AUGUST AMPULE SPECIAL

GLOWING SUMMER SKIN

One of the best ways to combat summertime skin damage is with our intensive serum ampules. Individually packaged in glass and sealed for maximum purity, these lightly textured serums are loaded with hyaluronic acid, antioxidants and peptides that hydrate and revive the skin. I developed these ampules with a renowned European cosmetic chemist who I’ve worked with for over 20 years. Now you can treat your skin like a pro at home.

**AUGUST AMPULE SPECIAL**

Book a facial treatment in the month of August and receive two complimentary ampules, a $15 value. You’re now on your way to healthy skin.

 

Sneak a Peek Inside the New Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty Studio in Portland, Maine

The brand new Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty studio is now open at 15 Middle Street in Portland.

We’re located between Micucci’s Italian grocery and Shipyard Brewing at the base of Munjoy Hill.

We have a well deserved reputation for the best eyebrow shaping and finest skincare in New England. We have a beautiful retail area featuring our signature line of eyebrow, eyelash and skincare products as well as a carefully curated collection of the best beauty products from around the world.

For more information, to book appointments or to shop online CLICK HERE. Better still, stop in and say hello.

Classic Beauty is back. It’s quiet. Like before. (TM)

So You’ve Decided To Grow Out Your Eyebrows and the Struggle is Real

Thick, luscious brows are all the rage and you’re eager to join the party. But you’re desperate and confused. And the road to brow nirvana looks longer and rougher than the Appalachian Trail.

You flip through Instagram and it fills you with envy and rage at the endless parade of YouTube stars and beauty gurus showcasing their #browsonfleek.

Sinead Cady, “The Makeup Chair” beauty vlog.

You’re full of self-loathing for over-tweezing. Maybe you grew up when thinner brows were in fashion and you pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck, plucked. Now you’re angst ridden: will my crummy, scraggly brows ever grow in?

You spend hours in the mirror coaxing what hairs you have into shape. But all you conjure is disillusion. Your spare patches taunt you. You have nightmares about running out of brow pencil or sweating, your brows melting and running down the sides of your face.

Hopeless and despairing, you scour the internet for folk remedies. You binge on Netflix with all manner of bizarre gunk smeared onto your brows: fenugreek, milk, egg yolk, castor oil. You spend money you don’t have on miracle cures that don’t work and you want to slap yourself for being a chump.

And still your brows mock you. When they grow it’s in uneven bunches and wild outliers. Your tweezers call to your hand like sirens to a passing ship. You yank out a hair. And then another. And another. You’ve fallen off the wagon and a gloom descends: you will always hate your eyebrows.

Don’t despair.  We can rescue your brows.

Am I speaking to you? I know your struggle. It is real and you are not alone. Not a day goes by that I don’t counsel women through brow identity crises. At Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty we help women every day to reclaim their birthright to bold, bushy brows and we can help you, too.

The first thing you have to do is nothing. PUT THE TWEEZERS DOWN. You have to let your brows grow. For how long? Anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks.

Next thing you need to do is go pro. You need a brow expert to get your brows on track. A talented brow professional will zero in on the shape you’re going for at the end of the rainbow. By identifying the right shape you’ll know which hairs you can confidently tweeze away. We know you’re freaking out about looking freaky while your brows are blooming. A good pro can help you to look more like Dorothy and less like the Wicked Witch as you follow the Yellow Brick Road to bigger, better brows.

Most of my clients who decide to grow out their eyebrows are surprised to discover how many thin, velous hairs they have nesting in and around their brows. They’re even more surprised by how much natural depth and definition I can create using a skillful combination of tint, pencils, powders and gels.

When you reach for a pencil avoid any with a waxy texture. These are difficult to feather and tend to create solid, harsher lines that make your brows look drawn on and over saturated. Opt instead for pencils with a powder finish.

Use a brow stencil and you’re courting disaster.

Stay away from stencils, too, especially the ones that square off the inner edge (a major faux pas). Next to over-tweezing more eyebrow hari-kari is committed with stencils than any other product. Your brows are one of a kind and stencils impose a cookie-cutter approach that ignores their individuality and nuance. Stenciled brows have an unnatural symmetry that is out of balance and awkward. And that’s if you don’t screw up and botch the job altogether.

There are products that can help you to grow thicker, healthier brows and lashes. Most of them aren’t backed by especially reliable science. Make sure the product you buy is supported by clinical results and approved by opthalmologists as there is a lot of snake oil on the market.

The best known product in the category is Latisse and it definitely works. Latisse was originally developed as a glaucoma drug. It’s lash growing properties were discovered as an accidental side effect.

But Latisse isn’t for everyone. It’s primary active ingredient is a growth hormone and this makes some consumers uneasy. Moreover, as a drug you can only buy Latisse with a doctor’s prescription, an appointment that adds a significant surcharge to its price. But most concerning is that, in certain cases, Latisse is known to cause discoloration of the patient’s iris. It can also leave dark spots or blotches on the eyelids.

Our Brow & Lash Conditioning Serum was designed as a safer, easier option. It is clinically proven to create longer, darker, thicker, stronger brows and lashes in about six weeks. It features a blend of actives (Black Sea Rod Oil, SymPeptide Xlash, Hyaluronic Acid) that is non-irritating and opthalmologist approved. You can buy it without a prescription and, at $110, it is also less expensive than Latisse.

So don’t despair. You’re not the first person to regret what you may have done to your eyebrows. But with patience, some expert guidance and a few good products your brows will recover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Magnificent Design of the Human Eyebrow

At Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty we take a restrained approach to shaping your eyebrows. The reasons go beyond aesthetics. It’s not just because fuller, more natural brows are more beautiful and youthful. It’s also to insure your brows can fulfill their primary physiological function: to redirect water, sweat, dust and debris away from your eyes.

Your brows are designed to keep stuff out of your eyes. (Image courtesy of WikiHow)

When you study eyebrows as I have for many, many years you come to appreciate the magnificent intelligence of their design. One of the first things you notice is the hairs tend to grow in different directions. Closer to the nose the hairs tend to grow upward. Moving towards the arch the hairs tend to flatten and point outward.

The reason for the multi-directional growth pattern of your eyebrow hairs is to most efficiently direct the flow of moisture to one of two channels that bypass your eyes. On the inside, where the hairs are more vertically oriented, the shortest route is down along your nose, which conveniently flares outward to direct runoff away from your mouth.

At the highest point of your brow the hairs are more horizontally oriented along a slightly downward grade. This hairy little conduit carries its watery freight along your supraorbital ridge until the last, slightly sloping hairs of your brow pour the contents down the outside of your cheek bones.

Hurray brows!

In more saturated conditions, the protrusion of your brow and brow bone perform like an awning, allowing water to filter through your brows and tumble down a safe distance beyond your precious peepers.

Next time you’re in front of the mirror take a closer look at your eyebrows. If you’re like me you’ll marvel at their magnificent design. Of course, if you find you’d like to spruce up their aesthetic appeal then by all means book an appointment and come see us. Rest assured the resulting form will follow its function.

Jessica Johnson is the founder of Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty. She is also the Guest Expert for Eyebrows at the Yves Durif Salon at the world famous Carlyle Hotel in New York City and at the renowned Erno Laszlo Institute in SoHo.

Put Some Glorious in Your Low Maintenance

I’m a bit of a glamour-puss. I like Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik high heels. I like Louis Vuitton handbags. When I had my kids my idea of natural child birth was not wearing mascara.

Christian Louboutin shoes. Be still my heart.

But not all Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty clients share my beauty sensibilities. Sure, we cater to a fair number of celebrities, news anchors and others in the public eye. But our clients come from all walks of life: artists, homemakers, teachers, lawyers, police officers, ad executives, social workers, farmers, doctors, dog walkers, shop owners, yoga instructors, store clerks, vets, writers and so on.

Our mission is to help women – all women – to look their best with a minimum of time, money and fuss. If there’s a common thread to our clientele it’s an appreciation that great eyebrows and great skin enable them to look their best without a lot of effort.

Or motto is Gloriously Low Maintenance (TM). We know women today are busier than ever. You’ve got things to do. Our goal is to make it easy for you to look great doing them.

If you aspire to a low maintenance beauty routine come see us. When your brows are spot on and your skin is fresh and radiant you’ll find you can race out the door on a moment’s notice without dreading a chance encounter with friends and colleagues.

Come see us. We’ll put some glorious in your low maintenance.

Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty. Portland, Maine. New York City.

Shave Time Off Your Beauty Routine with Perfect Brows and Great Skin

The Average American Woman Spends 14 Full Days Per Year on Personal Grooming. 

According to a recent study the average American woman spends 55 minutes per day getting herself put together. Over the course of a year that adds up to 14 full days!

Annual time spent on personal grooming by average American woman: 14 days.

The time we women invest in our appearance is a component of what is often called the beauty tax.

Part of our mission at Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty is to slash this tax for women. Our approach to eyebrows and skincare is designed to shorten your beauty routine by 20 minutes per day. Each year the typical woman can expect a tax refund of five days. That’s more than 120 hours you can devote to family and friends, staying healthy, or getting ahead at the office.

Women today are busier than ever. Most of us are juggling complicated lives that include work, family and other commitments that place enormous demands on our time and energy. If you’re anything like me and the majority of our clients, you want the ability to race out the door on short notice while still looking polished and put together. The last thing we need is a time consuming beauty and makeup routine that adds stress to the day-to-day management of our lives.

We help you look polished and put together with less time, money and fuss. In so doing, hopefully we render obsolete this kind of reckless disregard for safety.

At Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty we help women look fabulous with a minimum of time, money and fuss. It starts with perfect eyebrows. Great brows frame the face and establish order, symmetry and definition from which the inherent beauty of each woman can emanate.  When your brows are right everything else comes together with greater ease. I recommend seeing a brow shaping professional for at least your first shaping. You don’t cut your own hair. I don’t advise that you make your brows a do-it-yourself project.

Well framed. Christy Turlington for Vogue. August 1990

Your second area of focus should be your skin. Most time consuming makeup routines are born from the need to correct problem skin conditions. Great skin requires less makeup. Less makeup takes less time. Most skin problems will improve if you increase your intake of water, fruits and vegetables while decreasing your consumption of processed foods and sugar. Exfoliate regularly and be sure to use sun screen.

I’m tempted to recommend a regular facial but, frankly, too many facials today take too long, cost too much and deliver too little. Most women, and I include myself, don’t have one or two hours to lie down and get their faces rubbed. Our Flash Facial is designed for Yankee sensibilities: high powered results you can see and feel delivered in just 20 minutes for only $50. This is the kind of facial that cuts the beauty tax on your time and wallet.

I believe in low maintenance. I also believe in looking my best. If you want to cut the time you spend on your appearance from about an hour to something closer to 30 minutes begin by perfecting your eyebrows and improving your skin. Those two elements are the keys to achieving classic beauty and a low maintenance lifestyle.

Ready for your best brows and most radiant skin? Book your appointment now.

Jessica Johnson is the owner of Jessica Johnson Classic Beauty in Portland, Maine. She is also the Guest Brow Expert at the Erno Laszlo Institute in SoHo and the Yves Durif Salon at The Carlyle on the Upper East Side.