aaaand again!

This post is about hiring a new stylist. It's almost time to expand the salon hours to better accomodate our clients so we need another hair stylist for the team 

Our salon, as many of you know welcomes everyone, with any type of hair but our speciality is taking care of natural curly hair.All of my stylists are required to have extra training in cutting curly hair. We are happy to provide training to the right person. Training in this method will involve some travel both in Canada and possibly internationally so when applying for this job please keep this in mind.
The right candidate for this job is either a second year apprentice or licensed stylist who is aware of the lack of care paid to curly hair in the hair industry and is interested in helping to change the misconceptions that exist in traditional salons. Ellënoire is one of the busiest locations in this area. We provide a generous pay and commision structure that will allow the right candidate to make a very good living. 
 I've listed some details in point form below. If you have questions, or would like to apply for this position please direct questions, cover letters and resumes to ellenoire@ellenoire.com

Second year apprentice or Licensed Stylist, (Barbering hopefuls may also apply) wanted for busy location. 
Natural Salon specializing in Curly Hair. Training provided for right person, Terms of Employment: 

Title: Hairstylist 

Terms of Employment: Permanent, Full Time, Weekend, Day, Evening, Part time apprentices will also be considered.

Salary: Hourly Wage $11.25 and up per hour minimum + Commissions+ Bonuses

Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible

Location: Busy Salon in Dundas, specializing in Curly Hair & Natural Hair Care

Credentials: Hairstylist License or apprenticeship certificate

Experience: 1 years or more of recent experience in the Haircutting/ Hairstyling Field, DevaCurl training a bonus, Dry or Barbering cutting experience a bonus, straight razor shaving a bonus

Languages: Speak English well, Read English well, Write English well

Work Setting: Natural Hair Care Salon (no perms, no blow outs, no flat irons or chemical straightening,  sulfates or silicone used) with Natural Beauty Boutique attached

Hair Cutting Techniques: Scissor cutting, Hair washing, conditioning and setting, Men, Women & Children’s cuts, Dry cutting experience a bonus 

Hair Colouring Techniques: Bleach, Dyes/tints, Streaking/highlights

Additional Skills: Customer Service, Retail sales, Ringing in Sales, Attention to detail, Ability to follow instructions, Strong Communication skills, Comfortable teaching clients, Comfortable learning new skills quickly, creative thinking, Maintenance and clean up, presentation skills, ability to organize and schedule, Willing to embrace new thinking, Must be willing to travel for special training

Work Conditions and Physical Capabilities: Fast-paced environment, Repetitive tasks, Manual dexterity, Attention to detail, Hand-eye co-ordination, Combination of standing, walking, Standing for extended periods

Work Site Environment: Noisy, Odours, Fragrances, Non-smoking

Transportation/Travel Information: Own transportation, Public transportation is available nearby

Work Location Information: Small town setting, On-site customer service

Essential Skills: Personable, Good Manners, Reading text, Basic computer use, Document use, Numeracy, Writing, Oral communication, Working with others, Problem solving, Decision making, Critical thinking, Job task planning and organizing, Significant use of memory, Finding information, Continuous learning

Other Information: Excited, Hardworking, open-minded people will make the most money and have the most fun with the ellënoire team.

Employer: Ellënoire, Body, Bath Fragrance and Curly Hair Salon 104 King street west, Dundas ON. 

905 627 9379 www.ellenoire.com

How to apply: Please direct questions, cover letters and resumes to ellenoire@ellenoire.com

We are hiring again!

Hi! What a crazy few weeks this has been! The financial reality of running a street front business during a long, cold winter means we have to keep costs very low. A lot of time was spent looking out the window at snowflakes on the street rather than people out shopping. We had a staff person move onto a new career early in the year, so I was chief receptionist, shipping manager,marketing manager, dishwasher and more!

Now that the weather has turned a corner and the snow is likely to stay away (if it snows in May, then I think a lot of people will be moving west though) we can hire someone to help me with the day to day work in the store. Please pass this information along to friends if you think you know someone who can handle this crazy place.

