Thursday, 12 December 2013

HOME STRETCH

Hola!

I am currently in the middle of my first week of holidays. Hooray! I return January 30 for my last 3 months of college ever...what a super fast journey this has been.

This last trimester I have been completed advanced facials (the subject I originally deferred in trimester 2), spa therapies and technically student clinic (I'll be returning a few days in order to make up missed classes). Next year I return for make-up and advanced beauty (this class is essentially learning acne skin facials and using electrical machinery on the body).

This last trimester has been quite simple in terms of practical and theory exam study, and there was one assignment (the only actual self-research assignment of the whole course) for spa therapy class that was a bit tough and quite a few of the other girls struggled with. We were tasked with researching a couple of existing salons or spas and writing a detailed report on them, and then also creating our own salon and describing how we would operate it. There was also a workbook to complete about sustainable environmental practices in the workplace which very nearly everyone struggled with - it was a very government worded book which can be a tough code to crack, even for the smartest of us!

In spa therapies class you learn hydrotherapy using the colleges big fancy hydrotub (it's a lovely treatment) and how to do a nourishing full body wrap (exfoliation, mask, moisturise and scalp massage). Then in advanced facials you learn how to do a facial on mature/ageing skins with electrical machines and how to do a facial on sensitive skins.

Everything is still mostly good in general, I still have some of the same complaints I've had all year like being treated like a child and doing lots of slave labour that saves the college money and brings them profit...but hey that's what big companies do eh? I have been pretty lucky to have some down to earth, knowledgable and passionate teachers throughout the year and I'm glad for that.

Last week all of the girls I've studied with (and some I've come to be pals with) graduated the course forever and some are even already in jobs! Going to miss some of them when I go back next year *sob*

One of my friends that was graduating, who I must say is one of the smartest in the college and has never failed a thing, was failed for her very last exam of the course and was required to pay $200 to resit it...felt a little bit like the college wanted to milk a bit of money before they let their graduates go...I was very angry for her and am now worried about it happening to me because there's no way I could pull $200 out of nowhere (I don't even have 5 cents in my saving account haha). Just like my friend, I've applied myself very well in this course and most often scored 100% the first time around and have never had to resit an exam. Fingers crossed I can graduate clean without paying an extra cent!

So, let's catch up next year when I graduate ;)

Monday, 11 November 2013

BOBBI'S BEST BEAUTY TIPS

It's no secret that I'm now very nearly a qualified beauty therapist, and this year I have learnt some really valuable information about the skin and body that has my own skin looking and feeling better than ever before! I've decided it's time to impart some of that knowledge to the world wide web while I have a moment of free time.

It's true that there is already enough information circulating the web, and certainly enough beauty bloggers for one lifetime (and I am certainly not and never will be a beauty blogger), but there is SO much information circulating that it's hard to determine which beauty tips are backed up with real knowledge. I am hoping that the knowledge I now have is all legitimate, so here goes.

P.S: All product suggestions are cruelty free :)


Best Beauty Tips


1. Sun protection - there's nothing healthy about a tan


Our main goal when it comes to beauty is to ensure that we age gracefully, and we have this friend who we call Mr. Sun who is bearable in small doses, but also very damaging to our skin and body and is the leading cause of premature ageing. It's never too early to begin using sun protection. Your sun exposure as a teenager can actually come back to bite you when get older, so start now!

Ageing caused by the sun (called photo or actinic ageing) presents externally on our skin as uneven pigmentation, dehydration (water loss), weakened collagen and elastin fibers resulting in lines and wrinkles (elastosis), skin sensitivities, bumpy/leathery texture or extreme thinning and most importantly; deadly skin cancers that can spread through your body and kill you dead. Seriously.

So your best bet here is to just get yourself some sun protection and actually use it. The best sun protection is the creams that contain zinc oxide as this provides an actual physical block of UV rays. Good old fashioned covering up your skin with clothing is also effective. 

My product recommendations:

2. Cleanse, exfoliate & moisturise


You probably already know that you are supposed to have a skincare routine AM and PM, but can't always be bothered with it or can't find anything that works for you. You probably even buy the latest trendy Garnier and L'Oreal products that are recommended to you on the telly - STOP! Please stop doing this because you aren't doing yourself any favours. Everyone's skin is unique in that you have a skin type which is determined by your complexion, genetics and conditions that present on your skin. By using cheap or harsh products that are full of toxic chemicals and synthetic ingredients that aren't suitable for your skin you're just damaging it.

You may have oily skin, dry skin (lacking oil production), combination skin, normal skin and if you're older you will have a mature skin that could be post-one of the above types. On top of this you may have skin conditions such as breakouts, sensitivity/redness, dehydration, pigmentation and a whole host of other things that are caused by internal and external factors.

All skins need a healthy balance of water (for hydration) and oil (for moisture), and after each day your skin needs to be cleansed of dirt and bacteria. You also accumulate dead skin cells on the surface of your skin which need to be exfoliated regularly to keep your pores clear and your skin's texture feeling smooth. As a general rule you should cleanse and moisturise morning and night and exfoliate a few times per week, but it all depends on the conditions and type of your skin. You can use masks also, there are different types (such as clay which draws out impurities and is best for oily/acne skins and hydrating masks which are great at rehydrating all dehydrated skins, especially mature).

As you get older it's also recommended to look into specialised products like like serums (vitamin A, B and C), eye creams and rich night moisturisers to combat the signs of ageing. Avoid changing to different products too often however as you need to give your skin time to adapt to a product. The general rule is that if you aren't beginning to notice results after using your products for 6 weeks, then it's not going to work for you.

I use and highly recommend the A.S.A.P product range. It's an Australian company that produces simple but very active cosmeceutical products at a fairly affordable price and there is something for everyone. Some of the products contain Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) which are effective chemical exfoliants that soften and smooth your skin beyond belief. There is a gentle cleanser which is great for sensitive and dry skins and a cleanser that contains AHAs for oily to mature skins, and an active exfoliant that contains AHAs also. After using an AHA product on your skin, you can instantly feel results.

When beginning to use AHAs on your skin, ensure that you work up to your routine as they are quite strong and could lead to some sensitivity or peeling if overused. They also need to be matched with a strong moisturiser to replace stripped oils and A.S.A.P has some great ones for all skin types. I purchase my A.S.A.P products from SkinCareStore.com.au as they have the best prices with regular 20-30% off discount promos.

It's also very important to nourish your skin from the inside out. Drink plenty of water, eat a nutritious diet full of antioxidant rich foods that fight free radicals in your body and of course, don't have too much fun by drinking excessive amounts of alcohol or smoking cigarettes or you will end up looking like a washed up, grey hag. The damage you do inside your body shows on the outside.

P.S. Change your pillow case weekly so that you aren't sleeping in breakout causing bacteria and avoid touching your face with your grubby hands.

