perhaps the most stressful time in my life, my university place, my future career and the rest of my life depended on these results (or so I thought at the time). I found revision boring, facts didn’t want to stay in my head (so I thought – again!) but my overriding thoughts were of fear and worry. This stress manifested itself as severe eczema on my face and chest, which to me looked awful and made me feel even worse and the most awful insomnia. I wish I had known about EFT then – how different things would have been.

EFT works by talking and tapping on acupressure points on the face and body whilst repeating phrases, a bit like acupuncture but without the needles. As we talk and tap, we focus on the overriding emotion, in my case it would have been fear and worry. So how would EFT have helped my 18 year old self? I would have addressed my fears of not getting the university place I wanted, I would also have addressed my fear of failure and ruining my life (oh how I wish I could go back and tell that 18 year old she had NOTHING to worry about), and I would have addressed the insomnia.

After a few rounds of clearing the overriding negative feeling, I would then focus on positive phrases (all the while tapping on the acupressure points). This reinforces self belief, confidence and an attitude conducive to a positive mindset upon entering that exam room.

I wish I could say that EFT can replace revision and studying – wouldn’t that be great? However EFT can take away any negative thoughts, feelings and worries that surround this highly stressful time. Whist the process of EFT itself is rather strange, there are some discreet tapping points that are easily accessible that you can use just before the exam, or even during the exam itself. Once the basics are learnt, the process can be used at home as often as needed.

So that’s the kids sorted out -what about the parents? EFT is fabulous for dealing with the day to day stresses of parenting. Being a mum myself, I know full well the emotions that are tied to raising our children, we delight in their joy, we feel their pain as if they were our own, and as for their emotional pain – well that is probably the worst of all. EFT has helped me enormously in my daily life of being a mum, those times they stress me out and frustrate me, yes you guessed it, I tap on it, often!

I hope that by the time my children are of exam age, they will be happily tapping away their fears and worries, and as for me, I will relax in the positive belief that whatever the outcome of the exam – they will be entering adulthood with a lifetime of happiness and success ahead of them.

Update: Melanie no longer works from the salon, but we still adore and recommend her. Please do ask if you can’t get in touch with her via her website.