I've been asked this by many people with businesses.."Why blog?"..hmmm...
To me, it's many reasons. Ranging from..I like to talk, to, I want people to get to know us, to, It's another creative outlet for me, to, I simply like looking back and having a record of what we have done...I realize, so many things I would have forgotten, since there have been so many moments that I've been proud of, or wanted to remember..a blog is an external hard drive of the life of Bijou:)
I also LOVE to read blogs, it lets me hear a voice behind a business or person. I've been hearing about Gazella for quite some time now, and they were even super nice and offered if we wanted to add something to our newsletter. Something I love more than blogging is networking! Small businesses helping eachother..what I wouldn't have been able to do without the advice of friends who owned small businesses!
So I was browsing online..hmm, how did I find it..Oh yes, Facebook of course, the wicked stepmother of all social networking;) I was going through all the page favorites I have added on the Bijou facebook, (you should "like" us, if you don't yet:) since I don't really understand completely how FB works..(why don't I ever get other pages that I have listed as my "page favorites", what they post, that is a mystery, they should make something where you can click business feeds or something, if someone could please figure out how to contact Mark Zuckerberg, that would be super!) Okay, I digress, so sorry...So my point is, while I was browsing the Gazella page (you should "like" them), I discovered they had a BLOG! This is awesome! As I said, I've been hearing lots of great things about Gazella, we have lots of little Bijou friends that are taking dance classes up there, lots of friends who are taking Zumba classes and lot of friends taking spinning and yoga classes!
We will add them to our list of blogs we read to the right of the Bijou blog, so anytime you are reading ours, just browse them too..get to know them, her, and her..oh yes and I can't forget her...please help me, have I missed any? Oh yes, Sierra, our front desk girl who is away in Germany, we knew her hysterically funny side, now she has it on her blog! Are there some I don't know about? Because, really, I should know about them!
Remember to click on the highlighted words, they take you places..interesting places:) and don't worry, when you're done looking at them, just hit the back arrow button!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Gazella in Skaneateles has a blog now too!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Hello Ipad, welcome to Bijou
Small details are very important to me, things that I know most places never wanted to bother with, so I always ended up adding these small details myself when I could.
Having plenty of assorted teas, hot cocoa's, special coffee, special creamers, lemonade and iced tea in the summer, hot cider in the winter, mimosa's on Saturdays...tons of really great music (you can listen to the radio in the car, why would I play it in the salon)...embellishments on gift certificate envelopes, welcome cards, thank you cards, Christmas cards with gift coupons, Bijou bucks for referrals...I also love doing little things for the Bijou girls...buying them lunch or treats..just in general I like to make people feel appreciated and special! SO...
For our guests at Bijou and for the Bijou girls...We purchased an Ipad!! We hope to get a couple eventually. This will be great for when someone has to wait or process, a fussy kid (we have games and movies) but most importantly it is for your stylists to be able to take online courses through modern salon learning. I've signed us up for 6 months to take as many classes as we choose and they are rated very high in our industry.
This year we are all about the education, moving advertising dollars to education was our decision for 2011! Already on the docket, we've had 3 classes in salon. Sojourn, Bumble & bumble and a Eufora experience day. There are 7 of us attending a double class in Syracuse for Prom/Wedding style's and a cutting class in the afternoon, both hands on class. Then Courtney and I will be attending a very special 4 day foundations class done by Eufora, all taught by Sassoon trained educators. Then Christina and Taylor will be attending a long hair styling class by Eufora. Two girls will also attend a Sojourn class that will teach them tons. And Jennifer and I will head to Bumble and Bumble university for a business immersion course, then Christina and I will head there in August for a network educator course for 3 days!
All this is exciting and as in the Disney movie, Meet the Robinson's,..our motto has and always will be at Bijou, to keep moving forward!
Thanks!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wearing Red for women, heart healthy women!
Today the 4th of February was heart healthy day for women. You might remember just the other day I mentioned this. Well here we are, all the girls that worked today, of course being such great girls, they all happily wore red! I'm blessed to have such great girls, who never ever balk at what I throw at them! They are always happy to jump in and do whatever I want them to! (This year when we were discussing the polar bear plunge...I joked that if we put a few of these girls in polka dotted blue and brown bikini's, I was sure we could raise a small fortune...THEY JUMPED at the idea..so 3 of them next year will be taking a plunge and the rest of us will be raising that small fortune..I only have to supply the bikini's!)