3. Dry body brushing


Dry body brushing for 5 minutes twice a day before you take a shower will help to exfoliate away dead skin cells leaving you with smoother skin all over, will ensure that your pores aren't blocked so that you can receive and absorb nutrients into your skin, stimulates your blood circulation and also stimulates the lymphatic system which helps your body to release toxins and encourages the production of fresh new cells to keep your skin looking fresh and radiant. Some even claim that regular brushing helps reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Start gently when beginning your body brushing until you get used to the sensation. Brush from your feet upwards and in circular motions and always toward your heart (avoid genitals, face and sensitive areas) to encourage lymph flow. Only brush as firm as is comfortable (brushing should never hurt) and ensure that you take a shower after brushing to wash away the dead skin you've removed. Always rinse your brush after use. Follow with your favourite (and hopefully natural based) body lotion. One of my favourite body lotions is 100% organic, raw, virgin coconut oil and if I were to explain all the benefits of this stuff it would need it's own post, so definitely Google it and check out the coconut oil praise.

You can get them at most chemists, health stores and also from The Body Shop. Just make sure it has natural plant based bristles (The Body Shop uses cactus - this is good!). Go get one and start right away! DO NOT buy the Manicare one that will tempt you with it's cheapness at Priceline as it's made of boar bristles which should be on a boar (a cool and smart animal that looks like a pig by the way) and not a brush.

4. Use mineral make-up


The quality of your make-up is exceptionally important because it stays on your skin for hours every day. Of course it's better to wear no make-up at all and just allow your skin to breathe, but if you must then it's best to use a mineral make-up because it's mostly free of synthetic and chemical preservatives and artificial fragrances that are often responsible for causing irritation to the skin and is also most often fragrance-free. It is especially beneficial for those suffering from breakouts or acne as it does not clog the pores, and also for those with sensitive skin and those with inflammatory skin disorders like psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis as it has a calming and soothing effect. It also prohibits the growth of bacteria, helps even your skin tone and is so gentle that it can even be used after a waxing, laser or chemical peel session.

I personally don't often wear make up, but on a daily basis for evening my skin tone I wear and highly recommend Natio SPF 15+ Pure Mineral Skin Perfecting BB Cream. This cream is so awesome because it covers my uneven pigmentation and gives me a nice even skin tone and gives me a natural healthy look - like I'm not wearing and don't need make-up and you can get Natio from very nearly every chemist and online chemist stores. On the occasion that I need more coverage, I wear Innoxa Pure Mineral Loose Foundation powder over the top of my BB Cream.

Remember that the things you put ON your body are absorbed INTO your body, so be sure to pay more attention to the ingredients in a product when shopping and if you also want to be a good and ethical person on top of that, you will always make sure that you look for products that state that they are not tested on animals. If it doesn't say they aren't then they are! Choose Cruelty Free actually have an app you can download to your smartphone to help you shop for cruelty-free products.

5. Pay some attention to your hands and feet!


Your hands and feet often go neglected in your beauty routine, but when you consider it, they do a lot for you and deserve some attention. Your hands are pretty much exposed to the same things that your face and neck are exposed to and even more and so they need the same treatment. Many people don't even think to do anything for their feet which you spend many hours a day standing on, trapped inside shoes. I've met people who didn't even know they had foot fungus!

Your hands and feet are very privy to dryness, rough skin and nail disorders/fungus. Regular manicures/pedicures which you can give yourself at home can help to keep your nails in tip top shape. Use a cuticle oil regularly on your fingernails to keep your cuticles moisturised and nourished and free of hang-nails, keep your nails clipped to a reasonable length to avoid accidents that could cause trauma to your nail beds and avoid overuse of chemicals like nail polish that contains harmful ingredients and nail polish remover that can be excessively drying. Always clip toenails straight across to avoid ingrown toenails.

The hands and feet need exfoliation to resurface the skin and remove dead skin build up. You can make your own salt or sugar scrubs for this - just look around the internet, there's 100s of different recipes that you probably already have the ingredients for. Your feet might also need the addition of a foot rasp/pedi-paddle for sanding away that dead skin a bit more vigourously.

Keep these areas moisturised too! For the hands I LOVE the certified organic and 100% natural Jasmin Aromatique Hand & Nail Cream which is made locally on Mt Tamborine here in Queensland, but for a more affordable option I like to use Sukin Hand & Nail cream which is also natural but retails for around $10 a tube. The feet require more intense moisturisation and so I will often use a heel balm, paw paw ointment or a natural body moisturiser. I apply it very thick to my feet at bedtime as often as I like and then put socks on and leave them on overnight. When I remove the socks in the morning, my feet feel soft and silky all over! You can do the same on your hands but replace socks with cotton gloves. Excessively cracked heels require more specialised treatment, and there's many natural alternatives available at the chemist shop in the foot care section. My favourite chemist to shop at for these sorts of things at the best prices is Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse.

It is also good advice, coming from an OCD girl with a hand washing problem, to not over-wash your hands! Continuously stripping your skin of it's natural protective oil can leave your skin very dry, stingy and thin. That said, don't be disgusting and never wash your hands ever, general hygiene rules still apply.

Theres many more things, but that's the main stuff I want to share for now. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope this post helps someone out there.

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

TRIMESTER 2 NEARS THE END

With only one day left of trimester two, I think it's time for an update! There are many new things.

I have now completed my waxing, hot stone massage, reflexology and Indian head massage modules and next trimester I will be completing spa therapies and advanced facials (that I had originally dropped last trimester) and some more student clinic.

There's not much to say about the completed subjects. Waxing was a fairly hard class and also a challenging exam to pass. There are two types of waxing; strip waxing and hot waxing. Strip waxing is used on the arms and legs and other areas where you need to remove a large area of hair growth and it is VERY hard! Some girls had a natural talent for it, but some of us were also really struggling. It's also a fairly physically demanding task! Hot wax is used on sensitive areas (and does not require the use of strips) such as underarms, face and the privates and it's quite simple to use and remove and is very tidy! Strip wax can make one hell of a sticky mess!

I have had a few sessions of student clinic so far. My first was in body treatments which was for massage and manis/pedis. I had one deluxe pedicure client and although I gave her a reasonably good treatment, it ran an hour longer than it was supposed to...oops! And that was the only client I got all day! There was maybe 4 or 5 clients between about 7 girls over the whole day - lots of cancellations. The week after I had tutorials so there were no clients, just practicing skills on other students. Last week was facials/tinting but unfortunately I was off sick with my dodgy gallbladder that day, so will be making it up later, but I heard from others that it was much busier than our first day in body treatments. This Friday I have waxing in student clinic, which is both good and scary - I need the practice, but am working on real, paid clients!

So, waxing in student clinic this Friday and then on to a couple of weeks of holiday! Look forward to another edition next trimester!

Saturday, 15 June 2013

TRIMESTER 2 UPDATE

Wow, I know, I haven't posted in a million weeks! Due to the lack of followers, I figure it won't hurt to just add periodic updates from time to time, so this time I will explain a bit about trimester 2.

