laser facial - AestheticNurseDi

How I Became an Aesthetic Nurse pt. i

September 30, 2020 No Comments

Nursing has many trajectories and possibilities

The main keypoint to understand and realize is that everyone’s path and journey is so unique.

I did not go to nursing school initially dreaming about the aesthetics world. Honestly, I only discovered it the last semester of my schooling through instagram. At that point, being an aesthetics nurse, cosmetic nurse, beauty nurse, medspa nurse (there was no set description) was a daydream. I remember one time I was “joking” to my classmate friend and said, maybe I’ll be a cosmetic nurse one day – just to test out the water. Although that day I said it quietly, I think saying it out loud still helped cement the thought into manifestation. My curiosity and secret aspiration was growing and nurturing.

I thought I could become a seasoned, passionate educator and provider in the ICU or ER world, and envisioned traveling around the world to help save lives. All in all, you may not know where your path takes you. But I do believe that there are many opportunities of niches for nurses to discover – which is so amazing and magical!

Get Experience, NETWORK, put yourself out there

During my last year of nursing school, I worked as a student nurse worker at LAC+USC. I would typically work on some Fridays from 3pm-11:30 pm after a half day of lecture. However working in the hospital with a flexible schedule allowed me to float to so many different units (PCU, ER, ICU, SICU, PACU) and network with the nurses as well as the nurse managers. One nurse manager bestowed wisdom by telling me to remember to always work hard and humbly as you would in this profession, and it will be noticed. Never forget that.

My immediate goal after passing the NCLEX was to get a registered nurse job in medsurg, ER, or OR. Though meanwhile I also looked at medspas around my neighborhood that maybe would want to train a freshly minted, bright-eyed new grad nurse. I scoured through craigslist, ziprecruiter, indeed, monster, and glassdoor.

While I was waiting for job interviews, I still worked as a student nurse worker. It was one day in the ER when I talked to one of the nurses and found out she used to work at a medspa and loved her experience there! I asked where she worked, and applied there. It just so happened that I got my job interview for the medical spa before any interviews from the hospitals I applied to.. And well I took that as a sign and started working less than 2 months after I passed my NCLEX.

Learn Constantly, add to your toolkit

Since I worked at a chain medspa, I was able to work in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brea, Palo Alto, and Los Gatos. You can imagine the range and diversity of clientele with personalities, age, and preferences. I think this has helped me improve on my communications & people skills, and diversify in providing procedures & recommendations.

I grasped all the opportunities I could to build up my own foundation of aesthetics. In my toolkit I started out with:

Laser hair removal
Laser tattoo removal
Clear and Brilliant
Coolsculpting
Laser facial
IPL
Skin care regimen

Then gradually added:

Botox and Xeomin
Lip, Nasolabial, and Cheek fillers
Thermage

All the while learning and understanding the rationales of every procedure to always educate the patients in providing safe & effective results. This allows you to collaboratively come up with a treatment plan to give the patient the best outcomes! I also enjoyed asking the more senior providers and nurse directors of their own experiences, paths, and tips so I could learn and take notes and continue dreaming :).

Pt 2 coming soon, talking about how to passion plan and pivot to your next stage.

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Clear and Brilliant pt. ii

September 17, 2020 No Comments

Here’s Part 1 if you haven’t read already 🙂

What to Expect at your Clear and Brilliant Treatment

You will discuss with your provider on which handpiece to use depending on your skin goals and priorities. Permea and Original are both amazing, so there’s really no bad decision!

After your consult with your provider, along with a set of photos and signed consents expect:

+ 30 mins topical numbing time
+ 30 mins for treatment

Immediately afterwards, your face feels like a sunburn, tight & red. I apply a soothing vitamin C serum for hydration and healing, as well as sunscreen. The heat quickly subsides in about 30 mins-1hr and is very manageable.

These are my go-to's immediately after treatment

Obagi C-clarifying serum: Contains 4% hydroquinone to reduce hyperpigmentation (sun spots, melasma). Also contains 10% Vit C (antioxidant) to help defend against free radicals that cause aging skin. You can only get this in office, but I will link a similar one here

I love this oil-free EltaMD UV Clear Tinted spf. It helps calm and protect sensitive skins, especially those that are prone to acne and rosacea. This also contains niacinamide (Vit B3), hyaluronic acid, + lactic acid which all promote appearance of healthy looking skin. I also love how it is absolutely lightweight and silky, and oftentimes can substitute as light tinted coverup/foundation.

PRE-CARE instructions

Make sure to be diligent with being sun-avoidant and wear sunscreen daily.
Avoid retinols, salicylic acid, and any other active ingredients for at least 3 days prior to treatment.
You cannot put on numbing cream if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, however you can do the Clear and Brilliant treatment itself … (I’ve only done 2 patients out of many many 100s who didn’t want to have the topical numbing)
Try to arrive for treatment with a clean slate of a face 🙂

POST-CARE instructions

In time you may notice little “scab” like texture on your darker spots. We call it microcrusting. Absolutely do not pick nor exfoliate it off! Just moisturize and it will flake off in its due time.
For the next 3-5 days or so, your face will feel like rough sandpaper and appear dry. Keep moisturizing your face with gentle moisturizer
*Common sense note: if your moisturizer is feeling extra fiery and burning, please wipe and use something more gentle and simple. Aquaphor, vaseline, cetaphil, cerave suffice.
You can wear your makeup 12 hrs later, but personally I recommend to let your skin breathe.
DO wear sunscreen diligently and cover your vulnerable baby skin from the sun

After about a week you will see your beautiful glowy new skin.