Still from the 1940 film His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell & Ralph Bellamy
I don't think this movie is really about a Girl friday but the pic is fun! 

 Sometimes I think the dated terms "Girl Friday" and "Man Friday", "Jack of all trades" describes this eclectic position (FYI, this position was held by a male for seven years) or even "Curl Friday" as a nod to our Curly Hair salon..... but after asking friends and clients we came up with title to describe the job

 Client Services Coordinator

The perfect candidate will have the professionalism and friendliness of a Maître D or a Hotel Concierge and the ability to juggle clients at the register, ringing phones, have precision in communication with management, clients and other staff. To be successful in this position we seek a person who can roll with the punches with an open mind while remaining calm and professional. This is an eclectic position with an attractive salary and a happy, energetic workplace.

 Job details: 
1) “Running the front desk” Cash and credit card handling, Cash register/ POS skills, greeting clients, preparing coffee for clients,

2) Booking Hair Salon clients for appointments in a natural curly hair specialty salon, this require extra attention to detail.
3) Sales of Hair and personal care products for both men and women. Simple customization and packaging of personal care products (ie labeling, gift wrapping, adding a few drops of fragrance)

4) Light Cleaning duties and retail "facing up" and simple decorating
5) A Small amount of shipping and receiving and office paperwork will also be necessary. 

These are the key points we are looking for, although there may be extra hours available for someone who wants to learn light manufacturing of personal care products. 

Ellënoire is an LGTB friendly, nursing friendly, multicultural environment so closed minds need not apply. 

 Skills and experience desired: minimum of 2 years in experience in one or more of the following: High end retail Sales, Reception, Hotel front desk or busy restaurant hostess or server positions.

 Extra notes: Above all what we need is professionalism in both manner and dress, politeness, ability to follow instruction precisely, able to stand and walk for many hours with few breaks and not be shy in communication. The ability to learn the details of and comfortably sell a large number of products in our boutique, learn the details of booking a hair client in a specialty environment, and teach clients how to use products they may not imagine using themselves.

Job Location: ellënoire, Body, Bath & Fragrance and Curly Hair Salon104 King Street west, Dundas, ON 905 627 9379

Email questions, cover letters and resumes to ellenoire@ellenoire.com.  

Baby come back!

Sarah, Noelle & David in New York City on a night out after a training at the Deva Curl Academy

This week’s email is an announcement about one of our staff and some changes happening in the salon over the next few months. 

 In order to best care for our clients we at ellenoire take pride in hiring with an open mind and treating our staff as well as we can. We provide higher wages, extra time off when possible, and extra training programs when available. This month we have chosen to honour a request for an extended leave of absence from a staff member.

Our beloved stylist Sarah is off on a travel adventure for 3 months starting at Easter. She’ll be travelling to an exotic location and we wish her the best.  We will welcome Sarah back with open arms in July. We realize that this situation may be a challenge for Sarah’s clients to accept since they have become used to her constant presence here. Please rest assured that Victoria and I will be covering the shop and all the services at the salon while she is away.

Sarah’s schedule is filling quickly so if you would like to see her before she goes please call as soon as you can, 905 627 9379.

Curls for Sale

A few weeks ago I told you about our newest stylist Victoria. This week, in lieu of a product sale we have decided to, in a way, put Victoria on sale. No, you may not take her home, but you are permitted to take advantage of her hair services at a 10% discount. Victoria has been with us for almost 6 months and already has loyal,returning clientele.
  Victoria specializes in cutting curly hair as all of my stylists do and has several years experience cutting straight hair too. Starting immediately we are offering a 10% discount off Victoria's services booked until the end of March and that's not all! When you arrive for your service you'll receive a gift from me, I'll have a lovely basket full of fun ellёnoire products for you to choose from.
 Throughout this week I'll be posting before and after shots of Victoria's work so you can see what beautiful work she does.
 Many of my store clients have never considered coming to the ellёnoire salon for a haircut. Are you one of these? Perhaps you don't have curly hair, perhaps you have straight hair and can't imagine what a curly hair specialist could possibly do with your hair. Perhaps you have only slightly wavy hair and have never considered trying a curly hair specialist. Whichever reason it is, let me assure you that all hair types are welcome at our salon and Victoria would love to see you. Have you ever had your hair cut dry rather than wet? Have you ever tried a sulfate and silicone free hair service rather than the harsh detergent and plastic resins bases used in traditional salons?