Well I am into about week 5 now (I think), studying waxing, hot stone massage and advanced facials this time around. Also student clinic will be starting in a couple of weeks where we start giving the treatments we are competent in to real paying clients. I needed more time to look for part time work, so I have dropped advanced facials class for now.

Unfortunately when dropping a class there is around a $200 fee for each class you drop at CNB before the census date, and after the census date you have to pay the full fee in your VET FEE HELP for the class you dropped and then pay for it again when you retake the class. In this case, the advanced facials class I dropped will cost me around $900 in my VET FEE HELP debt and then another $900 next trimester when I restart the class.

Advanced facials seems to be the toughest subject so far from the few weeks I have been going to the class. It involves the use of electronic equipment, different product range (A.S.A.P - they're quite good cosmeceutical products and I definitely recommend them!), tougher theory and learning how to give a facial for many different skin types (i.e. mature/aged, acne, erythemic, sensitive etc). The very first practical exam, which is a mature skin facial, also requires for the student to bring their own female model over the age of 35, which seemed to be a problem for many students who weren't really comfortable bringing their mother in for the treatment.

Waxing is also pretty tough in that you really need to perfect your technique. I personally removed skin from a girl in my class because my technique is still pretty terrible. It's also a very messy, sticky class! We have learnt strip wax so far, and starting hot wax (for sensitive areas) this week on the bikini and underarm. The college unfortunately isn't supplying students with a waxing kit, and offer some for you to buy at $130 or $225 (none of which I can afford!). Just a note on waxing - it REALLY FREAKIN' HURTS, just so you know!

Hot stone class is...a very hot class! Some are finding it hard to perform the massage in such a hot room. The massage itself isn't a great one and involves leaving rocks in some pretty awkward and uncomfortable places. We only got 4 weeks to learn the massage before moving on to reflexology next week, which will be incorporated with the hot stone massage for the exam. I personally am so confused with the massage right now and could use so much more in class practice!

In other news - the college is still pretty unorganised with their paperwork proofreading and written treatment procedures. They have released a new yellow logo which as a designer I'm not too fond of  - not many are a fan I've discovered. But I'm personally not really having any issues with them right now, everything seems to be working out nicely for now.

Friday, 17 May 2013

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Ah what a delightful two week holiday that was to end the trimester! But now it's back to school and onto new things.

I received my new time table for the second trimester about a week ago and this trimester I will be attending four days per week rather than the three like last trimester. This trimester will consist of hot stone massage, Indian head massage, reflexology (EW!), temporary epilation (waxing but excluding Brazilians which is offered as a short course instead of part of the diploma at CNB), advanced facials (involving the use of electrical gadgets and thingymebobs like that) and student clinic where we will be providing services learned in trimester one to real clients from the public in the colleges on campus clinic.

We don't get thrown into clinic until week 7 however so that means in total this trimester there will only be 6 sessions in clinic. A lot of the girls I have spoke to are absolutely dreading clinic, including myself. It's sure to be nerve racking - here's hoping I don't accidentally tweezer someones eye out or blind them with lash tint.

This trimester will run from 20 May 2013 until 16 August 2013 followed by another 2-3 weeks holiday before the last trimester. Wish moi luck!

Friday, 26 April 2013

ONE THIRD OF THE WAY TO BECOMING A BEAUTY THERAPIST

Yes, that's right. One more exam next week, then 2 weeks holidays and I will be one whole third of the way through my beauty therapy diploma.

I'm very surprised at myself for how well I've done and seem to be one of the best students in most of my classes so far, passing exams and assessment items 100% the first time around. But I'm trying of course not to get too confident as I'm sure next trimester is going to be even tougher.

Home practice red block colour on
Jess (with added glitter!)
I failed one of my practical exams on the first attempt so far and that was for nail fundamentals. In fact, everyone in my class failed the first time around because it wasn't really a subject that was given enough time for practice. The thing we all failed on was the painting of fingernails. We were required to do white French tips and solid red block colour. Everyone found the French tips to be the hardest, mainly because we all practiced on each other and we all have short nails because that's what the college requires as part of the dress code, but at home we were practicing on other people with long nails. At first we were expected to freehand the French tips, which I deem impossible to achieve on nails with no free edge, so most students (including myself) used a make up brush (I used a Models Prefer lip brush) to shape the white tips. The college says that it was a very harshly judged exam as they require very excellent quality of the students before we are permitted to go into the college clinic and perform the treatment on real clients.

Home practice French tips
on Elli
We were given Zoya nail polish, which I had thought to be a fairly good and expensive brand of polish, but the white polish and red polish we received was terrible quality. The white was sticky and gluggy and the red had ultra cuticle staining power, and we aren't allowed to bring our own polish unless we had a Material Safety Data Sheet for it, so we were expected to just deal with this crap polish. The Zoya nail polish remover they gave us in the kits was also terrible - it was very weak and had low acetone which made it very hard to clean up if polish got on the cuticles or skin. Some students even went home and topped up their polish remover with pure acetone to make it stronger.

I passed the nail painting on my second attempt thankfully, but still very much need many more hours of practice painting other people's nails. No two people nails are the same so it's pretty challenging and you need to practice on a huge variety of people.

So in this first trimester I have learnt eyelash and brow tinting and brow shaping, manicure and pedicure, full body Swedish massage, full body aromatic massage (incorporating essential oils with massage), how to give a basic facial (exam coming this Thursday), foundations of cosmetic chemistry (this was an online subject with 5 online quizzes), foundations of nutrition (also an online subject with one quiz) and foundations of anatomy and physiology (this subject was a mixture of online reading and an assessment workbook handed into my massage teacher).

On the cards for next trimester is temporary epilation (waxing - excluding Brazilian , advanced facials, Indian head massage, hot stone massage, reflexology (dreading this!) and clinic studies (which is where we spend a day a week providing beauty services to real clients in the college clinic).

We also finally received our uniforms a week ago - almost no point now that everyone is a third of the way through the course. it's not the most comfortable or well fitting uniform, and the college has adopted a new look and a new logo, which as a graphic designer I am not too fond of.


I hope that soon I will have more to share here, like tips and tricks, recommended products and tutorials!

Monday, 15 April 2013

I'M STILL HERE!

Wow, I haven't posted in many a week!

This is just a quick note to say I've not abandoned ship and will give an update as soon as holidays begin on May 3.

Tomorrow is the impossible manicure and pedicure practical exam (including French tips) and later this week skills tests (which are a pre exam, no notes or teacher tips practice) for facials and aromatherapy massage classes.

Until I come back with more time, here's a few cool vintage nail polish ads! Definitely shaping my own nails into the almond when I'm on holidays!












Tuesday, 26 March 2013

VARIOUS UPDATES (WITH PICTURES!)