We also had the start of the middle school play, Oklahoma!! Those middle schooler's are so talented, tonight Taylor and Christina helped me out, we curled SO many heads! Then we watched the play together, both Taylor and Christina were amazed at how great it was! There is a show tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 and another tomorrow evening at 7:30. I always recommend the shows at the high school here, because I'm telling you, you will be astounded at the talent these kids have!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A baremineral makover on Miss Taylor Ely
Now here below, her after picture...still looks fresh, doesn't even look like she has tons of make up on. Bareminerals is the most natural looking make up, it just can't be beat!
Her skin looks flawless, any teeny tiny imperfections she had, are gone.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Bridal hair, how-to, done by Courtney
As you can see, this bride has super curly hair..for her trial, we straightened it..(you won't believe the difference, her mother was shocked!)
Yep, it's the same hair..the color difference is actually because the flash hit up above in the curly shots, but also because light is able to reflect through the curly strands so much more..so it appears to be a bit of a warmer color.
And here is the finished product! The bride to be was very happy, we stored a picture in her profile on our computer system, so on her big day we will be all prepared!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Wear red on February 4th!
Friday, February 4, 2011, is National Wear Red Day—a day when Americans nationwide will take women's health to heart by wearing red to show their support for women's heart disease awareness. Join The Heart Truth on National Wear Red Day to help spread the critical message that, "Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear—It's the #1 Killer of Women." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone can participate in the national movement by wearing their favorite red dress, shirt, tie, or Red Dress Pin on Friday, February 4, 2011. The Heart Truth launched the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wakeup call to American women. For more information on how to get involved, visit the National Wear Red Day toolkit which provides useful information and resources that you can use to help celebrate National Wear Red Day in your community.
Here is an email I received from one of our clients who thought about us, since they know we are big supporters of worthy causes.
*She then dropped off this lovely little bag with personalized note, we felt like we had gotten early Valentine present's!*
The clients at Bijou really are very special wonderful people!
Not only will we be wearing our pins on February 4th and dressing in RED, we will also donate 10% of that whole day's services and retail to whichever organization Kathy Palmieri likes the best! (in honor of her, 42..Wow, I'm 38, so scary!)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Photo shoot at Bijou
We love working with photographers...I think professional photos make all the difference in the world for websites, press material, etc. I have also heard from our professional photographers that our services, (makeup and style) makes all the difference in their world for senior portraits and weddings! (LOVED hearing that!) Don't worry, we'll be having a senior style and make-up special when that time comes around!!
We have a few favorite Photographers that we are partial to at Bijou. (we've met many wonderful photographers, these are the ones we know extra special good:) Click on their names to check out their work. They always impress us and have us dreaming to be inside of their camera's! Both of them do the most amazing children photographs too! The last guy on my list is the great Jim Scherzi (he photographs food, architectural stuff and more food..all the Wegman's frozen food..his studio is cool!), he helped me win the 2010 salon of the year - salon of distinction. He did me a huge favor and for that I'm grateful..didn't even know the guy before he did it:)
Carol DiSalvo
Laure Lillie
Jim Scherzi
We'll be taking another group photo at our next team meeting in February, in this picture some girls are missing and one girl no longer works with us at Bijou (Michele). We are missing Summer, Sommayeh, Amanda and our new girl coming in a few weeks Andrea. That is going to be a lot of girls:)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The process of growing one's hair out..
So growing the hair out, can be a difficult process, (not for the faint hearted) especially if you really love, I mean LOVE short textured hair! But when you are a Mother, you sometimes listen to your kids..especially a very sweet son, who loves his Mom's hair longer. My client and I have been growing and cutting over at least..a decade..could it be longer..well wow, it must be, because my youngest son's name I heard from her, and he is 11..I do believe my gal here is one of my first clients, oh we go way back!
So once before, she achieved a long layered type bob, but that required her giving me up for at least a year..yep I had not seen her for over a year..wondered where she disappeared to, couldn't wait to see what fabulous style she was sporting and what someone else came up with to do her hair..and when she came in..I was confused..was this the same person..;)..I think she must have not looked into the mirror for an entire year.
I love her hair, period! It's great fine hair..fine hair is coercible, you have the possibility to make it do what YOU want! I love it, taking the razor to her hair is just like dancing in the rain..it's fun! After the long bob'ish hairstyle, she chopped it all off..now that was crazy fun!
