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Exclusive contest from the Blanche Macdonald Centre: Enter to win special edition fujifilm 'cheki' instax mini 7s camera!

Win the Fuji Instax camera - this is the new generation of instant photography. With adorable instant postcard size photos, these cute cameras are on everyone's wish list!

Sign up as a fan on our Blanche Macdonald page on Facebook® and enter our online contest entry form where you will be eligible to win a special edition of the new Fujifilm 'Cheki' Instax Mini 7S in White and a pack of Fuji Instax Mini film! Retail value approximately $106.00 Canadian.

You must enter on or before March 29, 2010, 6:00pm, Pacific Standard Time. The winner will be contacted by telephone and must answer a simple mathematical question. Please read the Contest Rules and Regulations for more details.

Blanche Macdonald Nail Artistry Graduate Amy Nguyen, owner of Socialite Nails in White Rock, BC

BMC: How did you hear about the Blanche Macdonald Centre and why did you choose to study here?  

Amy: I first heard about the Blanche Macdonald Centre through estheticians that had graduated from the program. I knew that spas handpicked Blanche Macdonald grads when they were looking for new staff, so it was a simple choice. 

BMC: Tell us about Socialite Nails. What inspired you to start your own business and what makes it unique?

Amy: The idea for Socialite Nails came to me when I was working as a fashion buyer for an upscale retail store. My travels to New York City inspired me to go into business for myself. I knew that there was a niche in the Vancouver market for something unique!

Socialite Nails is a loungy, sophisticated and luxurious nail lounge. Clients come to us to get professional services from creative and certified specialists. We’re all about bringing glamour back to the nail industry! We believe in building long term relationships with our clients and educating them on the health of their nails, not just the beauty of them.

BMC: What were some of the challenges you overcame when you were starting Socialite Nails?  

Amy: There were many. My first challenge was trying to open the store as quickly as I could. Dealing with contractors, especially being female, took me into new territory. The second issue was all the red tape that a new business has to go through with the City of Surrey. Then I had to market and advertise Socialite Nails in a recessionary market! Phew.

Sister Act II : Louise Dannhauer and Ailish Wallace, co-owners of Spa Time

Esthetics / Spa Graduates
Co-Owners of Spa Time, Tsawwassen, BC

The motto at Spa Time is "Replenish what time takes away from you", printed in delicate silver brush script across their tea-green gift bags. Sitting in the softly-lit waiting room on plush chairs while a gentle piano melody floats in from the reception area, one can understand why the people of sunny Tsawwassen, BC go to Spa Time to put their busy lives on the backburner and receive quality treatment. Sister owners Louise Dannhaur and Ailish Wallace are masters of the art of stopping time for the purpose of relaxation, and with the introduction of a new 1,500 square foot location, larger staff and wider range of esthetics treatments, they just keep getting better at it.

"We’ve kept all of our décor ideas and colours and themes all pretty much the same, but we’ve added a lot of new services," says Louise. "Microdermabrasion, LED, photo facials, and we now incorporate all different sorts of body wraps. We do gel nails now, too, which we never did before."

KEIKO MATSUI 松井桂子 - Owner of Glam Nail Studio

Nail Parlour Graduate
Owner of Glam Nail Studio - Richmond BC

Keiko Matsui graduated from Blanche Macdonald’s Nail Program and established K's Mobile Nail Bar as a creative outlet while on maternity leave from her job at a local spa. In the years that followed, the demand for Matsui’s Japanese-style 3D nail art was so high that in 2008 she opened Glam Nail Studio in Richmond, BC in order to serve her large clientele. Matsui is also an award-winning nail artist, achieving third place for her design at the 2009 Nailpro World Competition in Las Vegas.

BMC: What was the inspiration behind this spectacular 3D nail art design?

KM: The theme for this 3D nail art design was "Prehistoric". We may tend to associate prehistoric era with rather dark colors such as brown. I wanted to use bright colors in this nail art, since my profession is to handle various colors. The design idea just came out very spontaneously.

Carla Sage, Pre-Opening Spa Director for Park Hyatt in Beijing.

Esthetics/Spa Therapy Graduate
Pre-Opening Spa Director for the first Park Hyatt Spa and Wellness Centre in China

As a Pre-Opening Spa Director, Carla Sage is honored to have been the leader driving the Spa, Wellness and Fitness areas for the first Park Hyatt Spa and Wellness Centre in China. Carla has also lent her expertise as a consultant to various spas in the Caribbean and Central America. With a well stamped passport at the ready, Carla’s passion for Spa Therapy knows no bounds!