Hey, I passed my full body Swedish massage exam! There were 5 other girls taking their exam in the session I took mine and I was the only one who passed it the first time around without having to repeat anything. I was so stressed about failing and all for nothing!

This week is the mid trimester break, which has come at a perfect time because there's some workbooks and study I need to catch up on (plus some of my graphic design work which is falling pretty badly behind lately).

Did I mention already that we had finally received our lash tint and mani/pedi kits? They have some okay stuff in them, but also some rank smelling things. We got Zoya brand polish, base and top coats, which if you know about nail polish, is a pretty good brand and is free from formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, camphor and dibutyl phthalate free and also vegan-friendly as most good brands of polish are these days.

The mani/pedi kit came with a few tools like a cuticle pushes, clipper thingies (love my professional terms?), scissors, a bunch of files, a crappy three-way buffer, a pedi paddle plus some extra pads for it, a bottle of red Zoya polish (red because it's apparently the hardest colour to work with), Zoya Anchor basecoat and Amour topcoat, Hawley cuticle conditioner (which smells absolutely vile - like baby sick), Zoya polish remover and these other two receptacles of some of the most disgusting things I've ever smelt; QTICA Q Smart Spa luxury lotion and sugar scrub.

I am pretty sensitive to smells, and this rank artificially fragranced junk makes me feel sick to the stomach. There seemed to be a variety of 'flavours' of the stuff. I got 'lime zest' and some other got things like mango flavour and pink grapefruit flavour. none of them actually smelt like the alleged flavour. They are just sickeningly sweet and gross. I'm planning on buying my own stuff and just hope that I'll be allowed to use it! Surly I'll be able to since this icky stuff gives me an epic headache.

I've attached some pictures of the manicure and pedicure set up at college, and also a picture of the lash and brow tint kit which came with two tints (black [which is not the darkest shade you can get by the way] and natural brown), a bottle of creme developer, stainless steel tweezers, a glass tint bowl and a plastic kidney dish. The brand of the tint is RefectoCil, which after some investigation I have discovered is a fairly decent brand.

Lash and brow tint kit

Terrible picture of the mani/pedi kit

Manicure setup

Pedicure setup

I'm looking around for an online store where I can get the best price for natural supplies as when the supplies in our kits run out, we have to replace them, because we use our own kits in class. When we go to work in the college clinic (18 sessions in total are required as part of the diploma), we also use our own kits there.

Over this week Easter break, I'll be working on my nail fundamentals workbook, my body systems workbook (for massage class) and also studying for my practical and written facials exam. I think the written facials exam is going to be a pretty epic challenge.

Have a happy chocolate weekend!

Sunday, 17 March 2013

EXAM TIME

Spare time is starting to become a rare thing while approaching exams. This week will be my full body Swedish massage exam.

This is the second practical exam of the year and proves to be a very tough one. It personally has me and many other students under immense pressure due to the strict criteria that requires filling to pass and the fact that if we don't pass it, we will have to pay $200 for another attempt at passing it. Some people that I've spoken to have told me this is not the case with some of the other colleges, you just get to keep at it until you pass.

The day of my massage exam will be this Wednesday at 1pm (practical exam days so far haven't been full 9am-4pm days, we just stay long enough to complete the exam). I'm required to bring in my own 'model' and treat it as a real life client situation (I'm bringing in my little sister). We will go through a consultation process with our client where we will discuss the massage treatment, goals, concerns, nutrition and a few other things. We will be marked on things like the consultation and aftercare process, dress code,  the massage moves and the way we perform them, the duration (1 hour to complete the massage - I went 15minutes overtime last week during in-class practice, which would be an instant fail if I did that in the exam), the draping of the client and a few other things.

No one that I've spoken to seems to be ready for the exam and it's the general consensus among students that we need more time to prepare. I'm not entirely convinced that I'm going to pass as my memory is having a bit of a hard time keeping around 120 separate massage moves in there in the exact order they need to be performed in, despite practicing like crazy.

Unfortunately this subject has been taking up all of my study focus and I haven't been getting all the practice I should be for my other two classes. I'll come back with an update of how the massage exam went later in the week.

News in other classes - We have now moved on from lash and brow to nails (mani/pedi) in one class but have only had 2 classes thus far (one of which I missed). I've still not yet received my lash and brow tint kit or uniform. In facials class we are now performing and practicing a full one hour facial which consists of cleansing, skin analysis, cleansing again, steaming and exfoliating, facial massage, then a mask and a hand massage. The facials practical exam comes up in a few weeks too, so after my massage exam, this is where all the study focus is headed!

Until next time!

Saturday, 2 March 2013

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Week five of my diploma was a pretty eventful one. On Tuesday, I passed my lash and brow tinting and brow shaping practical exam and the workbook assignment. That means that I'm now qualified to do those three things - which admittedly aren't exactly hard to do. The alleged lash and brow tinting kit that was promised to us as part of our course fees is still no where to be seen however. The teacher doesn't know when it will be arriving and can only tell us that they've been ordered. What I don't understand is why they weren't ordered before we all started!

I'm not sure how all the other beauty colleges in Brisbane go about their business or if they are any better, but at this particular stage I wouldn't recommend the College of Natural Beauty. I am hoping that it will improve and that I will soon have some positive things to say later on down the track. It's evident that the college's number one priority is money making. They have their own shop on the ground level of the building that sells all sorts of natural therapy supplies. I've not been in there myself, so I'm unsure of pricing, but I heard that students are entitled to a discount (but I'm not sure what percentage).

The class I am still most unhappy with is massage. I changed teachers a couple of weeks ago after being unhappy with the original teacher. The new teacher is great at teaching the subject. I think the college doesn't consider that WE are paying THEM, and a lot of money too. I suppose that they are trying to also teach discipline  but there's no way that after I graduate that I would take a job that was equally as strict. I'm also unhappy with this class because last week the teacher said it was compulsory that we buy a holster for our massage oil. She said they were $15 and that we could get them from the college's shop. So I went home and sewed my own holster to save money. This week when I brought it to class I was told that I wasn't allowed to use it and that I would HAVE to purchase their boring black plastic one from the college shop by week eight (which is the week of our practical exam). The money isn't the only thing I'm annoyed about, it's the fact that it's compulsory to buy it, and we weren't told before we enrolled that we would be required to buy things, and they couldn't just provide them to us as part of the fees, or even just have them in the classrooms!?

This isn't the only little untold cost that has popped up so far. Before enrolling I was told about this fun excursion that we go on for a day to a farm in Mt Tamborine where the certified organic skin care range Jasmin Aromatique Organics are produced. But what I wasn't told is that this trip is during the school holidays and costs $45.

