Tuesday, October 5, 2010

What's in a $700 Beauty School Kit Anyway?

Getting your beauty school kit feels a lot like Christmas. It’s exciting. In general, you kinda know what’s coming to you, but the details are still a bit of a mystery. As an aesthetics student at Nashvegas Beauty U, you receive two boxes of goodies, two textbooks, and a Dan (see my previous post about Dan) for $700.

The First Box

We received our first box on the first night of school. I was thrilled. I had been told by a cosmo (cosmetology student) that we wouldn’t get a kit for about two weeks. She said, “They hold on to your kit so you’ll keep coming for a while.” (My thought? I just committed to >$8,000 for this gig, so short of having some kind of Jack Bauer level chemical mishap at NBU, there’s very little they could do to keep me away.)

So, I agree. The packaging isn't very sexy --  but the products are fantastic.
The first box included professional sized Dermalogica brand products for our skin. This makes sense. Good marketing would tell you that the students need to be using the products that NBU uses and sells in with their skin care services. I’m normally that stone hard client that goes into a spa for a facial and doesn’t want to hear BOO about how I need to spend an extra $35 on your breakthrough take home cleanser. 

BUT.... 
Turns out, their masterful plan worked. Now that I’ve used these products for almost four weeks (and learned way too much about premature aging), I’ve transformed into someone that won’t entertain the thought of going to sleep without my 3 essential steps – double cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize. 

The good part = my skin has changed significantly for the better in four weeks.
The bad part = now I’m beginning to face the reality that at some point I will run out of these amazing products (which my student loan so kindly purchased for me). I’m sure the Dermalogica Sales Rep is somewhere wringing her hands and cackling as she thinks of all the newly addicted NBU aesthetics students.

The Second Box

The second box was definitely the more exciting, but much of it contained supplies, which was a little disappointing, because… well, supplies run out. Yes, yes, I know things like swabs, gloves, and makeup applicators are necessary for aesthetics. So again – it’s a little reminiscent of opening the all too necessary 10-pack of socks at Christmas.

Here are a few of the more exciting things:
pro makeup

more makeup

pro brushes

a set of the sharpest tweezers I've ever seen


The Books




  • Milady’s  Standard Esthetics Fundamentals (Fitting name for a beauty school book, right? All of us in the class have had a little fun saying “Milady’s” in our best English accent.)
  • “The book” by Dermalogica

The Dan

Then there’s my Dan. I won’t go into details here. You can check out my previous post about the Dan. Since I’m approaching week four and I’ve pretty well mastered the facial basics, Dan doesn’t seem very practical any longer. In fact, I’m beginning to think of alternate uses for Dan:

  • Severed body man laying in the yard to scare the trick or treaters? 
  • Ebay?
  • Perhaps the next Adventures of a Beauty School Giveaway gift? 


Alternate uses for Dan are welcomed!

Gettin’ Beauty Schooled,
Rita 

6 comments:

  1. HAHAH you should use "dan" to scare the trick or treaters!!!

    Jenae
    http://pinkpolkabeauty.blogspot.com/

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  2. Hi Rita! Just discovered your blog, and I really like it...funny and informative, since I'm planning on going to beauty school next year. Just out of curiosity, do you know what makeup brand they gave you in your kit?

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  3. Hey Kristen! We have a mix in our kit. Our shadows are from Ofra. It is used for a lot of education programs. The shadows are wonderful - highly pigmented. Some of the other stuff... not as much...

    BUT the great thing about school is that you can get your MAC discount... AND as a student MAC has 5 student kits that you can purchase - - all of which you can buy at 40% off!

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  4. I'm looking into a Toronto esthetics school. Can you recommend any? I want to learn a trade so I can start making some good money. http://www.canadianbeautycollege.com/w_aesthetics.aspx

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  5. Are there any Toronto esthetics schools that you know of? I am curious for my wife.

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