11 posts tagged "Serge Normant"
Beauty Etiquetter: Deciphering The Salon-Tipping Pecking Order
Beauty Etiquetter addresses your beauty-protocol predicaments with candid advice from industry experts and those in the know. To submit a question, e-mail celia_ellenberg@condenast.com.
The Quandary: “I always tip my hairstylist, but do I need to tip the shampoo girl, colorist, coat-check woman, receptionist who orders my latte…? I always feel like I need to tip the entire salon, which adds up.”
The Expert in Residence: Sean Gallagher, colorist and stylist at the Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon in NYC.
The Advice: “Who and how much you tip is an age-old question when it comes to beauty services. If you’ve received a color treatment and a cut or style, it is customary to tip both the colorist and the stylist—provided the work was done by two different people. Many people tip around 15 percent of the cost of the service, but the amount is at your discretion. If you feel your service was truly great, feel free to tip more. A small tip for the shampoo person and/or assistant is always appreciated—if you’re unsure who to tip, you can leave a little extra with your stylist or colorist and ask them to pass it along to their assistant. Typically there isn’t a need to tip a receptionist or a coat person, as tips are usually for services only. Additionally, if you are seeing the owner of the salon, you do not need to tip him or her either, as they receive the money you pay for the price of your service. As a rule, tip what you can afford and know that a thank-you note goes a long way!”
The 411: Flywheel’s Ruth Zukerman
The past few years have seen the spinning trend reach dizzying new heights, and leading the two-wheeled, stationary charge are fashionable studios like Flywheel—and, more specifically, its co-founder Ruth Zukerman. Widely credited as the pioneer of New York’s indoor cycling scene (she opened the first dedicated studio here in 2006), Zukerman is more than mere cardio enthusiast: The Mount Holyoke grad has studied anatomy and exercise physiology extensively, and that education, plus her background as a dancer, figured largely in the creation of her cult fitness destination. Devotees of the studio’s intense hour-long classes appreciate the carefully curated soundtracks (courtesy of an in-house DJ), the personal tech packs on each bike (the better to record your metrics like speed, power, distance, and calories burnt with), and of course, the body sculpting results. It’s perhaps unsurprising that Zukerman herself, now in her fifties and looking more fit than ever, is the best advertisement of this. Here, Flywheel’s driving force shares her own beautifying go-tos, with some healthy food mainstays thrown in for good measure.
The Body-Conscious Masseuse: Jacob at the Standard Spa
“Jacob at the Standard Spa in Miami is a wonderful massage therapist. I always look for someone who really knows the body, and he is a wealth of knowledge. He knows how much pressure I need and has been known to literally stand on my calves and hamstrings. With all of the indoor cycling that I do I need this kind of treatment. After I leave him I feel as if I’m floating.”
For more information, visit www.standardhotels.com.
The Hair Team: Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon
“I have been seeing River Lloyd, currently at John Frieda, for 20 years! I admire his impeccable taste and skills with scissors. He knows me well and always knows what to do, and I trust his instincts. I put my hair completely in his hands. And Sharon Dorram is my hair color guru. While she’s big on blondes, she knows just the right brunette shade for me—always a rich and radiant color.”
For more information, visit www.johnfrieda.com.
The Solo Getaway: Miraval
“When I want a spa vacation, I prefer to go alone for the ultimate in peace and quiet. My favorite would be the Miraval spa in Catalina, Arizona. Surrounded by the Santa Catalina Mountains, it is absolutely beautiful. I practice yoga in a room facing these mountains and feel, and appreciate, the distance from New York City. The facial and massage treatments are all given by very experienced therapists and aestheticians, and I always leave feeling relaxed, buffed, and ready to get back to work!”
For more information, visit www.miravalresorts.com.
A Scent For Serge
It’s rare for a hairdresser to reach the point in his or her career when launching an eponymous product line is a possibility—and even rarer still for said hairdresser to transition into fragrance from shampoos and conditioners. But Serge Normant isn’t just any hairdresser. “It felt a little ambitious,” Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts’ mane man said of Avah, his debut eau de parfum for hair and body. “But I thought, designers do it; why can’t I?” Working off the fragrance in his signature line of cleansers and styling aids, Normant says that Avah—which has a base of musks tinged with ylang-ylang, jasmine, and amber—is meant to be transformative, “something that makes you travel even just for a second.” It helps boost hair health, too; while Normant admits that the scent was not created specifically for hair, he insisted that ingredients like vitamin E and jojoba oil get added to the trace amount of alcohol in the formula to make sure that the juice wasn’t drying or damaging to sensitive strands. But best not to spray it directly onto lengths. “I always liked the old trick of spraying it then walking through it,” Normant advises—which is way more fun anyway.
