Treating pregnant clients continues to be a confusing and often scary idea for many skin care professionals. It is important to thoughtfully put together the perfect treatment and homecare plan for pregnant clients, but before doing so, professionals must understand what happens to skin when conceiving a child. This general information can help the professional make more informed decisions on what they recommend to their clients. When a client is pregnant, they are most likely experiencing increased blood flow, oil production, and melanin stimulation. Out of these changes, various skin conditions can arise or become worse. The most common ones are acne and hyperpigmentation. 

INCREASED ACNE

Since topical and oral retinoids are notoriously off limits for all nine months of pregnancy and breastfeeding, professionals need to get a bit more creative with acne management. Some experts believe low-dosage retinol and retinyl palmitate might be safe, but it is still usually better to avoid them altogether until there is more clear-cut safety evidence. Even bakuchiol, a trending ingredient coined the pregnancy-safe retinol alternative, does not have enough studies to definitively pinpoint its effect on fetuses. Instead, products with pregnancy-safe ingredients like azelaic acid, niacinamide, zinc, beta glucan, colloidal silver, and stabilized vitamin C are great ways to supply pregnant, acne-prone skin with antiseptic, healing, and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Is it possible to give clients a nonsurgical face-lift? Yes, absolutely. Buccal or intraoral massage is a natural, holistic alternative to injections and surgery. This technique is quickly becoming known to give a more sculpted look to the face, improve facial tone, relax wrinkle depth, and make clients feel like they have just come back from a vacation with higher cheekbones and glowing skin.

Everyone wants a mascara look that gives them darker, fuller, and longer-looking eyelashes, but who wants the added morning makeup routine? With a large potential client base to work from, beauty professionals may consider learning more about offering eyelash services like eyelash extensions to give clients bolder eyelashes, eyelash tinting for more drama, or eyelash lifts for a natural curl.

FRESH & PHOTO-READY

Eyelash extensions are semipermanent synthetic fibers used to create volume and extend the length of natural eyelashes. In other words, one single extension is placed on one natural eyelash. This results in instant volume along with long, luscious eyelashes. Best of all, most manufactured eyelashes have been specially designed to look completely natural. This is on trend for professionals wanting to give their clients an enhanced appearance without looking false.

When thinking of what the ideal treatment space should be like, creating the perfect environment aesthetically is what comes first, from products to protocols. Setting up the perfect treatment space means that all the visual and textual elements are in place to make the best first impression on the five senses. However, professionals often forget about the unspoken culture created for that treatment space.

TREATMENT CULTURE

Culture speaks volumes to whether someone feels comfortable or not, not only entering the space but returning as well. This begs the question of what culture has been created in treatment spaces for all genders? To broaden that question beyond professionals’ individual treatment spaces to the entire skin health industry, what culture has been enabled to exist in beauty when it comes to those who identify as a man, transgender, or are gender-fluid? 

Reference

1. Cooper, C. R. (2022). The No Compromise Black Skin Care Guide: The Gender And Teen Equity Edition. Charmaine Cooper.

Looking for interesting ingredients in the professional skin care industry this year? Try on some of the latest ingredient options for size, including a few that are experiencing a resurgence as their uses are modernized.

KALAHARI MELON SEED OIL
Kalahari melon seed oil (Citrullus lanatus (watermelon) seed oil) is a luxurious oil showing up around the world in moisturizers, facial oils, cleansers, and more. It is a pale-yellow oil with no odor and contains up to 70% linoleic acid. Melon seed oil is high in vitamin E and plant sterol content, which have great antioxidant capabilities. Skin absorbs this ingredient quickly and benefits from more elasticity. This oil also helps with water loss, reduces the appearance of wrinkles, and encourages microcirculation in skin.

Voted Favorite Aesthetic Influencer in the 2022 Aestheticians’ Choice Awards, Choate-Bewley is a licensed aesthetician of over a decade and the owner of Skin By Lexie. In addition, she was named Aesthetician of the Year by Cosmedix in both 2017 and 2018.

How long have you been practicing, and why did you choose this field?
I have been an aesthetician for 13 years. I went to beauty school when I was in high school through the Regional Occupational Program. I had acne and wanted to learn how to fix my skin and help others who had the same issues.

How do you continue your education in the industry?
I attend IECSC Las Vegas every year and love how they provide classes on every subject. Throughout the year, I do online education or in-person classes locally as well. The latest completed classes and certifications that have ended up as new services for my spa menu are dermaplaning with DermaplanePro and eyebrow tinting.

@skinbylexie
skinbylexie.glossgenius.com

A good 30 years ago hair removal was certainly not a substantial component of the skin care profession, or of any business. Bleaching facial hair topped the list, followed years later by electrolysis. In school, everyone’s absolute least favorite clinic service both to give and receive was waxing!

Those times have long gone by the wayside. Hair removal products and services have become a business all their own. From waxing to threading and laser, the opportunity for business success and revenue generation in hair removal is endless.

We now have students going through aesthetics school solely to do waxing. Some states, such as New York, even offer professional licensing just in waxing, making the education, training, and opportunity for success quick and affordable.

Expert hair removal professionals are highly sought after and tend to have a clientele that is very dedicated. It is one of the quickest areas to build a business on.