Another very important misleading thing about the college is the amount of attempts they give you on assessment items. On orientation day at the college they told us that we get three attempts to pass any written or practical assessment. Written assessment is in the form of exams sat in class and workbooks that you take home and work on over a few weeks. But over the last couple of weeks, we have discovered that we really only get one proper full attempt. Their idea of a second attempt is (with the written stuff) having 30mins or so in class to AMEND any mistakes, and (with the practical stuff) doing a couple of parts over that weren't done correct the first time around in about 10-15 minutes. If it can't be amended/corrected in the set amount of time and you have to resit a practical/exam it will cost $200 payable before you're allowed to have your second attempt and can't be added to your VET-FEE HELP debt. Any third attempt requires you to pay the fee too. Until you pay the fee and have your do-over, you can't progress on to the next stage of the class. I was originally led to believe that the 2nd and 3rd attempt were included in the fees and were complete do-overs, not just a tiny chance to amend.

If you hadn't noticed already, I'm a huge whinger. When I feel inconvenienced I am compelled to whinge to whoever is in charge of what's taxing me. I've sent complaint emails a couple of times now to the admin at college about things that annoy me so hopefully this could make some kind of difference.

Saturday, 23 February 2013

VICTORY IS MINE! SORT OF...

Coming back to my little rage about my massage class and teacher. After writing to the college admin, I was able to transfer into a better massage class with a more experienced teacher. My new teacher has a great teaching style! She's quite strict about the rules (short nails, uniform etc), but given that I follow the rules anyway, it's not going to be a problem for me.

Now that that's sorted I just have to start stressing about the practical exams coming up over the next few weeks. Next week will be my lash and brow tinting and brow shaping practical exam. We had the skills test for it last week and received feedback on how we could improve for the exam and I only failed one area which was putting a hand towel over the clients chest so as not to drop any tint on their clothing. We still haven't received our tint kits so if you wanted to practice at home, you had to go out and buy the things - I couldn't afford this of course. However I'm not particularly concerned about this exam but more the facials and body massage practical exams coming up in about 4-5 weeks time.

In both facials and body massage class we are learning a massage and will be required to perform it without our notes in the exam. I can sort of remember the moves for body massage, and can remember a few for the facial cleansing and massage, but not the order that the moves go in. If they aren't done in the correct order that would be an instant fail of the exam. The facial massage has about 26 moves and a cleansing routine, including some lymphatic drainage moves which are a bit complicated. The full body Swedish massage that we are learning has over 60 moves but a lot of them are the same kind of move just on a different part of the body. You can imagine remembering the order is going to be killer!

Not having a proper massage bed here at home has been making it pretty difficult to practice with ease, so I suggest that you buy one before starting this course. You can get them on eBay for around $100 brand new, and around the same price from some of those discount websites, just have a Google. I plan on getting one when I have the money, but will be borrowing one from a friend who used to practice massage when I get the chance to pick it up.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

UPDATE TO ANNOYANCES

The first order of business is more complaining about how disorganised the college is. I am about to enter week four and am still unable to login to complete my online learning modules which have due dates. The teachers still have no clue when this is going to be fixed, and when I spoke up in my massage class about it on Friday by innocently stating "Why wasn't this organised before we started?" I was promptly returned immediate dislike by the teacher and the excuse that the college had a large intake this year and was told to be patient. Well sorry guys, but I'm not paying you $10k to wait for you to get your shit together.

I really don't seem to be getting along with my massage teacher. She's quite obviously not the right person for this job (she's new this year) and she doesn't know the colleges procedures very well yet. She doesn't even stick to their curriculum or use their resources. She also treats the students like we are ALL teenage girls. Quite a few of the students are, but I'm 25 and expect to be spoken to like an adult, not scalded in front of the class and bossed around and critiqued like a child. There's a few ladies in the class older than me and I'm not sure how they are handling it. I've requested to be swapped into a class with a more experienced teacher as I know I'm not going to be able to put up with this teacher much longer. She's certainly taken quite a disliking to me for speaking up, so I get a bit of attitude from her when I ask a question like she is trying to prove that I'm stupid.

She doesn't give a demonstration at the front of the classroom for us to follow along with, she just walks around with a piece of paper reading the moves out and does the move very quickly on one of the students who are playing client on the massage tables and doesn't check that we have all mimicked it perfectly before rushing on to the next move. She's also not familiar with all the moves being taught at the college and has apparently taught a few moves wrong to confuse the students a bit more. Mind, I've only had 1.5 classes with her thus far after missing class last week.

I'm starting to question all together whether I want to continue to study this diploma, and I really haven't got much time to think it over as the census date is early next week. After this date, if I withdrew from the course, I would still be liable for the full course fees.

My other two classes, facials and lash and brow fundamentals seem to be going okay. It's tough getting my head around the facial procedure but the teacher is great. She's kind and treats all the students as equals. Despite the unorganised college that backs her, her lessons seem to be quite structured, and unlike the body massage teacher, she gives demonstrations in front of the class so we can follow along, but class runs overtime about 30 minutes in the afternoon. The lash and brow teacher doesn't seem to be too experienced with the theory she teaches us in the lesson, but she's still teaching the subject well enough in the practical side of study, and gives good demonstrations of the treatment procedures. However the workbook for that subject is poorly written and most of the answers haven't been provided in the resource book they gave us on the first day which supposedly contained everything we would need (rendering the text books optional). The workbook is due this coming Tuesday and I'm hoping my Googled answers are going to be correct!

This Tuesday I have a skills test for lash and brow class. This is a test in preparation for the actual practical exam the following week. We will be required to perform an eyelash tint, eyebrow tint and eyebrow shaping with tweezers. I suppose I'm confident with the procedure, but I do pretty much everything at turtle speed and when I am rushed I just crumble, and this is a timed exam!

We finally got to try on some uniforms for size last Tuesday. They are such a terrible fit and won't be arriving for another 2-3 weeks so I'll be sure to show you when it comes in!

Sunday, 10 February 2013

LITTLE ANNOYANCES

Things that tax me about the College of Natural Beauty - being as judgmental and organised as I am, it was bound to happen eventually. I just have to say, this college is not entirely organised, or they at least don't have backup plans in place.

First of all, I originally was told that uniform fitting would occur on the orientation day. This of course never happened and we are entering week three still with no uniforms. We have also not yet received the lash and brow tinting kit required for practicing at home for our practical exam in week four.

It's the same deal with student ID cards. None of the teachers were sure what was happening with the ID cards and we just haven't been kept informed about what's going on with them. I've heard rumours from other students that we could go to the library and get them - but I never heard this from a teacher. I'd like to have been kept informed every step of the way.

The next thing is that even though my very first class (Lash and Brow Fundamentals) was delayed a week because of the college closure during the flood peaks, assessment dates and the workbook due dates haven't been delayed by a week. I've been trying to rush through the workbook for this class as it's due Tuesday, and all the answers to the questions are supposed to be found in the resource documents that we were given on our first day (a mixture of info pages and slides from PowerPoints shown in class), but of course they're not all in there! Most of them aren't the kind that can be found on Google. It's the same deal with the workbook for body massage class, but thankfully this class seems as though it might be a bit more organised - though I've only attended this class once due to missing my second one last week because I had a bit of a car accident with a taxi on my way in.

