How to DIY Salon Services at Home

An unexpected benefit of being home all the time? We learn to be very self-sufficient, especially when it comes to maintaining our beauty.

Rewind three months ago, when our calendars were filled with appointments for various salon services: manicures, root touch-ups, eyebrow waxing. We’ve been looking forward to some girly time with our hairstylist and alone time in the pedicure chair – but after a few months of practice, we’re definitely becoming self-care pros!

If you’re horrified that roots are sabotaging your not-so-natural color, or if your nails haven’t seen the light of day in way too long, you’re in good company. We are here to share with you the beauty tips that we have tested on ourselves, to help you recreate salon services at home!

Manis + Pedis

At the end of March, we were yearning for our nail technicians. Manis and pedis are like an addiction – and we missed our monthly dose. Whether it’s typing all day or drying skin from constantly washing our hands, our hands and feet deserve a little more love. Here’s what you can do about it:

Removing salon gel polish from fingers or toes will take a little elbow grease. Use a nail file or buffing cube, soy-based nail polish remover, foil and cotton balls, and cuticle oil for nail bed rehabilitation .

1. Take your file and agitate the surface of your nail polish with quick strokes – do not rub back and forth as this may damage the nail bed.

2. Next, dip a cotton ball in polish remover. Quickly cover your nail with the damp cotton ball before wrapping it in foil.

3. Leave on for 5 to 15 minutes. Once the polish lifts and flakes off, it should be fairly easy to remove with an emery board.

4. If you have a cuticle pusher, it can be useful for scraping polish off the surface of your nail.

5. Soak your nails in a bowl of lukewarm water for 3 minutes, to soften the nails. Dry them with a clean towel.

6. File and trim your softened nails with sanitized nail clippers, then file the edges. Again, remember to move the file in one direction instead of back and forth – this can make it brittle.

7. Finish by rubbing a generous amount of cuticle oil into your nails and cuticles, and let dry before applying moisturizing hand lotion.

Want to replicate a full pedicure salon service? Soak your hands and feet in basins filled with warm water and bath salts. After 10 minutes, remove rough skin from palms, around cuticles, heels and soles with a therapeutic body scrub.

If you’re someone who loves nude nails, then you’re done – enjoy! But if you want to treat yourself to the full salon service experience, you’ll want to end up with nail color.

Most traditional polishes include super toxic ingredients – like formaldehyde – in the formula. Instead, we opt for layering our 10 (toxin-free) nail polishes to make it a true self-care treatment. Start with a fortifying base coat and finish with a high-gloss glass top coat.

Looking for the perfect shade? Lovers of neutrals and naturals will love Soul Mate vegan nail polish. We also recommend the universally flattering Golden-Bronze Hybrid Sugar; it is suitable for all styles, from the most trendy to the most daring.

DIY Spa Facials

A facial is a sacred experience – for those who have never had one, now is the time. Typically, these salon services can feature soothing music and mood lighting, so hit play on your favorite playlist and pull out your most soothing candle to prep your space.

1. Using a saucepan or kettle and a large heatproof bowl, boil some water and add it to your container once the water is hot.

2. Tie your hair back and remove all makeup and sunscreen. Mouse over the bowl to steam the skin, keeping 5-10 inches away from the water. You can drape a towel over the back of your head to concentrate the steam on your skin, which helps open pores and prepare the skin for nutrient absorption.

3. Then, gently exfoliate your skin with our Nourishing Matcha Milk Mask for 10-20 seconds. Nutrient-rich matcha meets hydrating coconut milk and soothing, exfoliating oatmeal for a trio that convinces us we’re at the spa. Once the water-activated mask has been massaged into the skin, allow it to sit for 20 minutes.

4. Finish with a deep moisturizer to deeply nourish the skin. For normal to dry skin, apply Green Tea Water Bomb Refreshing Hydrogel Mask, for an intense hydration treatment.

PRO TIP: A fluffy towel, a bathrobe or a pair of slippers makes the experience even more authentic.

Eyebrow care

Not only are we literally attached to our eyebrows, but we are also emotionally attached to how they look. Whether you prefer thick and fluffy or thin and sculpted, we can all easily maintain this salon service at home.

For shaping, you have to decide if you want to go for a new brow shape or just keep the existing shapes created by salon professionals. Rather than complicate things, we recommend the latter! We will link some useful tutorials about it here and herebut to get started you will need tweezers, small straight (grooming) scissors and an eyebrow brush.

1. Start by brushing the eyebrows and plucking out any new growth that looks out of place. Brush through eyebrow hairs and repeat this step, making sure you epilate in the direction of hair growth.

2. Brush through your locks again to style them as desired, then carefully take your scissors up and down and trim any overgrown hairs. It’s easy to be happy with scissors here, so cut less than you think is necessary. If you’re done and you see room for improvement, start over.

3. Finish with a few dabs of brow gel for a neat, tinted look that stays put. There you go, you didn’t expect eyebrow grooming to be so easy, did you?

Are you someone who usually tints your brows or microblades for a more intense color? If so, we have the perfect solution for you. Just walk down the men’s grooming aisle at your local drugstore and buy a box of beard or mustache dye. It sounds wild, but this little kit is multi-use, powerful yet temporary, and comes with a little brush that works great for our brow area.

You’ll only want to leave this stuff on for 5-8 minutes and be sure to outline your brow with wax lip liner or petroleum-free jelly to prevent color bleeding and to make it super easy to remove.

Hair maintenance

Who are we without a blowout? TBH, we don’t even know this girl. Thanks to lots of tutorials and great products, we never have to find out. This is how we cut and styled our hair at home!

Any stylist will tell you that great hair always starts with a clean scalp and healthy locks. So we’ve selected our healthiest shampoo and conditioner for the scalp to prepare for your home hair salon service. These formulas provide enriching Neem Oil for a balanced scalp and Pro-Vitamin B5 to strengthen strands. But before you have a-head of ourselves, maybe it’s time to cut.

On average, women will only get a cut 2-3 times a year – and that’s quite evident when we’re late. Rather than slaughtering the incredible work of our beloved stylists, we opt for a simple dry cut at the ends, for a neater look and healthier locks.

What is The most important here for use hair cutting scissors. Without them, we will end up with damaged and uneven hair, so they are absolutely essential!

1. Start with dry, smooth and completely detangled hair.

2. Part in the center, pull forward, squeeze your middle and index fingers around 1 inch sections (from nape to crown) and slide just before the ends, making sure the hair is taut.

3. Using your hair scissors, snip off dry, frizzy, split ends and dead ends. Use small, targeted shears. Cutting hair can be intimidating – and fear is our greatest enemy. We don’t when we’re not feeling confident, but since that extended time at home could be ideal for hair rehabilitation, we know that a little trimming will further increase the chances of repair.

Now that we’re ready for our blowout, we’re prepping with a serum that will protect against heat damage. In this case, it’s the Hair Smoothing Serum that’s literally like all of our favorite salon services in one product. This is done on damp hair, before applying heat.

1. Separate the hair into three sections with two parts; one at the back of the head, then another on top from ear to ear.

2. Starting with the bottom section, we will divide the hair into a left side and a right side. Create tension by wrapping hair in a round brush, alternating flipping hair up and down until hair is dry.

3. Repeat the scalp work; the top section hair should be blow-dried and swept back for maximum volume and shape.

The key to this DIY salon service is making sure the hair is completely dry, especially the roots! It gives us the sleekest, brightest, and longest-lasting style for isolation selfies that look as good as our throwback photos.