Gee Beauty
Toronto’s beauty destination with Stephanie Gee.
As director of Gee Beauty in Toronto, Stephanie has her savvy, creative eye on the studio, engaging her clients and leading the Gee store team with her passion and enthusiasm for beauty.
Stephanie’s extensive knowledge of beauty, skincare, and industry technologies power her entrepreneurial spirit and allow her to create custom skin, makeup and beauty solutions for each client. Every day, she designs a distinct brand experience via in-store, online, and social channels to further enhance the customer experience.
Rounding out her passion for health and wellness, Stephanie loves to experiment with green-based ingredients in the kitchen, maintain an active, outdoor lifestyle and explore new finds Toronto with her puppy Joey in tow.
As the youngest Gee, her enthusiasm and energy make her the perfect modern, socially connected Beauty ambassador.
MORNING ROUTINE
For me, starting my day with hydration encourages me to keep drinking water throughout the day.
I start each morning with a glass of warm water and lemon. And then I follow that with a glass of filtered water with two teaspoons of the Super Elixir by Elle Macpherson. For me, starting my day with hydration encourages me to keep drinking water throughout the day. That’s very important to me. Then once I get to work I will have my coffee, but I try for the first few things that I have to be water and hydration.
In the morning, for my skin care, I rinse my skin with Dr. Barbara Sturm Foaming Wash, which I love. I follow that with the SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic® Vitamin C Serum.
For my makeup, I like to keep my skin as fresh as possible. I naturally have very oily skin, so I use our Gee Beauty Cosmetics Bronzers to bronze my skin and then I use a little extra on my cheekbones and jawline to contour. I like to keep my foundation very light, and that’s why I love our Tinted Power Primer.
Then I top it off with a luxurious mascara. We actually have an incredible new mascara in-store called XLXL. It’s super thick, very dense. My favorite lipstick is called A Gee Thing which is my perfect creamy nude.
FAVORITE BEAUTY BRANDS
Gee Beauty, of course. All of our makeup is mineral-based, hypoallergenic, and paraben-free, so it’s very clean makeup. Other than that, I love Dr. Barbara Sturm, SkinCeuticals, and Dr. Sebagh. Vita Liberata makes this amazing tanning mousse that leaves your skin looking sun-kissed but also very hydrated.
One activity you do every day without fail?
Listening to music! Music is very important in my life as it helps me set the tone for my day. I create all the music playlists for our studios so it’s very important for me that the music creates the vibe when people come in. I always listen to Lauryn Hill; she’s one of my favorites. And then in the studio, lately, a lot of Anderson Paak.
By your bed?
By my bed is an alarm clock, the Rodin Olio Lusso lip balm, and a book by Kimberley Snyder called The Beauty Detox Solutions. It’s one of my favorites and I like to read it at night as I find it very relaxing and it really prepares me for what I want to eat the next day. I put my cell phone at the other end of my room and rely on my alarm clock. It definitely helps me feel more relaxed.
How do you unwind?
Laughing! It is my favourite way to relax. My sisters are the best for making me laugh, and I love the show Friends. That, for me, just relaxes my mind.
On my desk
On my desk would be A Gee Thing lipstick, definitely a cup of coffee, my Moleskine agenda which for this year is a beautiful army green, and my computer.
Guilty pleasures
Chocolate is a guilty pleasure…I also find watching The Bachelorette, sometimes it takes up two hours of my night but I don’t know, I like it!
BUSINESS
We created Gee Beauty because we felt that the beauty service market was lacking time-efficient, modern beauty options. When we started the business twelve years ago, we invented the concept of in-and-out beauty, where clients could come to Gee Beauty once every 2-3 weeks for shorter periods of time as opposed to making a single 2-3 hour appointment. This practice enables us to become part of people’s lifestyle. They grab a coffee, get their brows done, pick up a lipstick, go pick up their kids.
Proudest moment
At the beginning of September, I hosted an event in our studio called “Beauty from the Inside,” focused on how wellness and nutrition affects the way that we look and feel in terms of beauty. It brought out an amazing group of people who were so curious and so connected to wanting to be a better version of themselves. It was very inspiring and very motivating.
This topic has become very important in my life. I am very inspired and curious about food, wellness, and nutrition. I have been reading a lot, and I practice a lot of what I read and I see great results in my skin and energy. That element came in to my life when we started carrying SuperElixir. I take two teaspoons every morning and it’s filled with these incredible, organic, all-natural ingredients which promote alkalinity in our body. After I started taking it for about a month I started seeing a big difference in the bloating in my stomach which dramatically reduced. Month after month I was seeing these great changes; my skin was hydrated, I was feeling more energized, it’s really amazing.
Future plans
In terms of our future plans right now, we are focussing on building our online community and our online presence. We have an online store in Toronto and Miami so we are always wanting to grow our Instagram following and create more content and really put our makeup and our personalities out there, online. Social media is a huge part of our business; I do all of our social media. And what is great about it is that it’s a great way for us to connect to our clients but also to obviously share what is happening in the studio, whether it be a new product or a new treatment, or an event that we’re having, and it becomes very interactive.
A lot of clients come in because they’ve seen something on Instagram, or other clients who have photographed themselves, it becomes very supportive and very interactive, so it’s very important that we stay current and we know what is happening on Instagram. We are always updating, and we aim to post every day. We want an Instagram account where people look forward to seeing our posts, whether it be a great quote, a combination of products that we like, or a new product that’s come in, we try to keep our clients as engaged as possible.
All of our makeup is mineral-based, hypoallergenic, and paraben-free, so it’s very clean makeup.
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