I had a Google of the optional text books where it seems they derive a lot of the learning material for the course from. I only got to see sample pages of the books online, but it seems some of the information that we derive workbook answers from are contained in the text books...but there is of course no way that I'll be able to shell out $300 for these books just to be able to pass my course like the girls who CAN afford the books. There's a limited number available from the college library but that is of course first in best dressed (which is never me).

Everyone was also supposed to receive a log in and password for the online learning modules and quizzes which are beginning to become due in week three (next week), but low and behold I still have not received a log in and the teachers have no idea what's going on, but I'm still going to have to adhere to the due dates despite it being their fault so that I don't fall behind.

Another thing that grinds my gears a bit, given my background in graphic design and proofreading, is that the spelling and grammar is shocking throughout the workbooks and resources! Particularly for lash and brow class. I expect that if I'm paying over $10k to learn at this college, that they would at least proofread their materials a few times over. Even the contents page doesn't marry up with the alleged page numbers.

And of course there was that little mishap on the day of my first body massage class where we all spent the first half of the day with the wrong teacher and then had to change over.

So I'm overall a bit disappointed by these things considering how much I'll be paying to learn here. I expected that the beauty therapy industry is an industry where organisation and perfection are key, and I am very worried to be learning at an institution that is wavering on those two important things. At the train station I've been seeing girls from the other college I had originally considered (Australian National College of Beauty [ANCB]) that all have their uniforms and only started last week. It looks as though the dress code isn't as strict too. So here's hoping I didn't make the wrong decision. In any event it's too late now if I did!

In other news, I picked up a couple of massage oils (Sweet Almond and Apricot Kernel) for practice from Perfect Potion in the Queen Street Mall. I was delighted to discover that because I'm a natural therapies student, I get a 10% discount! Usually one would have to show their student ID to obtain the discount but the lady let it slide that time.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

LASH & BROW CLASS

Well...here's the last post about all of my first classes!

Tuesday I took my first Lash and Brow Fundamentals class. My teacher for this class was very personable and knowledgable about the subject and interested in her students. The morning was filled with PowerPoint and theory and more student introductions as with all the other 'first classes'. We learnt once again about the layers of the skin (the same as Facial Fundamentals class), which was good in a way because I think I've memorised quite a bit of it now.

After lunch there was a bit more theory about skin and contraindications of lash and brow tinting/shaping then we got into the practical stuff! I was pretty delighted to hear that this subject was going to be largely practical.

For the first class, we did lash tinting and eyebrow shaping (with tweezers - unfortunately eyebrow threading is not covered at school, but You Tube is a God for that). The teacher gave the class a demonstration first on a fellow student - showing us how to set up our work area, follow safe practices and maintain a connection with your client (who will have to close their delicate eyes and trust you for up to 15 minutes through the whole procedure of lash tinting). After the demonstration we all buddied up in twos and dived in and grabbed our materials and safety equipment and had our buddy lay on the bed (also, on that note - we have no desks at CNB, each classroom seems to have massage beds in it and you sit at those instead, often unfortunately on a very uncomfortable wheeled stool with no back!), and the teacher walked everyone through the process one step at a time, checking how everybody was going, then we swapped over and our buddy did our treatment.

Blue-black eyelashes...hell yeah!
It was all very easy to do, just a little bit fiddley and easy to forget some of the hygiene procedures which seem to be very important when it comes to coming in contact with a clients bodily fluids.

So at the end of the day, my sensitive eyes came home a bit itchy but with blue-black tinted lashes and a few stray brow hairs plucked. Next week will be a bit more theory about skin and glands and brow tinting prac - I can't wait for that because my tragic orange bleached eyebrows are getting to be a pain!

Homework for this class seems to come in the form of a workbook that you fill in the answers to. All the answers are included in the resources provided at the beginning of the trimester (PDFs with all the PowerPoints and info you get in class), but I've found it helpful to be taking detailed notes in class too. There's also a workbook for facials class. I've gone ahead through the workbooks and filled out everything I could so I wouldn't have to worry too much about them later. The lash and brow workbook is due in two weeks as the whole subject is a short one (four weeks actually - we move on to nails after this).

Exams for this class are practical assessments. Lash and brow assessment will be in week four, then after we have passed that, we are qualified to perform that treatment on real clients! Hooray!

I am off to bed now to get my beauty sleep for Facial Fundamentals class tomorrow! Hoping for some practical but I'm looking at the unit guide, it seems there will be an exam and more theory so I'll be hitting the Berocca hard!


Friday, 1 February 2013

FIRST EVER BODY MASSAGE CLASS

A fatigued me learning theory
Dear, oh dear, two posts in one day!

I won't make a post giving a detailed description of absolutely every class I attend, but what I'm doing now is just giving my readers a run down of the first class for each subject and then a bit later in the trimester, hopefully I can really launch into the fun stuff and have more videos and cool facts to show you.

As I mentioned in my last entry, today I had Body and Aesthetic Aromatic Massage class. It wasn't the most organised situation from the get go and there were a few mishapps throughout the day. We entered the class at 9am and spent at least 20 minutes sorting the role out. Girls from the other group on another level were coming back and forth unsure of which classroom they were supposed to be in because their timetables were misprinted. Then once that was all out of the way and we were all seemingly settled into the right class, our exceptionally passionate, animated and very energetic teach launched into a PowerPoint presentation.

First was more housekeeping and common sense. We were informed that there would be a uniform check in week two and of a system they call the 'red dot system', where if we don't follow the various rules set out by the college (such as dress code, attendance and lateness, success in exams etc). It's all quite strict. My understanding of the exam system is a bit loose but I believe you get three attempts at your practical exams, and if you blow them, you pay about a $200 fee to resit the exam during the trimester break. I'm not sure yet how many attempts you're afforded for workbooks (printed activity booklets that you get for some classes which is mainly homework), theory exams and online quizzes, but I know there is also a fee associated with re-sitting them.

The rest of the lesson up until lunch time was theory about body massage - general stuff like all the different types of massage and what they're purpose is and contraindications. Then we learnt about the importance of clients filling out a medical form, then we were required to fill out our own. You have to note a lot of personal information about ANY medical condition you suffer from and it is going to pretty much be shared with all the other girls in the class and the teacher. I seemed to have sat next to the least shallow girl this particular class, but the others seemed like they would have been pretty icked out that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ha!

After we got back from lunch, there was more chaos - the teachers realised they had the wrong students so we swapped teachers and rooms and had to play a bit of catch up with the new teacher. The new teacher was also new in the sense that she only just started at the school too and admitted to not being familiar with muscle names (which the students are expected to learn throughout the course), so hopefully she will be a knowledgeable enough teacher. She was very kind and down to earth however.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with our new teacher learning how to set up our massage table and then she demonstrated some movements of the Swedish massage on one of the students. Next week, I envision we'll probably play a bit of catch up and be a little bit behind and then practice on each other - so I'll be wearing my best bra!

