Boots has launched a free beauty advisory service for cancer patients.
The service aims to provide people undergoing cancer treatment with the tools, skills, and tricks necessary to look good and to feel good about themselves too.
Boots beauty advisor, Rose, told Her that a lot of the women she meets who have been diagnosed with cancer are lacking in confidence.
Rose says that she and the advisors want to help them find it again.
“A lot of women who come in think that they’re ugly – they’re not,” she says. “Everyone has beauty inside themselves, but sometimes they just need a little help finding it.”
Ahead of Daffodil Day, Boots conducted a survey that found that 85 percent of people living with cancer experience low self-confidence due to physical changes from their treatment.
Similarly, more than one third avoid public situations with 17 percent avoiding family and friends due to their physical symptoms.
Many women who are diagnosed with cancer also face losing their eyebrows and eyelashes, leading to changes in a person’s beauty regime.
Boots beauty advisors have been trained to give lessons to make women feel comfortable about the visible changes happening to their bodies and the difference in the products they now use.
Rose says that she has shown women how easy it is to draw on brows using pencils – or powders if they want to go for a softer look.
Similarly, she has also taught women how to use shadow to fill out the gaps in their lashes giving a more defined and thick look.
Some women who have been diagnosed also face problems trying to find a new foundation.
Cancer treatment may cause a person’s skin to change colour slightly, leaving them with a complexion that they are generally not used to.
“Some women need help finding a foundation match,” says Rose. “And others haven’t been wearing makeup at all since their diagnosis.”
“Our job is to make sure that they leave the shop looking and feeling great about themselves. It’s a lovely experience.”
Rose says that most patients should stay away from mattifying products because they pull moisture from the skin.
“The idea is to make sure that you’re nursing your skin,” she says. “Everybody needs to be wearing SPF every day. Suncream is a necessity that we don’t talk about enough, but it’s important that women know how necessary it really is.”
Rose says that the most common misconception cancer patients have about beauty products is that they can’t use most of them.
Often, women will be given lists of products they can’t use and are never told what they can use.
“Those products are out there, people just need to figure out what’s safe to use and ask what is suitable for them,” she says.
Consultations with a Boots cancer beauty advisor can be booked here.
These classes are free and are conducted by one of the 130 members of staff trained to support and advise people living with cancer.