Are you ready for a total change in approach to your hair care. A more natural hair care experience? Take us up on this fantastic offer and give Victoria a shot!
Call the shop at 905 627 9379 to book.

soap fact for today

Soap fact for the day for soap week... Do your soap ingredients say Tallow? or Sodium Tallowate? This means your soap contains the rendered fat of an animal, generally cow, pig or sheep mostly the former two. Animal fat has been used for thousands of years for soap and candle making and for lamp oil among other uses. There's nothing really wrong with tallow, in some circles it's considered great for skin, but if you are vegetarian or vegan of course you want to avoid it. At the moment ellenoire does not make any animal fat based soaps, although some of our "Fun" imported soaps contain it. Read more about the sale here! http://ellenoire.blogspot.ca/2014/02/soapy-soap-sale.html

Soapy soap sale!

 Week 4 of the fun new weekly sale program and y'all seem to be jumping on board with our ellenoire weekly sale campaign. I have a client who is 4 for 4 in this program and has shown up every week to take advantage of the savings and learning more about our products. This week all of our soap is 20% off the regular price starting on Friday.  Luxurious hand made 

ellënoire soap from $4.80 and our long time favorite Vermont Soap for $6.00.  Ellënoire Foamee Liquid soap is $5.60. Choose Unscented or choose from our extensive selection of scented versions. 

Here is why you will love the soaps we make and sell.....
Did you know that it was one little bar of soap that started all the passion I have for the cosmetics and beauty industry in the first place? I think I was about 9 and for a gift I was given a little round bar of peach colored soap, with a fragrance I thought was the best thing I'd ever smelled. I know now it was a simple European style floral likely made with synthetic ingredients but I would never have known that then. I kept that soap in my sock drawer and closed my eyes and sniffed it whenever I came across it. I still have that bar of soap. 

Many of the locals in my little town refer to my shop as the "soap store" which you likely know is only partially true. Because soap is such a big part of my original passion you will find lots of it in my shop. We make lots of soap in house and bring in many brands from around the world. Our selection has changed many times over the years and that is mostly due to my ongoing learning about ingredients although we still carry some fun/ highly processed soap. Everything in life should be at least a little fun. 

This week I'll post lots of mini posts about ingredients you may want to avoid when buying the soap you use daily. I'll help you understand the fun soap too and why using those daily may not be the best choice for your skin. I've gone into detail about soap ingredients before, but I meet  someone everyday who just uses the soap with the bird on it, or the soap named after the elephant tusk because they are cheap and when I tell them what's in their soap they're kind of shocked. I'll try not to be too preachy about the ingredients for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I believe my customers are smart enough to make informed decisions and I'm here to inform not to judge.  

So! Bring on soap week!

Don't forget, 20% off every bar or liquid soap in the shop from Friday to Sunday. You can pop by the shop and we'll take phone, email and web orders all week and have them ready for pick up or shipping for Friday at opening. You will receive the discounted price no matter how you order. 

 P.S. Watch out on this blog, facebook, twitter and linkedin for our weekly sales event updates starting every Monday!

Organic Body Wash & Body Lotion Sale

Have you been keeping up with the new sale program I introduced in January? This week we’ll introduce you to the bestselling products from the ellënoire everyday Body Wash and Body Lotion at 20% off the regular price. Body Wash for $12 and Body Lotion $13.60 for 500ml/ 16oz starting this Friday.