Susan Turner, Owner of The Garden Spa

Esthetics/SPA Therapy Graduate
Nominated for the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce 2008 Business Excellence Award - Vancouver, Canada

BMC: What have you been doing after graduating from Blanche Macdonald?

ST: I started my career at Shibui Skin Care, in White Rock. The first year was focused on learning spa flow. Each spa delivers their brand of esthetics. Watching, and learning from other staff and management was a tremendous help!

After settling into spa flow, my focus was to develop different types of services for clients as well as offer more variety of skill sets to my employer.

This included relaxation arts like Holistic Foot Reflexology (Pacific School of Reflexology), Chinese Massage for Pain Relief (Kwantlen Continuing Education) and Warm Stone Therapy (Ambianz).

Taking ownership of The Garden Spa meant risk. But I was ready to try! I went to Denver and took Strategies, a business development course designed for spas. Over the next few years, I kept trying different things - looking for ways to reflect my values into the business in a practical way.

High Touch to High Tech

NEW - EXPANDED 1100 hour Full time ESTHETICS / SPA THERAPY DIPLOMA PROGRAM

They say it’s a Revolution

Once, esthetics training focused on the conventional – solid, concrete theoretical curricula with a strict emphasis on repetitive practical cosmetic massage movements and a limited array of beauty services. Not any more. In the last decade, Esthetics training and its related services have evolved, transitioned and morphed into every form, function and fashion imaginable.

Whether it’s Spa Fusion, Eco Culture or Global Sampling, clients can now cross the globe to an exotic multi-million dollar locale and indulge in the region’s indigenous treatments or pare things down to its simplest elements with the casual comfort and intimacy of the neighbourhood day spa. Familiarity can breed content.

Moving onto to a whole new lexicon, the "High Spa IQ" consumer assimilates beauty terminology with science. With a new generation of skincare products that advocate DNA repair that improves the skin’s appearance from the outside in, to non-invasive breakthrough technology using various levels of light energy, the language of beauty has changed. Whether it’s our everyday vernacular, Webster’s Dictionary or Wikipedia, terminology such as micro-dermabrasion, photorejuvenation, non-ablative resurfacing, or treatments of retox, detox to Botox, it’s all become so common place.

Interpretation, translation and comprehension – what does it all mean? It means that as an Esthetics professional, you have choice: endless, infinite choice. It means that as you make this commitment to yourself, you become the heroine or hero of this journey and the author of your own story. It all begins with you and it all ends with us; with all of us who will support you along the way. Here, at Blanche Macdonald.

Skin Intelligence

BEYOND FACIALS:

Spamedics

Medi-Spas have become a multi-million dollar industry faster than the speed of laser light. Doctors and Estheticians working together are constantly seeking the latest in facial rejuvenation cosmeceuticals, techniques and equipment. By combining their knowledge of skincare, they are able to offer innovative anti-ageing and health maintenance procedures both topically and subdermally with little or no downtime. After all, our skin is the largest organ of our body and can be an indicator of overall health.

The myriad of available treatments may read like Science 12 projects at first glance but they are light years beyond. In the world of anti-ageing, beauty and overall health, new treatments and products are being introduced almost daily. IPL, LED, EMS, MET, Faradic, Galvanic, Polyglucan and Beta-glucans...just what do they all mean?

Shedding light on these exciting cosmetic and medical therapies is the new Cosmetic-Rejuvenation training at the Blanche Macdonald Centre. Responding to the growing need of professional Medi-Spa training in spas and clinics, the college has added this dynamic module to its highly-renowned Professional Esthetics / Spa Therapy program.

Skoah Glow-Ah

Skoah, a hip urban spa, is perfectly at home among the upscale lofts, restaurants, cafes and chic boutiques in Vancouver's Yaletown district. Skoah's minimalist, sunny decor and soft jazz attract a very cool clientele of young professionals, jet-lagged business types and sleep-deprived mummies and daddies who all want the "Skoah-glow-ah".

Spa School

The spa lifestyle has filtered into every part of our lives. 

'Spa' appears on restaurant menus and frozen food. We wear luxe spa robes and loungewear. We decorate our bathrooms with spa-influenced lighting and paint colours. We light spa candles and relax in our spa tub with home spa beauty products. Spa treatments such as reflexology and massage promote patient healing in hospitals. Medi-Spas combine esthetic treatments and modern medicine to combat the sign of aging and enhance wellness. We visit spas in hotels, resorts, cruise ships, airports and in our neighbourhood. Once considered a woman's domain, men, tweens and teens are now enjoying the benefits of spa life.