Chapter 21: 210% Luck

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Li Muyao was first shocked for a second, then she immediately answered. She was surprised that Manager Cai didn’t ask any questions about the beauty profession, but asked about things related to skincare instead.

“First, clean your face with facial cleanser, then spray it with toner, apply the booster and massage the face for a minute. After your face absorbs it, gently apply the eye cream around the eyes. Close your eyes and circle your fingers around them softly. After that, start to apply the essence. When the essence is absorbed by the face slowly, apply the emulsion and day cream. Lastly, apply sunscreen or toning cream and it’s done.”

“What about evening skincare?”

“First, remove your make-up and clean your face with a facial cleanser. After that, you can exfoliate your face and do another cleansing facial again. When it’s done, spray the toner directly and apply the booster. Then, you can put on a facial mask. During summer, choose a facial mask that moisturizes and whitens your skin, while in winter, choose one that moisturizes and removes pigment spots. It’s best to use a facial mask twice or three times a week. You shouldn’t use it too often or too little. After the facial mask, start applying eye cream, serum, emulsion, and night cream. Finally, apply a lip mask on the lips. They’ll look especially moisturized when you put lipstick on the next day.”

“How many times a week should you exfoliate your face?”

“Once a week for oily skin, once every other week for dry skin and combination skin, and once a month for sensitive, allergic skin.”

“What kind of essence is generally used for people of my age?”

“Normally, people under 25 should use moisturizing essence, those between 25 to 30 should use anti-aging essence, and those older than 30 should use anti-wrinkle and firming essence.”

“What are the basic techniques of beauty massage?”

“Pressing, wiping, rolling, finger pressing, compressing, pinching, tapping, kneading, and finally, vibrating.”

“Use all these techniques on my face once.”

“Sure, Manager Cai. Am I doing it strongly enough? Did I massage the acupuncture points accurately?”

“I’ve never expected an apprentice, who’s only taken classes for seven months like you, to be able to use these techniques so accurately.”

“What are the characteristics of massages for various types of skin?”

“Dry skin secretes very little sebum, so the pressing method is mainly used to stimulate sebum secretion, together with the use of a moisturizing massage cream with sufficient oil content. The total massage time is about fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“Oily skin secretes a huge amount of sebum…”

Manager Cai asked questions as she listened to Li Muyao’s answers to see if she was correct. At the same time, Li Muyao answered Manager Cai’s questions and massaged Manager Cai’s face using those techniques at her request.

After asking about facial care, Manager Cai also asked Li Muyao what else she learned. Knowing that Li Muyao had learned about eye care, neck care, and hand care, she requested Li Muyao to do all these few treatments for her.

The assessment should have finished in half an hour, but Li Muyao spent almost two hours here. In the end, Manager Cai thought the beauty techniques, beauty knowledge, and the position of beauty facial acupuncture points Li Muyao learned were all accurate and precise, comparable to the professional beauticians of the salon.

She had learned about beauty care, but what about body treatments?

The result was out of Manager Cai’s expectation again. Li Muyao said she knew that too.

Since it was an assessment, Manager Cai wanted to see if this apprentice truly knew it or if she was just lying to make this manager happy.

So, Manager Cai experienced another round of neck care and back and waist treatment, comparable to those done by a beautician, under Li Muyao’s hands. After everything ended, Manager Cai still hadn’t given up. She continued to dig into Li Muyao’s passion for cosmetology and see how much more she knew.

“For people with dry skin like me, do you have any other suggestions, apart from beauty care?”

“Yes, I can see from your skin at first sight that your sleeping quality isn’t really good. You sleep late, smoke, and also drink. Beauticians like us all know that smoking, drinking, and staying up late make your skin rough and speed up the aging process of the skin. You should pay attention to your daily nutrient balance, eat food with high protein, vitamin A and fat, like milk, pig liver, egg, fish, mushroom, and pumpkin. Also, drink more water, eat more fruits, have sufficient sleep, and maintain a good mood.”

“Hahaha, impressive indeed. You even have proficient ‘face observation’ skills. Not only can you use all kinds of beauty techniques skillfully, but you’re also precise in your methods and operations for removing acne, blackheads, whiteheads, and fat granules.”

“If I remember correctly, you’ve only been an apprentice in the salon for about seven months, right?”

“You should have learned about various types of treatments only with the beauticians in the last few months. They should not have taught you things like acne and blackhead removal and care yet, right?”

Manager Cai could be a manager because she had started learning about cosmetology since she was around fifteen and sixteen. She then became a beautician and had worked in the industry for more than a decade, until she became the manager of three salons right now. Two of the beauty salons were founded by Manager Cai and their business was much better than Wanhua.

Besides, Manager Cai only hired skilled beauticians for her two salons. In fact, she even served some major customers directly herself.

Manager Cai had superb and precise skills in beauty treatments, body treatments, and even aesthetic medical treatments. When assessing the basic beauty knowledge of apprentices, Manager Cai could already get the answer she wanted with a few questions, let alone experiencing it herself.

Manager Cai knew very clearly what level an apprentice should have after learning for a certain time!

And today, Li Muyao’s skills, which totally went beyond the level of a professional beautician, made Manager Cai really shocked and a bit surprised at the same time!

“Yes, but I’ve read about them and I always borrow and study notes from my seniors like Lin Hong and the other girls. Also, I’ve taken some time off recently to go to other beauty salons. I pretended to be a customer and experienced their beauty treatments several times.

“During the experiences, I talked a lot with their beauticians.

“I also have the library card of Gaochun District Library. I like reading and I like cosmetology, so apart from learning and practicing in the salon, I look for books and magazines about beauty treatments, body treatments, make-ups, and aesthetic medicine to read as well.

“I feel that fashion styling is closely related to cosmetology. That’s why I also learned things about beauty makeup and image design!”

Li Muyao knew Manager Cai was in awe of her improvement in beauty techniques, so every time Manager Cai asked a question, she answered seriously, showing the other skills she knew and how outstanding she was.

Humans! They were never afraid to show their excellence, skills, and ambition in front of their leaders anytime, anywhere.

For example, Li Muyao replaced makeup with beauty makeup.

And she replaced fashion styling with image design!

Every different phrase represented a completely different level of knowledge!

…

Knowledge of beauty and skincare comes from books!