Australia Bans Animal Testing

Animals were shown a lot of love this Valentine’s Day when the Australian Senate passed the Government's Industrial Chemicals Bills 2017, which included a provision to ban animal testing on chemicals used as ingredients in cosmetics. This means that Australia has finally joined the EU and the UK in effectively banning cosmetic animal testing in Australia.

While it’s widely accepted that Australia’s cosmetic industry doesn’t conduct animal testing, under these new measures the industry regulator won’t allow companies to use data gleaned from any animal testing conducted on or after July 1st 2020 when introducing a new chemical or ingredient to their products.

For too long the beauty industry has relied on outdated and questionable animal testing methods that have well-known scientific limitations. This is because different species can respond differently from each other (and importantly, differently from humans) when exposed to the same chemicals. This means that results from animal tests may not be relevant to humans because they under- or over-estimate a certain ingredient’s hazard to humans.

Animals subjected to cosmetic testing include rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, and rats. Testing methods include chemicals being rubbed onto shaved skin or dripped into eyes, repeated oral force-feeding studies lasting weeks or months to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards (such as cancer or birth defects), and even widely condemned “lethal dose” tests in which animals are forced to swallow massive amounts of a test chemical to determine the dose that causes death. These tests cause considerable pain and distress including blindness, swollen eyes, burns, internal bleeding, organ damage, birth defects, convulsions and death. Pain relief is not provided to these animals and at the end of a test the animals are killed, typically by asphyxiation, neck-breaking or decapitation.

“The ban has been designed so there will be no incentive to conduct animal tests to meet the information requirements for introduction of chemicals used solely in cosmetics in Australia,” said Brian Quinlan from the Department of Health. The future of product testing lies in non-animal testing that focuses on how chemicals and drugs affect humans (rather than animals) and this new law will only permit safety data from testing on industrial chemicals that are for sole use in cosmetics if that testing is not performed on animals.

This ban is a huge win for the animals and an important step towards banning animal testing in all industries, worldwide. Here at Professional Beauty Solutions we’re proud to be a cruelty free company whose brands have never tested on animals and are not sold in countries where animal testing is compulsory. We’re excited to be a part of the growing cruelty free movement and look forward to watching animal testing become a thing of the past!

Dermalux LED WINS ‘Best Manufacturer in the UK’ at the 2018 Aesthetic Awards.

We are delighted to announce that Dermalux has won ‘Best Manufacturer in the UK’ at the prestigious 2018 Aesthetics Awards. This exciting win continues a six-year winning streak at the London-based awards where Dermalux won ‘Best New Treatment 2013’, and ‘Treatment of the Year’ in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Recognition for excellence in medical aesthetics is so important and the Aesthetics Awards acknowledges and rewards practitioners, companies and organisations that endorse best practice, deliver outstanding customer service, demonstrate unprecedented skill and who uphold robust ethics in the field of aesthetic medicine.

More than 800 guests gathered at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London on Saturday 1st December 2018, to celebrate the incredible achievements of brands, clinics, practitioners, treatments and distributors in 26 categories across the entire industry.

Dermalux beat out other commendable finalists, including Lynton Lasers and Sterimedix Aesthetics to claim the incredible ‘Best Manufacturer in the UK’ title.

This award recognises the manufacturers who offer an up-to-date range of equipment and product development, as well as demonstrating excellent customer service and ongoing support for practitioners using their products.

According to the entry, Dermalux’s approach allows the team to control component quality and push boundaries in terms of technology and reliability, resulting in the production of high-quality products that are sold all over the world. One voter said the brand delivered, “excellent customer service”, while another said “innovation and stringent quality system that provides industry-leading product performance, backed by medical device quality safety and reliability.”

Louise Taylor, director of Dermalux, commented on the win saying, “This is a fantastic achievement for us. The Aesthetics Awards recognises those who follow best practice and excellence and this award demonstrates our continued commitment to the quality and efficacy of our technology to ensure it is results driven, industry leading and safe. We would just like to thank all of our clients and partners across the world for their continued support!”

For more information, call 1800 625 387 or visit click here.

It feels good to give!

It’s been a huge 2018 here at PBS and we’re proud of the many achievements of our team and our salons! But we also believe that there’s more to business success than numbers on a page and for this reason our proudest achievement this year is our continued sponsorship commitment to our “Little Sisters” in Cambodia.

As you may already know, PBS sponsors five young Cambodian girls through the Bestow Sisterhood and the Cambodia Charitable Trust, helping them to stay in school and protecting them against the very real dangers of human trafficking and sex slavery.

In a country with no welfare system and no community groups offering any form of support, this kind of direct sponsorship is often the only support available to a young girl and her family.