She has kept it short for quite some time, then recently, maybe around Thanksgiving or Halloween, was saying..."achhh, maybe I'll try growing it again!"...(didn't sound too convincing to me, but I was game;) We decided to try another tactic...rather than growing it out all over, we would keep cutting the bottom, letting the top and sides catch up, then growing it. It's worked in the past, it's really the best way to grow out hair..sans mullet is always a great plan!
"BUT it's tooo much hair!!" she says...I knew it ;) Tonight, we razored, texturized, knotched and fringed the whole head of long'ish hair (long'ish for her;) AND here is the result!! Tell me this is not a fabulous cut and you all dream of having it! I know I do!!
So please enjoy the fabulous hair photo's below, takes 5 minutes to dry, looks different every time..SO much character, I love it! We applied some Bumble and bumble Bb.gel (click on that, it takes you to a FUN place with a cool video!) We blowdryed with the fingers, stretching, tugging and pulling the hair into place and we finished with some SUMOTECH! (click and learn, friends!) VOILA! Great hair that is easy to do!
Fabulous genes provided by E's Mother and Father!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Our second Bijou Baby....
Welcome Baby Jett, aren't you handsome! Us Bijou girls got you a bib that looks like a lot of stuff at the salon, yes you know all our voices!
Such a big boy and such a nice large yawn!
With cheeks that just scream.."pinch me".
For Sarah's clients, Mama, Papa, brother and baby are doing just fine! Everyone is healthy and happy, I'm sure as soon as the weather breaks, you'll see Sarah walking around town with the baby buggy, hopefully making pit stops at Bijou for some oohs and aaahs!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Bijou's first Baby is born...
Of course, I had dibs...My oh my, I really wanted to hold that baby girl!
Crouse Hospital had a lovely hallway to walk through...it was entering in to baby land..I'll take a pink one!
Our girl Taylor was a little nervous, can you believe that she has never held a real newborn!?
But look, she did just fine!
Welcome Juliana Grace, you are as beautiful as your little sister and Mama!
For Sam's clients, she is doing very well, everything went fine and she is on the road to recovery to get back to Bijou!
Watch out, because the babies inside the bellies at Bijou were conspiring to be born one day after eachother, playmates for life! Tomorrow we'll see pictures of Baby boy Jett. But tonight, it's Juliana's time to shine!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Gold stars!
While I was doing some marketing research online...aka searching for whatever is Bijou in Skaneateles. Always good to keep up on that:) I found the cutest wedding site that had some lovely reviews about us, I can't believe I never saw them and really I wish someone would come up with a system on alerting businesses of reviews. Normally a client will write me after a visit and tell me, "I loved you guys so much, I went _____ to review you!" Then I can find it, but these were like finding cookies in the back of the cupboard! SCORE!
Reviews to us are like gold stars on the charts at school. We all love them and are extremely grateful for them! At the bottom of this post, I will leave some links to sites that you can leave us a review, while we do our fair share of advertising, your recommendation is the best thing you can do for us! Plus it gives us lots of steam to continue what we are doing! (feel free to click on any one of the sites and follow the simple instructions and leave a review for us:)
If you know of anyone getting married, this is a great site! Check them out! And take a look at our stellar reviews!
Leave a review for us HERE, HERE, HERE or HERE
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Living social hits Syracuse
Living social..what is it? Deals deals everywhere!
Read more about it here and then join to learn about deals of the day!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...
We've become a member of the Bumble and Bumble family!
After much consideration, a lengthy list of Pros and Cons..and a deal from Bb that we could not refuse..(Thank you Sean Muse - Director of Business Development for Bb) We have our brand new catchy looking Bb shelves stocked, we are setting our date for the launch party and are choosing carefully which stylists will be attending the BbUniversity along with me! This ride will be an exciting one! Joining the culture of Bb will be very rewarding indeed!
Our #1 priority in 2011 is education, education, education! At Bijou we have so many opportunities this year, (Eufora foundations 3 day journey, Sojourn with the best of Sassoon educators, Kim Vo's team) simply with the best of the best. The opportunities are the "pinch me" type! In all honesty this whole journey has been a "pinch me" journey!
Thank you for helping us get where we are today, these opportunities would not be as easy to get had it not been for loyal clients enabling us to grow into the salon we have grown into! Your recommendations and faith in us, coupled with your feedback to help us change what is not working, will make it easy for us to get better and better! Just for you:)
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Bijou to the rescue and Merry Christmas too!
I have loved blogs for..oh about 7 years! I've had one of my own for about 4 years..and then my business blog for 2+ years. AND I read plenty, and share with my friends who have never heard about blogs, all the ones I adore!