Serge Normant Avah Eau de Parfum, $60, available June 1 at www.sergenormant.com.
OpenSky Bets On Beauty
When OpenSky launched last year, its mission statement was simple: provide a new kind of online shopping experience that is curated by consumers and based around the weekly-updated picks of experts in the arenas of food, style, healthy living, kids, and home. So, rather then spend hours clicking through the Web pages of Williams-Sonoma for a good food processor, you could just take Iron Chef Bobby Flay’s word for it. Need to navigate your way around Ikat scarves? Model Veronica Webb has you covered. Until this month, however, the site’s 1.5 million members have gone without beauty experts to steer them in the right direction as far as the latest in organic skincare, haircare, and fragrances are concerned. But that will all change tomorrow, when OpenSky’s handpicked batch of beauty ambassadors take to the Web via video and informative vignettes to enlighten you in the way of proper primping.
“Everyone’s always making lists [of products] around me, then forgetting the lists, then asking me again,” jokes celebrity makeup artist Pati Dubroff, who points out that her new role offers a venue to help inform interested parties of the best cosmetics of the season—and show them how to apply them as well (her first round of weekly picks will include By Terry Rouge Terrybly Lipstick as well as the brand’s Touch-Expert Advanced Concealer). New York-based dermatologist Dr. Neil Schultz couldn’t agree more. The good doctor of DermTV fame is using his weekly platform to educate consumers about two extremely important antiaging tips: sunscreen and exfoliation. Other pros whose picks will be available for the perusing in addition to the site’s own recommendations include renowned perfume writer and former New York Times fragrance critic Chandler Burr—who will reveal a secret scent once a month after dropping periodic hints about its composition—backstage regular Orlando Pita, whose initial round of favorites includes the classic Mason Pearson brush as well as Leonor Greyl’s Styling Spray, and Serge Normant, who won’t only be hawking his favorite styling aids on OpenSky but debuting a few of his own as well. This week will see the exclusive launch of Normant’s new Avah Eau de Parfum hair fragrance, the first time you will see it online or in-store anywhere. If that’s not a reason to join up, we don’t know what is.
Backstage At L’Wren, Starring Theda Bara
When we arrived backstage at L’Wren Scott this morning, there was a large black-and-white picture of Theda Bara taped up to the wall. “She was one of the first sex symbols,” Lancôme artistic director Aaron De Mey said of the silen- film star. “She’s the person the word ‘vamp’ was coined for—and the woman Scott assigned the title of beauty muse for her Fall show. Working off a sepia image of Bara that boasted a blue tone, De Mey chose to build the screen legend’s classic, round eyes with midnight blue instead of black shadow. “We’re using it as a neutral,” he said of the steely shade of Lancôme’s Le Stylo Waterproof Long Lasting Eye Liner in Minuit, which he drew close to the lash line and up through the crease and then dusted with its Color Design Sensational Effects Eye Shadow in Garment, an equally deep navy, around the edges. To give it a “lived-in” feel, De Mey dotted a clear gloss on the center of the lid. “It’s really all about the eye,” he concluded, beefing up brunettes’ brows with Lancôme’s Le Crayon Poudre in Sable and bleaching blonde models’ arches accordingly.
“It’s one of L’Wren’s favorite colors,” De Mey continued of the prominent blue-black eye pigment—which manicurist Yuna Park capitalized on as well. “It’s custom-made for her show,” Park said of the almost-black, navy polish that was inspired by one of the dresses in Scott’s collection and painted onto both fingers and toes. (Park also hinted that the designer might produce the lacquer if there’s “enough of a demand”).
To finish off the gothic tribute to the twenties, hairstylist Serge Normant created side parts that he treated with a hefty dose of his Meta Lush Volumizer and Meta Luxe Hairspray before back-combing, ironing in a soft Marcel wave and pinning the lengths underneath themselves. Fall’s faux bob strikes again.