Still no uniform or student card - a little bit concerned with organisation at CNB, but hopefully they'll get it together next week. On Tuesday I'll be off to Lash and Brow Fundamentals class.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Yesterday was the first day of school for many, including me! After class being postponed due to the weather on Tuesday, I started college in Facial Fundamentals class.

It was a theory based lesson, and after seeing the lesson plan it's going to be theory based for a few weeks. The teacher was very engaging and knowledgeable but it was still a bit of a challenge to stay focused as there was a bit of death by PowerPoint going on.

We learnt about the different skin layers and functions, the names of facial muscles and bones, the effects and contraindications of facial massage and a few basic massage movements (practiced on a rubber dummy). Don't ask me to remember them though! This massage thing is going to take a whole lot of practice.

In my class, there was a few age groups. There was a mother in her 40s returning to study and even a much older lady, there was me of course being 25 and the rest seemed to be recent year 10 and 12 leavers, most of which said they want to open their own salons.

The teacher broke the class up with a decent amount of breaks. We were given 20 minutes in the morning at around 11am and then an hour for lunch and a five minute in the afternoon. She even had us make mini trifles with ingredients she had brought in to represent the skin layers.

As I write this I am sitting in the common room at college waiting for today's class which is Body and Aesthetic Aromatic Massage. Everyone was given a USB yesterday which contains all the resource booklets and lesson plans for each class this trimester and according to that it seems that today's class will also be very theory based for a while.

In other news, next Friday I have a job interview/trial at a inner city hair and beauty salon for a part time salon coordinator (which is basically a receptionist). It will only be for 10 hours a week I initially, so hopefully I can handle that on top of my studies and freehand design work. Some days it could be a five hour shift straight after an eight hour day at college. We'll see how it goes - it would give me great experience!

Until next time, adios.

Monday, 28 January 2013

DAY ONE POSTPONED

This week in Queensland, we have had some pretty extreme and exciting wet weather, which has unfortunately left people devastated by floods for the second time in the past half a decade. Well golly Mother Nature, tell us how you really feel!

This has forced the closure of lots of roads and businesses in flood areas and surrounding areas. I was all set to begin college tomorrow but due to the floods and for the safety of staff and students travelling to the college, CNB have decided to close the college to students tomorrow - that's both of their campuses; Fortitude Valley and Gold Coast.

It's sort of good in a way because it gives me a few more days to mentally prepare myself and get my sleeping pattern back to that of a normal person. It also gives me a few more days to wear nail polish :D

This is the message published by the college this afternoon:

"Brisbane and Gold Coast Campuses Closed to Students 
After looking at all factors including current weather patterns, unknown flood water peaks, functioning of public transport and persistent power outages the decision has been made to close the Brisbane and Gold Coast campuses tomorrow, Tuesday 29 January 2013. 
Both campuses are currently fully operational and undamaged. However the issue of travelling to and from these campuses in areas that are flood affected or damaged may present safety issues. Given the situation is still unfolding it is also unknown what the full impact will be on public transport, particularly rail - no doubt they will be trying their best in a difficult situation. The safety of students and staff is our highest priority 
From tomorrow both the Endeavour College of Natural Health and the College of Natural Beauty were expecting new VET student cohorts on campus for the beginning of Trimester 1.

The Director of Aesthetics Education for the College of Natural Beauty has determined that classes will not proceed tomorrow due to the risks associated with a large student cohort travelling to campus. Similarly the Executive Team of Endeavour College has confirmed classes will not proceed. 
A decision regarding classes scheduled for the remainder of this week will be announced at 2.00pm tomorrow. 
Executive staff will return to the Brisbane campus tomorrow along with other staff members not in danger of travelling through flood waters. The Gold Coast Campus is closed to all staff and students. 
Students can email info@cnb.edu.au for non urgent queries. 
Carolyn Barker AM
Chief Executive Officer"

Friday, 25 January 2013

CNB ORIENTATION DAY 2013

Today I pulled my hair back into a painfully tight ponytail and caked some make up onto my sleepy face, and headed into Fortitude Valley for the College of Natural Beauty's orientation day.

I would say there was around 50 or more girls attending, all quite young, a few that seemed to be under 18. We were given name tags and divided into two large groups and put in separate rooms where we were shown a PowerPoint presentation (URRRRRGH I KNOW - DBPP) and given more information about the college and about the course we are about to embark on.

There was a couple of group activities which I suspect was to get us mingling. The first was called "people bingo" where we were all given a sheet with square on it and in t walk around the room and ask as many people as you could within eight minutes which activities they had done and list their names in in the box, and the person with the most filled in at the end won a prize (which wasn't me - I've never won a prize so I didn't even bother to see what it was - I just resigned myself from the very beginning). For the second activity, small groups of five or so were given some butchers paper (I was the scribe) and asked to all come up with some key words about what we thought were important in the beauty industry; like professionalism, personal hygiene, discreetness etc.

The presenters spoke in depth about the dress code which was quite strict. Only stud earrings, no facial piercings, visible tattoos or jewellery, day makeup is to be applied every day (even if you're just going to have to remove it as soon as you get to facials class) and a recommendation that you don't wear waterproof mascara, black leather or vinyl shoes with black socks, no cleavage  no hair hanging in the face, and as soon as your hair is long enough it's to be put into a bun or braided bun. We didn't receive or get fitted for uniforms today and unfortunately we won't be getting our uniforms for another 5-6 weeks (and I was so dying to share with you now!) But we did get to see the uniform and it's a conservative, longish black tunic with the popped collar and buttons down the side - a regular therapist uniform really, embroidered with the college's logo.

One things that I thought was particularly cool is that as part of your enrolment at the college, you can have three free confidential counselling sessions with the 24/7 Student Assistance Program for pretty much any issues that could affect your studies like relationship issues, depression, stress and anxiety (yay for me), gambling, grief, drug addiction and all those sorts of things.

There's not much else particularly interesting to say, but I suppose if you're reading you're not looking for interesting, just informative so other activities included in orientation day was filling out forms; first a sort of quiz that asked questions like 'what are your strengths and weaknesses' and 'why did you choose beauty therapy' etc, the others were medical forms where you were obliged to disclose any illnesses you suffer from in case it could interfere with your classes (i.e my allergies are not looking forward to aromatherapy so much) and an agreement to say you would tell the college if you have hepatitis and then just a photo consent form for permission to use images of you on their Facebook and in publications etc.