I've pretty much lost time to read many blogs, usually I catch up quickly about once a month, trying to touch base with my old time favorites. Lately, I read 3 religiously..My "soul sister", my "royal friends" and my "new friend" (that I actually have not spent much time with, but feel like I know her and her daughters oh so well...that's a blog for you, they're amazing:)
It's exciting to be written about in another persons blog, it gives you a funny feeling, something you look at everyday, read each story and then..wait...that's me in that story! Blogs are stories, whatever kind of stories, everyone should have one:)
Cindy's daughter had a little hair emergency, so she blogged about it:) I told her, yippee skippee, I can use your blog post on my, saves me for doing one...(it's my new years resolution for 2011..blog 2x per week, and drink more water, should be simple enough:)
Please click here to read her story and really browse around, you'll fall in love with her writing just as I have:) But if she has open slots for extended family, I get dibs first!
OH yes, and Merry Christmas to you all and to all a goodnight!
Friday, December 17, 2010
What Aveda says about Sulfates!!
Sulfates are a group of ingredients used in shampoos that create lather and help to lift dirt and oil away from hair and scalp. The most commonly used sulfate is Sodium Laureth Sulfate, which has a long history of safe use. It is an effective and mild foaming agent that imparts softness to the hair.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate are ingredients primarily used in cosmetic "rinse off" products. For several years, a rumor has been circulated on the Internet stating that these ingredients are unsafe. This story relayed via the Internet is false and unsubstantiated, and is typical of Internet rumors which spread inaccurate information.
There is no evidence of health risk from either of these ingredients as used in cosmetic products. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not found them to be harmful when used for the purpose and at the strength intended. Both ingredients were reviewed by the Cosmetics Ingredient Review Expert Panel (CIR), an independent group of world-renowned physicians and scientists. The CIR also determined that both ingredients are safe.
We do not use SLS or SLES in our shampoos. We do use ammonium lauryl sulfate, coco-babassu sulfate and many other surfactants derived from babassu, palm and coconut. We like to blend our plant-based ingredients to meet the needs of the specific hair type for which we are formulating.
What is the difference in Sulfates? These are all foaming ingredients used for cleansing and so have similar functions and names. The difference is what is used to make these foaming ingredients. The starting materials can be from petroleum, from animal by-products or from plant sources. When the foaming ingredient appears on the label of a product, there is no way to know which starting materials were used. Aveda always uses plant (coconut, babassu or palm) for these foaming ingredients where other companies will use petroleum or animal by-products, but the foaming ingredient name will be the same.
Aveda formulas are specially designed to deliver conditioning properties without drying out the hair.
In May of 2008 a wash fade analysis for color treated hair comparison study was done on Aveda shampoo, conditioner and treatment regimens. The purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which Aveda shampoo and conditioner regimen or Aveda shampoo and treatment regimen caused colored hair to fade. Hair swatches were washed repeatedly and then evaluated instrumentally to measure both color fading and shift.
The results were all of the products tested either faded less or equally to water alone. There was no ‘stripping’ observed.
Aveda has created exclusive technology with organic Coco/Babassu Sulfate and organic Babassu Betains sulfate-free options. All of these options feature a combination of plant-based protecting extracts, beautifully aromatic, functional essential oils, and plant based conditioning agents. This combined with specific ingredients for a particular hair need protects and will not strip the hair.
Sulfates don’t strip hair, bad shampoos do.
Using Aveda’s exclusive Babassu Betaine technology, Aveda has offered sulfate-free shampoos since 1996. Why should some shampoos contain sulfates and some do not? There are different foaming characteristics. Sulfate based foam will have large, ‘lacy’ bubbles. Non-sulfate based foam with create a denser, richer foam. They provide a different feel on the hair and offer different rinsing and spreading characteristics. Although they are different, one is not better than the other.
Aveda currently offers 4 sulfate-free shampoos.
• Scalp Benefits Balancing Shampoo
• Damage Remedy Restructuring Shampoo
• Dry Remedy Moisturizing Shampoo
• Men’s Pureformance Shampoo
Aveda currently offers 9 sulfate-free skin cleansing products.
• Caribbean Therapy Body Wash
• Green Science Perfecting Cleanser
• Enbrightenment Cleanser
• Outer Peace Foaming Cleanser
• Personal Blends Smoothing Body Formula
• Pure Comfort Eye Makeup Remover
• Botanical Kinetics Purifying Crème Cleanser
• Botanical Kinetics Purifying Gel Cleanser
• Smoothing Body Polish
