These are the high maintenance things Australian beauty people do to be low maintenance
words by kaya martin
Invest in yourself.
Oh, to roll out of bed and feel ready to take on the day. It’s something that many of us, with our time-consuming daily hair and makeup routines, can only dream of.
There’s something freeing about being completely au naturel, but the truth is many of the people who seem to be the most effortlessly beautiful are just working smarter, not harder.
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Eyebrow microblading, permanent blush and lip tints, lash lifts and tints, spray tans – these days, there are countless ways to make big investments in your beauty routine. But which ones are beauty professionals doing themselves? Below, five Australian beauty people share the high-maintenance things they do to save precious time and feel their best.
Katryna Cooke, hair and makeup artist
The high-maintenance thing I invest in upfront to wake up feeling beautiful (and so people think I have naturally low-maintenance skin) is Corindi’s Healthy Skin Barrier System RRP $471.
When I was first looking for a product to give my skin that natural glow, I was a little confused with so much information out there but I found that this had everything I needed in it. Eight products, all-natural skincare with active ingredients, and it comes with a morning and night skincare routine, which is a no-brainer – I don’t even have to think!
It keeps away acne, prevents premature ageing and gives my skin a healthy glow so that when I put my makeup on in the morning I get so many compliments from people about my glowing skin.
Erika Geraerts, Founder of Fluff Beauty
I get shellac nails because I would smudge or chip normal nail polish instantly leaving the salon – but I find this experience utterly boring and still quite repetitive. I’m getting over it. Getting laser hair removal in my early twenties was a good decision for me personally.
But if I really think about it, my high-maintenance routine is more of an inside job. I’m unashamedly outspoken in the beauty industry that all you really need to do is remove your makeup and moisturise – your skin will take care of the rest, especially when you accept that ageing is inevitable and the sign of a life well lived. Don’t deny it.
So in saying this, it’ll sound totally contrived, but meditating every morning, walking every day, doing yoga, eating well, drinking water and committing to time resting at the beach (getting sun) genuinely makes me a more chilled out, better human, and that work shows from the inside out. These kinds of decisions, about your daily habits, routines, and values (not products) can be harder choices in the short term but make for an easier life. As Fluff says, ‘I’m prettier now that I don’t care’.
Rose Letho, makeup artist
An important beauty investment I’ve made recently has been implementing an at-home LED light therapy pod into my routine. I currently have an impaired skin barrier and am recovering from perioral dermatitis caused by antibiotics and active skincare.
The LED light therapy has helped in my recovery process, along with a lot of naturopathy supplements and restorative skincare. It’s been a long process! I love the pod because I can use it on my face, neck and other parts of my body to help stimulate collagen and aid in healing impaired skin. I was advised that a LED light therapy pod as opposed to a mask is meant to be more beneficial because it’s away from the face instead of on top of your skin.
The LED pod is a bit clunky though and hard to hide away. Mine is next to my couch which is annoying but it encourages me to use it because it’s out. I usually spend 20 to 45 minutes under the pod with protective eye covers. Having my eyes covered encourages me to meditate while I’m doing the LED light therapy because I can’t do anything else while I am under the pod.
Allen Liu, hairdresser and Founder of SalonShare
A perm can be a high-maintenance solution for those who want to maintain curly hair. I’m a guy, so I’ve got short Asian hair. I permed my hair when my hair was short. I felt good and it was so much easier to shape it because if I don’t perm my hair and I wake up, the hair just goes in different directions.
In the Asian community, a lot of guys perm their hair to be wavy – more volume, easy to maintain. A general practice by Asian guys is in the morning, they’ll rinse their hair. If you don’t rinse the hair, the hair looks like a hedgehog, so that’s why some Asian guys perm their hair.
There’s a treatment called a digital perm which is very similar to the hot tool curls and different to the traditional liquid perm. With a liquid perm, after the hair’s permed, it’s fairly flat. The waves just don’t keep it as organised at the digital perm. It costs you a bit of money (roughly $300), but you don’t have to spend a lot of money or time to maintain the shape. The shape will always stay the same way.
Georgi Woolcock, Partnerships and Campaign Executive at Fashion Journal
Brow lamination is easily my desert island beauty treatment – in conjunction with a sculpting wax, I’ve had it done every eight weeks without fail for years. I explain it to my friends and family as like a reverse perm for your brow hairs, breaking down the bonds so each individual hair stays where you brush it into place.
People tend to picture brow lamination results as an intense ‘electrocuted’ look, but when done correctly it creates a natural fluffy brow that requires minimal maintenance. It’s something I recommend to everyone, regardless of what kind of brow they’re starting with – I get the treatment to tame and shape my unruly thick caterpillars (think Mia Thermopolis pre-makeover), but it would also be ideal for someone who has thinner, sparser brows to create a more full effect.
I have so much hair on my head that washing and blowdrying it is an intense upper body workout, so I try to minimise wash night to only once a week. Incorporating the Dyson Airwrap into this routine has been an absolute game-changer, reducing both the speed and effort it takes to properly blow out my hair. What used to take me over an hour with a hairdryer and round brush now takes me only 20 minutes.
Although it takes a significant amount of time each Thursday night to get from sopping wet hair out of the shower to the bouncy ’90s blowout I go for, it leaves me feeling confident and gives me one less thing to worry about through the week.
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