The ellënoire everyday line has 70% or more organic content and even at full price is the least expensive organic body line per ml on the market in Canada. The sale is on this weekend from Friday to Sunday so hurry and get your order in!

 

Why did we call it “ellënoire everyday Body Wash” and “ellënoire everyday Body Lotion”? Read on to find out….

 

  A few years ago my Tim and I were trying to work out why we just weren’t selling as much body wash and lotion as we thought we should be.  After all, each of the Ellenoire products were high quality, handmade, paraben free and even custom scented.  We decided that I needed to create a line that people would choose as their basic products to use every single day. What do most people use every day? Soap or Body Wash and some sort of Lotion was the answer. I kept telling him we already had those things in our product line up and I didn’t know why people couldn’t just see past the pretty label with my picture on the front at how these were great products to use daily. I was using them daily, he was using them daily and a lot of my customers were using them daily but it wasn’t enough. We needed a way to get people to replace their basic drug store level product with something we had created and convince them that it was better for their skin than those chemical ridden products. We also had to convince the people that were already buying organic and clean products at their local health food store that ours was better, less expensive and available in their choice of natural fragrances or totally unscented.  I came up with some great formulations but we still had to get the message across that it was all those lovely things, but for everyday use… well why not put that right on the label?  And this is how the ellënoire everyday line was born.

The two main products in the line are the Body Wash and the Body Lotion. We decided not to name them anything other than exactly what they are. We even labeled them in a way that suggested they were kind of generic, simple, and basic. Tim wanted people to look at the label, know exactly what they were looking at and buy it. The people who desired the natural ingredient info got exactly what they needed on the back (some people never, ever look at ingredients, some people care about nothing else, this product was set up to satisfy both types) Ellënoire everyday is 70% or higher organic content (close to 100% in the Body Wash) vegan safe, kid safe, paraben, silicone, sulfate and petroleum free. I compared the bottle size and the per ml price of every comparable organic body product I could find locally and online in Canada and made sure ours came in a bigger bottle and was the least expensive. You can bring the bottle in for a refill for a 10% discount. Both products come in unscented, a lavender and lemongrass blend, and a vanilla and bergamot blend. All scents are pure essential oils and the unscented is available for custom scenting with 1 of our over 100 essential oils for a small charge. The products do exactly what you imagine they should they are simple, straight forward, with no BS. The Body wash cleanses your skin gently but doesn’t strip your skins natural oils or leave a greasy petroleum residue like some of the moisturizing body washes on the market. The put that gunk in to mask the fact that the cheap detergent in the wash strips your skin of oils like paint remover strips paint. It’s gentle enough to wash your face, but only use the unscented if you have very sensitive skin.

The body lotion is light, luxuriously smooth and fast absorbing but leaves your skin feeling like you can pick up paper and get dressed soon after using it. I love the unscented one for face and body but use a scented one for special occasions since it leaves a whisper of natural scent that only I and the people that I let hug me can smell.

 I fought for the better part of 3 or so years with Tim on creating this line. I am notorious in our history of working on this business together for the last 11 years in coming up with reasons not to implement his ideas. The day we launched the product line in 2010 at a festival here in town we (I was anyway) were shocked at how quickly we sold out.  The line had remained a bestseller ever since. Everyday someone comes in to take advantage of our refill service.

  I thought Tim’s “brilliant” tag line for the product: “Good Stuff You’ll Like” was the most ridiculous of all his ideas. It turns out, he was right there too. If it comes from ellënoire there is no question it is good stuff, if I won’t use it myself it won’t go on the shelf … and clearly when the packaging and line ideas come from Tim you like it!

Try ellënoire everyday this week at amazing prices: Body Wash for $12 and Body Lotion $13.60 for 500ml/ 16oz starting this Friday for the weekend of February 14^th-16^th.  Good stuff you’ll love!

Feel free to pre-order on the website or at the shop or by phone to reserve yours at the sale price, and watch out for my posts for other tips and tricks on how to use these great products…. Everyday!