About Barbara.

Hi, I’m Barbara.

I never thought I’d be a beauty therapist.

In fact, I had very little knowledge of the profession at all. From a young age though I was fascinated by the ritual of self care, and spent my free time and pocket money making natural skin products. I loved doing massage and wanted to study aromatherapy following high school, but was gently steered towards learning something which would leave me qualified in more than just aromatherapy at the end of it - in the early 90’s it definitely wasn’t a mainstream career choice! That left beauty therapy, and in 1996 I gained my National Diploma in Beauty Technology and CIDESCO International Diploma from the Cape Technikon in Cape Town. I loved learning about the skin, and the last 20+ years hasn’t changed that.

I left Cape Town in 1997 to do what I thought would be a 3 year trip abroad, arrived in the UK and never left - starting in the south and slowly migrating north.

I feel that this experience of living in completely different climates has given me a unique understanding of how the skin can be affected by its environment - the differences between South Africa and the UK are huge!

From Beauty Therapist to Skin Specialist

For the first 5 years I worked with a variety of good spa brands and loved doing treatments, but slowly became disillusioned as I wasn’t seeing the results for my clients which the brands promised. Just before I retrained in Sports Massage, I discovered cosmeceutics and haven’t looked back since. Finally I had the visible results - and the understanding of the science behind it - that I had been looking for! At that point I specialised in skin rejuvenation, but continued to find inflammatory conditions harder to treat. I was eventually led to a course which would change the way I worked from then on.

In 2008 I did a 4 day training course in the Pastiche Method of Advanced Skin Analysis with Florence Barret Hill. This opened up a whole new way of looking at the skin - how different cells function, what can go wrong and how we can influence it.

I went on to attend her course in Cosmetic Chemistry and from there discovered corneotherapy, which has been the skin care philosophy I have followed ever since. Through her I have studied additional specialist subjects such as acne, rosacea, pigmentation, the barrier disordered skin and wound healing. I am committed to continuous learning in this ever expanding field, to help you achieve your best skin.