It may still feel slightly rough but you can come into the office and get a gentle exfoliating + moisturizing dermalinfusion called DiamondGlow (I wholly love this so much too!) – your skin will be even more soft and supple and glowy!!

How many C&B treatments do you need?

Well depends on your overall goals for your skin. Most start out with a series of 3. However, C&B is easily a staple in the optimal skin care regimen. It eventually becomes part of a maintenance routine, similar to facials and massages. For instance, are you ever going to be done with 3 massages? No I don’t believe so, you’ll be doing it as a maintenance because we want massages for life right lol.

How long do results last and how to best maintain your results?: So the results are immediate and progressive. I say the results build upon the previous. Of course keep on top of your moisturizing and applying sunscreen to prolong your skin health and glow. For best maintenance and regimen, have a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, adequate water intake, exercise, as well as sleep and skincare applications. Protect the investment you make on your face so that your skin is more even, bright, and younger-looking.

How far apart do you do the treatments?: Typically we space out the treatments every 4 wks or so, to allow the regenerative process of your skin to complete itself. However, if patients want to target their acne scars ASAP, then the soonest you can do the treatment is at 2 wks. I also tell patients to do C&B at about 1-1.5 weeks before their big event to have the best glowy, dewy skin!!

Let me know if you have any questions :)!

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Clear and Brilliant pt i.

August 29, 2020 No Comments

Clear & Brilliant

This one is definitely one of my absolute favorite treatment to provide as well as receive, especially if you are seeking smoother, tighter, and radiant glowy skin. An added plus is that there is very little social downtime and the treatment is noninvasive

Why consider Clear and Brilliant?

Diminish the look of fine line
Reduce appearance of pores
Improve skin tone and texture

This means improving our skin’s overall appearance by Clearing the fine lines and pores, Getting brilliant tone and texture!

Patients notice quite quickly that their pores appear smoother & smaller, as the oil and dirt buildup has been essentially cleaned up by the treatment. This in turn also leads to aiding in acne and blackhead prevention, thus truly helping you get your optimal glowy, glass skin!

After the healing process, you will notice that the skin feels more supple, smooth, and definitely rejuvenated. You feel so fresh & young. *Warning: it’s addicting 😛

Noninvasive, gentle with little downtime:

C&B is known as a non-ablative laser resurfacing treatment aka baby fractional laser. But don’t let that fool you, as it is still a very effective treatment to prevent early signs of aging skin.

How does C&B work:

The procedure creates millions of microscopic treatment zones in the upper layers of skin. This triggers a “wound healing” response from our skin to replace damaged skin with healthy tissue = Younger looking skin, soft baby skin.
It also helps shed off the dead, dull skin and instead replace with new refreshed, healthier looking skin.
Furthermore, our skin is stimulated to produce more collagen

There are 2 different handpieces that target different levels of the superficial dermis:

1. PERMEA

1927 nm, depth of 170 um (level at which melanin resides)
Creates broad, more superficial microthermal zones to increase skin permeability and enhance efficacy of your topical brightening serums and skincare
Perfect for treating sun spots, sun damage, and melasma (targeting tone and hyperpigmentation)

2. ORIGINAL

1440 nm, depth of 200-300 um
Causes deeper injury and targets fine lines and texture, as well as reducing pore size
Perfect for mild acne scarring
Helps kill off that pesky little pimple that just won’t go away

Next post I’ll talk about What to expect for your treatment, The Pre & Post care instructions, and How to best maintain your results 🙂

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May 19, 2020 No Comments

Who am I, and Why am I blogging

Hello Lovelies,

Welcome to my first post, which will be a little intro to what may come.

Life is about discovering your journey and where you aspire to venture to, it’s a continuous evolution. This blog may be that adventure.

Being in quarantine since March 2020 has allowed me to seek ways to progress in innovative ways that were not necessarily the norm pre-Covid. I’ve realized that the experts in my speciality are so willing and passionate to educate. The world of aesthetics actually loves to showcase their expertise, in hopes that we can all discover a more natural beauty while being safe. It’s been eye-opening and brain-lickingly amazing. I’m in awe of how much camaraderie there can be in the medical aesthetics world and I am all here for it!

Who am I? I am an Aesthetic Registered Nurse at a multi-specialty plastic surgery-dermatology office. I feel very fortunate to be a part of a team that has the best of both worlds in the medical aesthetic specialty! Before I started working here, if you asked me what my dream job was, I would not have been able to describe to you what I actually am doing. I also realize that this is a coveted career, and maybe one day I can help someone, just as others have when they wrote their own journeys and taught the knowledge they have acquired.

A little bit more about me. I’m a true introvert, but sometimes I’m a social one.

Pre-Covid hobbies: hiking but mostly especially to waterfalls, kickboxing, Rumble boxing, traveling, eating and being a foodie.

Current-Covid hobbies: watching instagram lives and studying modules, listening to podcasts while playing animal crossing, attempting to bake, and applying skincare and watching ASMR skincare videos.

Why am I starting this blog. I am by no means an expert nor master at my craft, yet. I’ve been in this amazing niche for almost 3 years now and have learned so much while still constantly absorbing even more.

But truly, when can you self-proclaim as an expert when trends are changing, techniques are evolving, and technology is advancing? I believe we will always be students, as well as advocates and educators.

I know that medical aesthetics is my hobby and life-long passion project. My ideology is to always embrace and enhance natural beauty as well as bring out the confidence from within. I aim to stay up to date with non-surgical rejuvenation with evidence-based practices.

And you can learn along with me by joining me on this project inner and outer beauty 🙂