And just a few more bullet points about things learned today:

  • There is a big university style library on the third floor open until 7pm through the week with computers and quiet study areas and areas for laptop plugins and printing services (which cost)
  • There is a freaking awesome hydrotherapy tub on the fifth floor which looks like a space ship
  • There is very small lunch room but I don't remember what floor; the fridge space is first in best dressed
  • Parking is $10 at McWhirters or $9 at Valley Metro (which fills up quick), and you need to validate it at the college reception on level two to redeem these rates
  • No smoking in your CNB uniform - beauty therapists have to smell perfect!
  • Further to that, there is no perfume allowed to be worn THANK GOD
  • Assessment is by way of workbooks and online quizzes and some practical examinations that you get three attempts for
  • Every student does 18 weeks of work in the student clinic/salon
  • They recommend that you complete a first aid certificate
  • Employers can come to the student clinic as 'secret shoppers' looking for the next star
  • The clinic will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the future and it's going to be hard to secure the Friday unless you have extenuating circumstances
  • You will need to do lots of practice at home - especially massage which is a big component at CNB as opposed to most other colleges
  • CNB are against animal tested products and ingredients! Yay!
Right, so I start this coming Tuesday, with lash and brow tinting class. Will report back with my findings!


Tuesday, 22 January 2013

WHAT'S IN STORE THIS TRIMESTER & THE FUTURE

I've received my timetable for the first trimester and I thought I would share it here as it's got some good information on it. As you can see from the image below, for the first three months of the year at the College of Natural Beauty (CNB), I'll be learning facial, nail, lash and eyebrow fundamentals as well as massage.

One very cool thing about the diploma is that at the end of the trimester after completing all these modules, you'll be qualified and ready to work in these particular areas if you can manage to find a salon to take you on. It will also be really beneficial to you in future to start working in the industry as fast as you can...and I shall tell you why!


The mentioned academic calendar can be found here.

I've been receiving beauty industry job notifications for a few weeks now to get a feel for what I'll be looking at once I'm qualified. I have to say it's a bit disheartening because about 99% of advertised positions I've come across ask that you have 2 years experience in the industry as a requirement of the job. It makes me worry that unless I graduate top of the school, it's going to be tough getting a start in the industry. So I think if you can manage to find a casual position, even just volunteering your services in a real salon it is going to count toward your overall years of experience when the time comes to look for a full time job.

As I said before, all the schools have student salons where you can use your skills on real paying clients, but I'm not sure how employers consider this experience. I guess you've just got to go out of your way to be the best at school and get some good references and commendations from your teachers.

On another subject, I'm not sure yet exactly what the uniform looks like. I'll be being fitted at orientation day this Friday and will probably receive it on my first day which is next Tuesday the 29th of January.

Monday, 21 January 2013

THE BEGINNING

Howdy folks and welcome!

My name is Bobbi, a gal residing in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I'll get started by letting you know that writing is not my strong suit, but there's a subject I want to share with people in my city on the same journey as me (and potentially my country or the world), and that subject is beauty school in Brisbane, Australia.

For the past seven years, I've been an amateur professional and freelance graphic designer, and after two years of being unemployed on and off, then over time pretty much losing my employability completely due to being out of the game so long I decided it was surely time for a change. It had come to the point where I was even being turned down for positions at supermarkets.

Given that in the past I had worked professionally in government agencies (even the museum!) and was highly commended for much of my work, the constant rejection letters was a definite red flag; something had to change in my life...drastically! So, instead of sitting at home waiting for the next rejection letter, I set out seeking the perfect course of study to suit my attitude, creativity and any untapped potential I might have.

Limited to courses that are VET-FEE HELP approved (if you don't know what this is, it's a sort of  study now, pay later government loan which any eligible Australian citizen can apply for), I managed to narrow it down to two choices - psychology and beauty therapy. I honestly admitted to myself that I would not thrive at all in a largely theory based classroom environment...I needed practical and hands-on. Thus, a star was born! Bobbi Fox would study a Diploma of Beauty Therapy (course code SIB50110) in the year of 2013.

Next came the incredible dilemma of choosing a college at which to study. Given that it was already early December, I knew I may have already missed out on a place at the more prestigious colleges. There are many beauty colleges in Brisbane, but only four that offer VET-FEE HELP. I researched the colleges for a few weeks looking for blogs and reviews by students and tracking down alumni to ask them about their experience all to no avail. It ended up making my decision very difficult and so I decided to create this blog to share my experience with you as I study at my chosen college.

I did a drive by of each college and toured the facilities of two of the colleges to see which was most modern. I also researched the teaching staff at each college as best I could. The four options available (and information I gathered) are:
  1. Australian Institute of Applied Sciences (AIAS) - Located in Stones Corner, course fees $14,865 (including uniform and tools). Plenty of places to eat and shop at lunchtime!
  2. Endeavour College of Natural Beauty (CNB) - Located on 269 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, course fees $10,600 (including uniform and tools). Doesn't offer microdermabrasion as part of the diploma as others do. Full time = 3 days per week with the option of Saturday. Discounted $10 a day parking in McWhirters carpark.
  3. THINK Australian National College of Beauty (ANCB) - Located on Costin Street, Fortitude Valley. There are two eligible areas of specialisation (Electrolysis or Spa Treatments), unsure of fees but includes uniform and tool kit. Seems to include more electives than CNB and AIAS. Full time = 3 days per week with the option of Saturday. This college fills up quickly and you may be wait listed. I found it to not be too conveniently located near places to get lunch or park.
  4. Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT) - Ideally located in South Bank, though full fee course cost with the VET-FEE HELP is unfortunately $19,500 (including uniform and tools).
All colleges have a student clinic where students are able to use their skills on real-life clients - clients pay a very discounted price for treatments. Still unsure of which college was going to be the most prestigious to graduate from, I've decided to go with the College of Natural Beauty because of my aversion to the use of chemically products as CNB use all natural and organic products through the course. I figured this would also cater much better also to my aversion to animal tested/containing products. Though I'm disappointed that it does not include the microdermabrasion - I intend on completing that separately someday as it's something I'd like to learn, along with spray tan and intimate waxing.

CNB seems to pride itself on presentation, and there IS a dress code. I have a lot of tattoos which worried me - the uniform doesn't cover my tattoos. When I went to the college to speak with someone she told me I would have to wear a 3/4 sleeve top under my uniform tunic to cover up my tattoos - I'll happily oblige as I don't like people asking about them anyway!
The rest is:
  • Black pants (I bought some nice slim straight leg slacks from Target for $30)
  • Closed in, rubber sole black OH&S acceptable shoes (I bought a pair of comfy Grosby flats from Target for $30)
  • Knee high stockings to cover any bare foot flesh (I bought flesh coloured but may need to be black too)
  • Clean manicured nails
  • Hair tied back neatly
  • Tasteful day makeup applied
I attend orientation day at the college on January 25th and start my first class on the 29th. I'm both nervous and excited! It's been a long time since I studied and I hope that I can pull some motivation out of these ashes caused by the long-term unemployment! I hope to have the time to still do my freelance retro inspired graphic design work during the course.

Till next post, I bid you adieu!

-Bobbi