Somewhere between the head spa and the silent treatment, the humble pedicure got ambitious. Book one of the new wave of 'zero gravity' appointments and the first thing that happens is that you lie down. The chair tips back until your feet sit above heart level, a weighted eye mask and noise-cancelling headphones appear, and somewhere at the other end of your legs a therapist gets on with what is, underneath it all, a very good pedicure.

A run of Advertising Standards Authority rulings has put skincare efficacy claims back under scrutiny. We discuss with Consultant dermatologist Dr Clare Kiely why one phrase has come to describe very different levels of evidence, and what a credible standard of proof looks like from the cell to the mirror.

Collagen has become the beauty industry's shorthand for youthful skin. But as clinics and clients chase firmness and volume, a type of structural protein is getting far less attention than it warrants: elastin. For years the skin longevity conversation has belonged to collagen. It is the language of supplements, injectables, radiofrequency, microneedling, exosomes, LED and lasers, and of almost every professional treatment that promises firmer, smoother skin. Collagen gives skin much of its strength and structure, and its decline is central to how ageing shows up on the face. But skin does more than hold itself up. It moves. It creases, stretches and settles back again thousands of times a day, and it has to return to where it started.

Derived from the inner bark of Ulmus rubra, slippery elm has been used in traditional herbal medicine for centuries. Rich in mucilage, it forms a gel-like coating when mixed with water, creating a protective layer over the digestive tract. This demulcent action has made it a widely used ingredient in supplements designed to support digestive comfort and gut health.

As we pass the midpoint of the year, the treatment landscape is showing no signs of slowing. Our team has been exploring and discovering the latest launches across clinics, spas and aesthetic destinations, from regenerative collagen programmes and skin-boosting injectables to advanced IPL, scalp health protocols, body rituals and Ayurvedic therapies. What stands out is a clear move towards more intelligent, multi-layered results, with treatments combining science, technology, touch and wellbeing to meet a more discerning client demand. Whether focused on radiance, firmness, skin quality, hair health or emotional balance, these are the new treatments to know now.

Hotels have spent a decade turning the bathroom into a design statement. Marble, brassware, rainfall showers and softly backlit mirrors now sell rooms before a guest has even arrived. Yet for anyone who actually needs to get ready in one, the hotel bathroom remains one of the most quietly frustrating spaces in hospitality.

Laser hair removal has walked out of the specialist clinic and onto the high street. Package pricing, celebrity endorsement and a wave of at-home IPL devices have turned what was once a considered medical purchase into something clients discuss casually over a coffee. For salons that have relied on waxing as a repeat-booking staple, the question is difficult to avoid. If laser is faster to results in the long run and clients no longer flinch at the price, is the waxing room being quietly left behind?

Whether you love or hate the heatwaves, either way you will be facing the same issue - how should you safely store your stock and products you work on? Heat does more than make products uncomfortable to use. In professional environments, high temperatures can alter viscosity, accelerate oxidation, affect preservatives, destabilise active ingredients and increase the risk around flammable liquids. As a general rule, cosmetics and professional products should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place, ideally at a stable room temperature between 15°C to 25°C which is the preferred range for cosmetics, gel polish and UV gels, with heat and temperature fluctuations being key causes of formula degradation.

The scandal that began with a single failed SPF test in Australia has left consumers questioning the bottle on their bathroom shelf. We asked Frances van der Velden, founder of Australian brand Airyday, how a sunscreen brand earns that confidence back, and why the country with the world's strictest sunscreen rules is where the lessons are being learned.

Lymphatic drainage gets sold short. It tends to sit in the same mental box as a relaxation massage, only gentler, and that framing does the treatment no favours with clients who equate pressure with value. Walk a client through what is actually happening under their skin, though, and the picture changes. The reason a good drainage treatment works has almost nothing to do with how hard you push. It has everything to do with where you push, in what direction, and at what rhythm.

For the best part of a decade, the interesting conversations in British skincare came out of Seoul. Sheet masks, ten-step routines, glass skin, essences nobody had heard of until everyone wanted three of them. K-beauty taught the UK market to experiment, and it changed what people expected a skincare shelf to look like. The next geographic wave is arriving from somewhere colder and stranger. Icelandic skincare speaks of provenance rather than novelty. Geothermal seawater, marine bioactives, mineral-rich waters, a national reputation for clean energy.

First there were ‘Sephora Kids”, now there’s a new word that has started circulating in dermatology journals; Cosmeticorexia. Cosmeticorexia describes a culturally reinforced, compulsive pursuit of flawless skin through excessive use of active ingredients, cosmetic products, tweakments and procedures. An open-access editorial published this year in Dermatology and Therapy frames it as a preoccupation with perfect skin that can lead to excessive, age-inappropriate or compulsive product use, and it draws a direct line to cosmeceuticals, social media routine culture, influencer marketing and the steady medicalisation of beauty.

A new dryer will make a stylist faster. It will not make them better. That distinction gets lost in most of the marketing around premium tools, and it costs salons money in the wrong direction. Premium brands have spent a long time selling speed, which is fair enough, because speed is worth selling. A well-engineered dryer with strong, even airflow does shorten the time a stylist spends on each head, and it does lower the cumulative heat a client's hair takes across a full column. Both of those matter, commercially and for condition. Somewhere along the line, though, the pitch slid from "this will help you work faster" to "this will make your blow dry better," and those are not the same promise. A blow dry that holds is built from sectioning, tension, cuticle control and the cool shot, and none of that lives in the handle of a dryer.

It’s important to remember that skin treatments are never one-size-fits-all. Dr Tego Kirnon-Jackman has created SKINMENU around a far more thoughtful approach, where every treatment is tailored to the individual, with protocols designed to adapt to your skin rather than forcing it into a standardised plan.

Traditionally, consumers have been encouraged to find “their scent” and remain loyal to it for years, sometimes decades. Anna Dobbie explains how the modern fragrance customer's behaviour is shifting to become more bespoke.

I recently experienced the 60-minute Katherine Daniels Skin Resurrection Treatment at Iris Avenue, and it was one of the most relaxing and hydrating  facials I’ve had in a long time.

SKINVITY moved into Selfridges' Smartech space last month, the latest beauty tech brand to graduate from selling direct online to a spot on the prestige retail floor, clinical claims and all and for salons, this means that another wellness tech company is cranking the dial up and putting professional-grade kit, LED, radiofrequency and pressotherapy, into the hands of the same clients who book your treatments.

The shortest, sheerest manicure in years is having its moment, and nobody can agree on what it means. To one camp, the bare nail is the new quiet-luxury flex. To another, it's a recession indicator hiding in plain sight. The frustrating part for anyone working on the floor is that both camps may be right at once, and you cannot tell which client is sitting in front of you by looking at her hands.

Menopausal hair thinning is becoming a major concern in aesthetic clinics and salons alike. Together with Kam Dogan, founder and clinical director of The PRP Lab, we look at why practitioners are under growing pressure to provide informed advice, successful treatments, and realistic expectations.

A laser burn complaint comes in. The clinic pulls the device file to send to the insurer. That is when a growing number of UK practitioners are finding out that the device they have been using is not what they thought they bought. By the time the insurer's coverage decision arrives, the practitioner is already exposed personally, and the protection they thought was in place turns out to be conditional on paperwork that does not actually exist.