For the flip side of the service, hair removal specialists absolutely must find a manufacturer or distributor that will last as their partner, in a sense. Whether it be waxing, sugaring, or even laser, be sure to partner with a company that is committed to mutual success. Find a company that provides a quality product (which does not have to be off-the-charts expensive), education, and training, and most importantly, support as needed.

Enjoy this month’s issue; it is full of everything readers need for hair removal success!

Readers may be in need of a spring in their step this spring as temperatures start to rise and the opportunity for new revenue fills the air. A new season calls for new services, new clients, and new chances. Whichever way one takes, there is no hiding that hair removal can make a sturdy foundation for a beauty kingdom. 

Where there is hair removal, there is the need for exfoliation – hence, the co-themed March issue. The two topics are often intertwined, but in addition to the latest in pre- and post-care for hair removal and how to prioritize client safety, read up on selecting the best hydro- or microdermabrasion machine for your practice and how clients can take their at-home body exfoliation to the next level.

 Whether professionals already wax, sugar, thread, zap or are considering bringing on or specializing in a hair removal or exfoliation modality, this issue will help along the way. Not every success story looks the same, so it is imperative to experiment and find out what works for the individual professional, rather than what is hot and trending. It is a marathon, not a race. 

When it comes to taking care of skin, most people invest the majority of their time and money into treating their face, leaving skin on the body as an afterthought. However, skin care professionals are working to educate and bring awareness to the importance of treating the entire body. This awareness is leading to the demand for results-driven body treatments in the treatment room along with the desire to have a homecare regimen specifically for the body.

SKIN & BODY
Regardless of where skin is located, the main function is universal. Skin provides a protective barrier against ultraviolet radiation, hazardous substances, mechanical and physical injury, and thermal protection. The organ detects infections, helps regulate body temperature, and controls moisture loss. Nerve endings in skin communicate to the brain so that experiencing temperature, pleasure, pressure, and pain will keep the body safe from harm.
Skin on the body tends to be thicker than on the face and has more fat in the subcutaneous layer for thermal protection. It also produces less oil due to fewer sebaceous glands. Fewer oil glands leave skin on the body drier than the face. The T-zone area (forehead, nose, and chin) contains the most sebaceous glands, which leads to more oil being produced with higher visibility. Certain areas like the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are unique in that they have an extra layer in the epidermis that allows for more elasticity and resilience.
New skin is constantly being produced through a process called cellular turnover. Cellular turnover is the continuous act of shedding dead skin cells and subsequently replacing them with younger, healthier cells. Age, hydration levels, skin care, and overall health are all factors that dictate how fast this process happens. Skin on the body has a naturally slower turnover rate than the face, so treating concerns may require stronger formulations, stacking multiple modalities, and more frequent treatments. Exfoliation is one of the easiest ways to support healthy cellular turnover, which is why it is a core step for the majority of body treatments.

Rebecca Olpin has been at the forefront of the luxury spa industry for the last 18 years as an aesthetician and massage therapist. Her career began in Las Vegas, Nevada at the prestigious Ritz Carlton Hotel & Spa. During this time, she not only discovered a growing passion for high-end spa and hospitality service but also the desire to lean further into management and training. This led her to open yet another Las Vegas spa at Palms Place. In recent years, Olpin applied this expertise as the department educator for the Mandarin Oriental and then was a key member of the launch team for L’Occitane’s first spa in the United States. Education, coupled with her vast hands-on experience in the spa industry, eventually brought her to Sorella Apothecary where she is currently the brand’s lead educator. Olpin’s passion is visible in her educational webinars, live trainings, and successful remote education curriculums.

Your clients trust you. The regulars spend a good deal of time with you, sharing details of their lives. Up close and personal, you are a witness to how they are caring for their skin. Every day you see the effects of glycation, dehydration, barrier damage, inflammation, stress, and ultraviolet exposure.

Yet, you also know how hard it is to help clients have beautiful skin if they have a crappy diet. The largest organ of the body, skin, reflects what is taking place internally. When key vitamins, minerals, and fiber are lacking and someone’s diet is laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excessive omega-6 fats from refined oils, and preservatives from processed foods – skin reacts negatively. The client then comes to their skin care professional to improve their skin from the outside in.

THE NUTRITION-SKIN CONNECTION

For a long time, the prevailing wisdom has been that diet, with the frank exception of severe vitamin deficiency, does not have much to do with the appearance of skin; most notably, diet didn’t affect acne. Believe it or not, there are still some medical professionals who cling to this paradigm today. A paper that reviewed 53 studies published on acne and diet between 2009 and 2020 conclusively showed the foods and diets that impact acne.¹ Today’s clients want help getting their acne under control, but they want more than that. They want glowing, radiant skin. This requires a beauty from within approach. 

Dr. Mark Tager is the CEO of San Diego-based ChangeWell Inc., an organization that trains and coaches certified nutritionists, licensed aestheticians, and other healthcare practitioners to enhance their craft. As a physician, he is well grounded in aesthetic, lifestyle, regenerative, and integrative medicine. He has served as the founding Chief Marketing Officer to introduce the Fraxel laser and as CMO of Syneron. A prolific author and speaker, he has written eleven books, the latest being “Feed Your Skin Right: Your Personalized Nutrition Plan for Radiant Beauty.” Dr. Tager is also the producer of the nine-hour online training program Inside Skin Beauty.