Besides helping her to attend school, sponsorship also enables her family to use the money for food, additional school lessons, medical costs or to help their other children.

Education breaks the poverty cycle and gives children choices and here at PBS we’re so glad to be able to give five young girls the opportunity to realise their potential and strive for a better life for themselves.

So why not make 2019 the year that you and your salon get involved and start giving back? The impact of these charitable contributions is immediate and profound and the following options are a wonderful way to incorporate philanthropy into your business model.

Sponsor a girl

For just $40 per month you can sponsor a young Cambodian girl – providing her with a school uniform, essential school stationery, access to health programs and a monthly contribution to her family’s living costs, helping to lift them out of poverty.

Stock Bestow’s Generositea

Salons can also become part of the Bestow Sisterhood by stocking and selling Generositea – the official Bestow Sisterhood tea. This beautiful rose-coloured tea is an organic blend of lemongrass, peppermint, hibiscus, cinnamon and cardamom and 100% of profits from its sales go to support the work of the Cambodia Charitable Trust.

From all of us here at PBS we wish you and your team all the best for the year to come!

Launched in New Zealand in April 2017, the Bestow Sisterhood is a partnership between Bestow Beauty founder, Janine Tait and her sister, Denise Arnold, who founded the Cambodia Charitable Trust in 2008.

The Cambodia Charitable Trust currently supports 12 primary schools, four secondary schools and two teachers’ training colleges in the Takeo and Kampot Provinces of Cambodia.

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics WINS a Launchpad 2018 Readers Choice Award

We are thrilled to announce that Youngblood have WON “Best Concealer” at the Launchpad 2018 Readers Choice Awards.

Thousands of readers each year vote in the Launchpad’s Readers’ Choice Awards, including salon, spa professionals, franchisees, makeup artists, individual stylist and more.

Youngblood’s Ultimate Concealer has been a popular choice among salon professional for its’s ability to easily hide dark circles, discolouration and blemishes. In addition, this super creamy, light-reflecting concealing cream won’t settle into fine lines, while the added vitamins soothe and brighten the delicate eye area.

Thank you, Launchpad Magazine, and everyone who voted. We are honoured for the recognition of our products and promise to deliver quality, clean beauty for 2019!

Enquire about Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics here today.

PBS Sleighs Office Christmas Cubicle

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Professional Beauty Solutions, so much so, that we just had to share this with you.

One of our longest standing team members, Jacqui Catt, who has been with the company for 12 years, is a crazy Christmas fan! You know that really festive co-worker who insists on putting the Christmas tree up in October and wants to play carols on loop from nine-to-five…(every office has ONE of those).

Without a doubt, Christmas is Jac’s favourite time of year. After dropping hints for several years about how she wanted her own Santa’s Workshop in the office, the PBS teamed decided to toss some ideas around and mastermind an epic plan.

But how could we out Christmasfie the most festive co-worker ever? We’d turn her desk into Winter Wonderland on her day off! BOOM!

With the entire team on operation “deck the desk”, we created this masterpiece.

We may be biased, but we think we totally sleighed it!

Needless to say, the highlight was the surprise on Jac’s face when she came into work on Monday.

Beauty with a Conscience

Consumers today are becoming more selective and vocal about supporting businesses who are driven to make the world a better place, writes Matt Williams, CEO of Professional Beauty Solutions.

84% of young people believe that brands have more power to make change than governments, recants a McCann Worldgroup study in 2016. In the same way that the public has driven demand for holistic skincare, the importance of social consumerism has risen again, and it should come as no surprise that many of today's modern consumers care about more than just the quality of your products.

More than ever, consumers want to support brands that that give back in a very real and tangible way. They’re looking for brands and companies that weave corporate social responsibility into the fabric of their entire business model. In fact, a 2015 Nielsen survey found that nearly two-thirds of global consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably made products.

The way these companies give back needs to be completely transparent too, especially when you look at the younger market segments. In fact, 81% of millennials – those aged from approximately 15 to 30 – expect their favourite companies to make public declarations of their corporate citizenship. There is simply no question that in 2018, customers want to know that their money is going toward something that not only looks good, but does good too.

The past few years have seen brands moving towards creating a culture of social awareness by providing opportunities to give back to the community. Most are now forming partnerships with aligned non-profit organisations in an attempt to move towards a world of ‘conscious consumption’.

A study conducted by Cone Communications and Echo Research revealed that more than 90% of consumers would switch to a brand supporting a good cause, echoing the inherent importance for a brand to speak for what their customer stands for, through its product and services. Even a big 65% of consumers felt more positively about the retailer after giving.

Giving back not only drives change in your community, but also within your organisation.

It is evident that philanthropic efforts on the part of employees and employers result in workplaces that are better for business and the people who work there. This year, staffers who believe their organisation gives back to the community are a striking 13 times more likely to look forward to coming to work, than those who do not perceive their employers as charitable, according to Fortune.

But more than anything – it FEELS GOOD to GIVE.

Unfortunately, the reality is that many small business owners are neck deep in focusing on building their business that they simply don't have the time to focus on non-revenue drivers. If you polled every entrepreneur in Australia, nearly 100 percent would say that giving back is important. But if you asked how many of them have such programs in place, you'd encounter a much lower number.

That’s where choosing brands that have programs in place can be an easy way to add this into your salon and business culture. Here are two of our brands that put “doing good” at the heart of their business:

Make 2018 the year your business gets in touch with the larger world, whether it be aligning with something in your local community or choosing brands that already have programs in place - this can be one of the easiest ways to add this into your salon and business culture.

Here are two of our brands that put “doing good” at the heart of their business:

Image Skincare and the Care for Skin Foundation

Founded by Image Skincare’s President Dr. Marc A Ronert, M.D, PHD*, the Care for Skin Foundation is a non-profit organisation created to provide reconstructive surgery for people who have suffered loss of skin due to accidents, tumours, burns, scars or genetic abnormalities.

Their goal is to provide surgeries to those who could otherwise not afford them – performing skin transplantations, scar corrections and cleft-palate corrections around the world. “Our goal is to raise $500,000 to help at least 3,000 children in 2018.” Ronert explains.

Image Skincare funds ALL administration expenses for Care for Skin, making it possible for all donations to be utilised to support patient care.

“Burn wounds are a significant cause of disease among children, and cleft palate conditions can impair speech and the ability to eat. With simple reconstructive surgical procedures, we are able to change someone’s life. Not to offer this to people in need would be unthinkable.” says Ronert.  

To date, Marc Ronert and his wife, Image Skincare CEO and founder, Janna Ronert have travelled with other members of the Care for Skin Foundation to Peru, Vietnam, Myanmar and Burma to perform reconstructive surgeries on hundreds of children in need, giving them a better quality of life.

To learn more about the work of the Care for Skin Foundation or to make a donation, visit http://www.careforskin.org/.

Bestow Beauty and the Bestow Sisterhood

The Bestow Sisterhood is a collective of beauty therapists and skincare clinics throughout Australasia who are changing the lives of vulnerable girls in Cambodia by sponsoring their education.

Launched in New Zealand in April 2017, the Bestow Sisterhood is a partnership between Bestow Beauty founder, Janine Tait and her sister, Denise Arnold, who founded the Cambodia Charitable Trust in 2008.

“On one of her trips to Cambodia, Denise met a young woman who was working as a therapist in a local spa. When Denise asked her about her life she discovered that her family had been tricked into handing over her 15-year-old sister to the sex trafficking industry. They thought they were sending her off to a work as a nanny, to create a better life for herself. Denise returned to New Zealand determined to do her bit to stop this despicable practice”, explains Tait.

Over the last 10 years, Denise has changed the future for thousands of vulnerable children by transforming schools through the establishment of libraries and fresh water systems, while ensuring that the poorest children are sponsored to attend. “Education is the greatest hope for fighting poverty and slavery, especially education of girls,” says Tait.

There are two ways to participate in the Bestow Sisterhood and make a tangible difference to the lives of those less fortunate.

Sponsor a Girl

For just $40 per month, you can sponsor a young Cambodian Girl – providing her with a school uniform, essential school stationery, access to health programs and a monthly contribution to her family’s living costs, helping to lift them out of poverty.

Stock Generositea

Salons can also become part of the Bestow Sisterhood by stocking and selling Generositea – the official Sisterhood tea. 100 percent of profits from the sale of this beautiful rose-coloured herbal tea go to support the work of the Cambodia Charitable Trust.

The Cambodia Charitable Trust currently supports 12 primary schools, four secondary schools and two teachers training colleges in the Takeo and Kampot Provinces of Cambodia. Professional Beauty Solutions is also proud to be part of the Bestow Sisterhood and currently sponsors five young girls in rural Cambodia. We think of them as our little sisters and encourage our salon partners to join us in sponsoring those who struggle to support themselves.

To learn more about the Bestow Sisterhood or to make a donation, visit https://www.bestowbeauty.com.au/sisterhood-1/

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Matt Williams is the CEO and owner of Professional Beauty Solutions. With over 20 years sales, marketing and management experience, Matt has worked with hundreds of businesses to see them achieve financial and personal freedom and help them experience the success they have desired.