Face value Winnipeg esthetician Tina Cable knows sometimes beauty can be skin-deep By: Erin Lebar Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020

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This article was published 07/01/2020 (1883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is nothing quite like the rush of seeing an email from Tina Cable of Myuz Artistry with the subject line “cancellation.”

As one of Winnipeg’s most in-demand skin-care gurus, Cable can be a hard lady to get some face time with. Any available appointments with her for facials, skin consults or facial sculpting are booked almost immediately after she opens her schedule.

And those cancellation emails? You’d better hope you just happened to be checking your inbox when the note arrived, because those spots disappear quickly, too.

Those lucky enough to get in to see Cable know what the hype is about. When it comes to skin care, she has a wealth of information about a volume of products so enormous it can be overwhelming at best and crippling at worst.

She’s also a straight-shooter who wants her customers to get the most out of their time with her, addressing specific concerns and recommending specific products to correct or combat them.

There is no pressure to buy the high-quality (and sometimes quite pricey) products she keeps in stock — most notably, Winnipeg’s only stash of the Biologique Recherche line from France, a favourite among A-listers such as the Kardashians — but those who do rave about their efficacy, posting to and about Myuz on Instagram and thanking Cable for “fixing” their skin.

The increase in demand during the last year (which spiked when she opened her online product store in mid-2019) meant Cable, 34, needed to enlist the help of two other estheticians and two receptionists, all of whom will join her in a brand-new space, Myuz, at 1444 Corydon Ave., only steps away from her previous home base at Blush + Blonde, the salon where her business has operated since September 2018.

Cable, who is also a makeup artist, has been in the esthetics game for around a decade. After completing a degree in biology, she knew the office life wasn’t for her, so she went back to school to embrace her other interests of makeup artistry and skin care.

“I never really wore makeup in high school, but I understood the idea of it, and I knew I never wanted to be that person who had a different skin foundation compared to their neck and had that obvious line,” says Cable with a laugh.

She spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos to learn how to avoid those pitfalls, as well as researching why certain makeup artists use certain products.

“There’s always a product that people are drawn to, and for me it’s asking, ‘Why do you use that?’” she says.

Cable founded Myuz five years ago, at first working out of her house in order to be at home with the first of her three children before setting up in a single room in Blush + Blonde. Word of mouth quickly added clients to Cable’s roster, and her thorough Instagram presence — her page is filled with free information about specific products, routines and makeup tips — helped make her accessible to a wider audience.

“I do provide a lot of free information on my Instagram, but you have to take the time and energy,” Cable says. “You can learn a lot — you don’t really need to see me in person, you could just follow my Instagram and understand what I think is important for skin.”

While skin care has always been big business, in 2019, the global skin-care market brought in US$141 billion, a number that is US$40 billion more than it was just five years ago, and one that is expected to increase by another US$40 billion in the next five years.

The confluence of the rise of Instagram influencers, self-care culture and a general (and impossible) quest for physical perfection has created a perfect storm for the skin-care industry — a Venn diagram of trends in which it falls directly in the middle.

Cable agrees the boom in the popularity of skin care is tied to the increased use of social media as advertisement, with fresh-faced influencers around the world hawking products to their followers, but she adds it’s important for the average consumer to discern for themselves what is a practical purchase versus a trendy product that may not be the best for their skin.

“You have to understand your skin, so I would recommend getting guidance from a professional and then from there we can help you out,” she says. “I wouldn’t suggest going somewhere and figuring it out yourself; it’s really hard.

“Even when people see me for recommendations, I ask ‘What do you want it to do for you?’ So I’m asking you that question and I’m making you realize, what do you actually need? So at the end of the day you’re choosing the product, not me,” Cable says, adding that Instagram has fuelled the “gotta have it” popularity of certain products.

“Someone showed up to Blush + Blonde wanting to purchase (Biologique Recherche’s) Masque Vivant and I asked why she wanted it, and she said ‘Because everyone has it.’ You shouldn’t buy it because everyone has it, you should buy it because you need it, and by the look of her skin, she didn’t need it…

“I don’t make people purchase products because it’s trendy. That’s not how it works. (Masque Vivant) is good for everyone, anyway, but is she going to love it the same way that person who needs it will?”

For Cable, there’s no such thing as too many skin-care products, as long as you know what they’re for and how to use them. If you know what to use when your skin looks dull or what product will focus on fine lines and wrinkles, you can address the changing needs of your skin.

“So I do recommend having a good amount of products if it’s within your budget. That way you can adjust your routine to what your skin needs. Every day you have a different skin type — you’re not going to wake up with the same skin,” she says.

For those who aren’t into collecting a cabinet’s worth of products for every skin-care occasion, Cable suggests starting with a good cleanser, toner and moisturizer, in addition to the age-old advice of wearing sunscreen every day and drinking lots of water.

Also, stop over-exfoliating your skin.

“People love that super-clean feeling, and your skin should never feel clean, because now you’ve stripped your skin,” Cable says.

“A lot of people tend to over exfoliate because it feels smoother, but there is a point where you are going to strip your skin and there will be more irritation and more pimples.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel