Welcome to the Ladyface podcast. I'm Celeste. I'm a nurse practitioner. I train for allergen. I own Inspire Medical Spa here in Utah.

I specialize in aesthetic medicine. We also do a lot of functional and regenerative medicine. I spend a lot of time helping people achieve natural results. I also correct things that maybe didn't really go as planned. Maybe other type of adventures that they've had.

Today I'm here with Whitney. Hello Whitney! Hi. Oh yeah. She is my marketer.

Honestly, the person who keeps me in the loop with what's actually happening online. I do not always keep up with the trends because I'm busy fixing some of the trends. She has been in marketing for eight years. She owns her own agency and works specifically with med spas and medical practices. But what makes her different is she really understands the rabbit holes that people go down.

Like what you start searching late at night in that bathroom on TikTok shows you next and how quickly that turns into a decision making problem. So she knows your rabbit hole before you even step into it. Well thanks for having me. I've worked with a lot of aesthetic practitioners and I would have to say Celeste is a unicorn. She'll, speaking of rabbit holes, I just love to pick Celeste's brain.

And the way she breaks it down for me to where I can understand it. I really appreciate it. Oh good. And yeah, I wish you would make like a Spotify record of just telling me your nerdy medical stories so I could fall asleep to them at night. But today I'm really interested because I am a TikTok addict.

And if you don't have TikTok, just don't get it because it's a thing. And I have been seeing so much on my Forview page about do-it-yourself at home medical spot treatments. I'm talking about Botox, micro needling, turbo planing, chemical pills. I could go on and on. But something that really stood out to me was do-it-yourself Botox.

And what they're doing is they're buying this, I think it might be called Innotox or something. It's from Korea, obviously, great black market. Right. Because, you know, I'm not going to Google it. Maybe.

You have. They're buying it and it's a fraction of the price. I'm talking like maybe less than $200 for who knows how many units. And from what I've seen, it looks OK. But like there's these, I mean, people are doing it.

What do you mean it looks OK? Like the way you buy it or after people do it? Like what does that mean? I mean, like the after. They're like, I mean, there's less wrinkles.

OK. But I don't have the aesthetic eye. They look more smooth after they do this DIY Botox. All right. And you just like you like to rage bait me about marketing.

I knew this would rage bait you. I do send you a lot of marketing stuff. She sends me like marketing stuff like, oh, we can do the number one on Google in three days and stop. It's the last stop. So that is actually excellent.

That makes me laugh. So it's my turn. OK, people are doing this. Do it yourself Botox. What are the risks?

What are the biggest red flags? And, you know, what makes you OK? So here's the there's like eight problems. If we just start at the biggest thing is like safety. OK, you're not even talking about how smooth you could be in the future if this works.

You're talking about your own personal safety. So you're buying a product that you don't know the source online with hope. OK, and your hope is that you're going to be smooth like a baby's bottom and your makeup is going to go on better. And it's going to be cheaper and last you longer. The problem with this is what if you're injecting something that's harmful, a chemical, you do not know what's in it.

OK, the next thing, have you trained to be clean or sterile technique? Right. Do you have the appropriate supplies to inject yourself with? Do you know how to clean an area enough? Are you doing this in your bathroom where you shave your labia right next to where you're going to be injecting yourself?

Are you doing this in your kitchen where you prepare chicken? You know what I mean? I mean, like thinking about the things that you do in your home daily can drastically change like the quality and efficacy, let alone the product. OK, so number one risk is harmful product. Number two risk, you're injecting yourself and you maybe not don't understand sterile or clean techniques in a home environment.

OK, those are the two huge ones that I can see. What about the amount of medication they're providing you? If it's real, are they providing you with such a small amount and that's why it's cheap? So if you want to talk about alcohol, are they coming into you with a mixed drink and it's like a 32 ounce with one shot of tequila? Or are they giving you a shot in that and you're you know what I mean?

You don't know how to qualify how much medication is in this. So those are just the giant gaping wounds that I can see. The next thing, are you good? Well, couldn't I just ask chat GPT? You sure can, but it doesn't have hands.

You can also watch YouTube and Instagram and become and watch TikTok and be like circle inject here. The problem with that is, is you don't understand depth, texture, muscle volume. So you're looking into a mirror and judging counterfeit product. And I can say like some people now not to be rude, but some people I see can't even do their eyeliner straight. So when you're injecting Botox, you want somebody that is precise, right?

And you may be precise that shaving or maybe one eye looks good, but you want somebody that has the medical understanding of are you in a muscle? Are you in skin dosage depth? And because you watch 20 YouTube videos doesn't mean you then know how to stab yourself and keep your eyes open while you're doing it. Yeah, it's a good point. I would probably close my eyes because I'm afraid of needles.

So like on average, right? How long does it take an injector or a nurse to get good at Botox? Yeah, that's I love the way you ask that because to be certified in Botox takes a weekend to be good at Botox takes my lifetime. My whole life. Every year I find how I could be doing something better.

So I would say average I train tons and tons of injectors all the time. And it depends how how often is that person at a clinic? Right? Are they at a clinic once a week seeing two patients? It's going to take them five years to get good.

Are they every single they're every single day seeing four to ten patients doing Botox? Right? Because there's anatomical variation from patient to patient. There's metabolic differences. There's depth.

There's dosage. There's a lot of different things. Is it a patient that is male or female? Their muscle? Do they have more activity?

So for somebody to be good at Botox is forever because it takes two weeks for you to see the results to you're injecting off of anatomy and hope and skill. Right? So there's areas to avoid. So even if you could inject yourself, do you know how to avoid a lid? Tosis?

You want this type of action because you didn't have a class? You went to Tick Tock University? Heck no. You don't want that. Right?

I was going to ask you like what is what is the worst that could go wrong? Okay. So the worst thing I've seen once upon a time we had a patient inject herself, but she wouldn't verbalize that initially. She said she'd been to a spa, the proverbial spa and she. Her bathroom.

Yeah. The bathroom. Sheyda la mi casa. Like whatever the hell. I don't know.

But so she had and we don't know if this was the product or the injection technique, but at multiple sites she had like. Bumps like large bumps that looked like a cystic acne. Right? Hot to touch. So the start of an infection and some of them were pustules.

So they looked like a weird zit. Right? Mm hmm. That's the worst I've seen. And she said that she multiple times she had been to the spa and we're like, OK, well then go back to that spa.

Or, you know, and then she said then like. An hour and she's like, oh, I I bought this stuff from a place from Colorado. And I was like, or maybe more distant. Right? Maybe another country.

So she bought this random toxin from Colorado and she had multiple sites. So we. Yep. So we don't know if it was the product or her the way she injected herself, if it was sterile technique or whatever. So she had active infection and no wrinkle reduction.

So she got a free. Well, she paid for an infection. No smoothness, just infection. OK, so. All right, so maybe don't try your own Botox at home.

I feel like there's places that DIY comes into play, but Botox isn't one as soon as you have to pick up a needle. Probably not your skill set. Right. Especially I mean, if you're an accountant or a marketer, like I am definitely not going to pick up my own QuickBooks and pretend like I know a tax code or how to be a CPA. Right.

Makes sense. But, you know, these people on TikTok, it's not like they want to be the Martha Stewart of the beauty world. They're doing this because they want to save money. And like this is like a big topic that comes up all the time since I've been marketing Botox, especially in the last few years. It's like the price has gone up so much.

I know. And just like it's more expensive to eat steak, it's more and more expensive to consume beauty. Well, and some consumers who don't know any better, I wouldn't be one of them. I do know better would say like, oh my gosh, you spend 15 to 30 minutes with me. Why is this?

Oh, that's such a good question. I have heard that so many times. And also, like, how about Chachi P.T.? Like, first of all, he I think Chachi P.T. is a man.

I'm just deciding and he doesn't have hands. So good luck with that. But number two on that whole story, you are not paying for the time you're paying for the years I spent in a classroom, then the years of injecting patients and every year, the continuing education that I go to. And then you're paying for the outcome. Right.

So if you come to me and you see results that you like better, that's what you're paying for versus your bathroom talks or talks from places that have a little bit more volume, but less experience. Right. Right. Like, so those like seven ninety nine a unit talks. Right.

When they start to do that, you just want to be concerned with what they're putting in, making sure it's real product to how are they reconstituting it. So a lot of times patients or people will call it diluting what we call it when we mix medication as reconstitution. So a one to one, a two to one or I think they're famous for selling to support this way. They'll say three dollars a unit, but it's really. Yeah, it's really equivalent to four units or three units.

Like, it's very interesting. Great marketing Whitney. Great. I wouldn't do that. She's like, I have a soul.

I have a soul. I wouldn't do an ad like that. But honestly, as a consumer, what you see is, oh, it's three, three. Yeah, it is an exciting charging twelve dollars here. And then, yeah, I guess the other thing that I think about is I have a labia and I would never do like three dollars for Brazilian wax.

Like, you got to be careful with your bits. You got to be careful with your face. Yeah, all of it, all of it. So what I think about this is when you think about the cost of Botox, it's right around seven dollars a unit. That's how much it is to put it inside this building.

For you guys. Correct. For the providers. Right between. And it depends on if they purchase a lot or what status and tier they are.

But I would say on average, it's probably between six and seven dollars just to put it inside of this building. That doesn't include med malpractice. So that's your insurance to make sure you're safe when somebody is injecting it. That doesn't include the tools to clean your body. It doesn't include the needles, the person that takes the phone call, the EMR system to schedule, to chart everything, those type of things.

So the cost goes up in relation to the cost to get it into your body. And the other thing that people have to remember is my hands or your providers hands are the most important tool because you're not paying a hundred and twenty dollars for somebody to do your hair. That's the bottle. You're not paying for the bottle. You're not paying for the polish.

You're not paying for the medication. You're paying for the service component, which is getting it into your body in the most efficacious way. Right. Right. The providers hands matter.

The product isn't the most important thing. You can rub Botox on your face and good luck. You're not going to get more smooth. Right. You need someone to put it in your skin.

Right. And I will attest that Botox is probably the best investment. Actually, it's so neat. It does so much for smooth skin, but there are 16 indications and only like three, maybe four to be cute. The rest are therapeutic.

Oh my gosh. They benefit your muscles and problems with your body. Yeah, I have I have hyperhidrosis since I was like a teenager. What does that mean, Whitney? Tell us.

Hyperhidrosis means you have sweaty pits. Yeah. No reason. And I would buy like all these black shirts when I I wish I had Botox when I was 13, 14 years old. It would have changed my life.

And I've been getting well better late than never. But I don't even have to get as much Botox in my armpits. Yes. As much anymore. Atrophies that gland.

So it lacks a little bit longer. It's a dead end. So any haters that say Botox, why don't you just be natural? Oh my gosh. Why don't you just have to wear black shirts for the rest of your life?

It's weird. I'm wearing a black shirt today, but I also have white and tan shirts and pink now because of Botox. Well, and the other thing is we can live in both lands. Be natural as you want. You can rub crystal on your armpit.

You can rub hope, lavender. You can shower. We live in a land where people can pick how much they want to step into aesthetic medicine. Please don't rub crystals. Well, I mean, I don't want to be alone in an elevator with you.

But if you want to do that, I'm a proponent of choice. Like however you want to feel special and clean. Sweet. So let's get into the less triggering rage. Right.

OK. I am seen everywhere on TikTok. The do it yourself micro needling. They usually use this thing called Dr. Penn.

I think you can even buy it on the TikTok shop. And yeah, what do you think about that? You know, I feel like as far as risk goes, it is slightly less risk. Right. The depth of this is anywhere from point to five to point five.

So what they're living in is a land of less benefit and less risk. Right. So when you go into a medical practice, they're starting usually at that point five depth and going further. Right. So when you're talking about product absorption, that's the depth this lives in.

When you start to talk about like the depth of a hair follicle, that's at about point five point seven. Right. So you start to get into different lands where you have collagen synthesis. So for for product absorption, it's beneficial. However, not all products are meant to absorb this way.

So if you're using a random product and you get it past that epidermal layer, is it safe? That's one. What if you apply it in a way that you get scarring or attraction? Right. You get the little track marks and scarring.

So do you know how to do the technique and glide? I feel like if you're going for the micro needling at home, there's those little kits that are like aqua gold or aqua derm. Those ones where it's stamping. Stamping is so much safer when it's an automated pen and you're dragging it. You're way more at way bigger risk to have scarring and that type of thing.

Right. Or problems with absorption and things like that. A lot of those kids come with serums that are appropriate for that depth. Right. So those are the type of things that I think it's a good it's a good maintenance treatment.

It doesn't replace micro needling in a clinical setting because the depth that doesn't have the change in cellular turnover. Right. So my TikTok page is like he's lying to me. It's trying to market me. Market your product.

Your algorithms got you. Marketers. Oh man, your own people. Are they getting you? All right.

So what about dermaplaning? Oh no. That's such a hard one because who doesn't want to get rid of their little fuzzy peach fuzz beard? A lot of people, you know, you're hunting that smooth glass skin where your makeup looks all dewy and fancy or no makeup and you just look like a new baby. Right.

I would say dermaplaning at home. The problem with it is the way our vision works. We're seeing the front part of our face. The way the angle of the blade you have to have. You need that type of angle where you're at 45 and a lot of people will go even flatter and sometimes like a 30 degree angle that really protects your skin.

Right. But it is a scalpel. So when you're doing those little tinks, I can't remember the names of them, but I can't like plastic. Yeah. Yeah.

And they're like a dollar. And the other thing is like they're not meant to be multi-use. So you're supposed to be disposing of those like in a Gatorade bottle or in a biohazard because they're a knife. Right. They're a little baby knife.

The bacterial infections have been phenomenal from those I've seen. Those are fantastic for lacerations, especially as people go lateral. And there's one side of your face you're better at it with. Right. The person that's doing your whole face uses their dominant hand the whole time.

If you're using your dominant hand and crossing, there's tons of problems with lacerations here and underneath their chin because your skin changes drastically as you go to your neck. Different type of glands, different type of texture. Hmm. Well, you should have told me this like years ago because I have dermaplane my face quite a few times and I have always regretted afterwards. Yeah.

There's other like I mean like as far as cost effective, there's something called the Flawless. You can get it on Amazon. There's a lot of people that maybe argue with this. The thing about this one is you can't cut yourself. Right.

It's like a little tiny little circulating razor in there and you just go over your skin. You can't cut yourself. It gets all the peach fuzz. It's fantastic. Oh, and do you like the electronic?

Yeah. I think I have that. That one, like if somebody is like hell bent on doing it from their home, I recommend that one because it also has a little light and you can see. The biggest thing that I've seen with people like they'll dust their face with flour or cornstarch. Oh.

And then they'll shave themselves. Oh my gosh. What is that? Well, it's cool because you can see the hair, but it doesn't make you better at it. It doesn't make you.

It's so visually amazing. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's very good. We see a lot of lacerations and the hard part is you are trying to go for a Flawless skin and you end up with a scar or a cut.

That can get in the sun. It can react and it can cause scar and hyper post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. So, oh, yikes. You're breaking my heart today. They put like a flawless and then do your maintenance.

I mean, men aren't straight razoring. A lot of them don't straight razor their whole face themselves. They can do the anterior part, but a lot of them go to a barber for safety. And if you think about that, is this something that you've done for 20 years and you're really good at it? Fine, go ahead.

But throw those away. Clean your skin and look for alternatives that are safe that don't have a risk for infection or cutting, scarring, those type of things. All right. So what about chemical pills? I am guilty.

I have the ordinary like 30 percent. Oh, my God. It's icy. Well, Heidi, how did you get it? Tick tock.

Oh, my hell. Well, is that I mean, I just bought it, I think, on Amazon. But tick tock influenced me. So 30 percent. So the hardest thing about this, too, is when you're buying it from a source like some it's all based on like states.

Certain states have different laws on who can put it on your skin, who's qualified. I can guarantee for like those higher TCAs, you can get chemical burns. It is a chemical pill and it has a controlled way that you apply it. What if you don't neutralize it? What if you over process it?

Oh, my goodness. Chemical burns we see a lot. What if you have skin of color and you pull the pigment out of your skin? Even if you have lighter skin, you can still get hypo pigmentation where you have giant white spots. It's easier to hide based on your pigment.

But it's not worth the chemical, the risk for chemical burn. There's a lot of estheticians that have experience that do those from home. They'll do a cute little video and then it's like amazing. But a chemical burn is is a scar. So every time you decide to do one of these things at home, you almost get the opposite of what you were looking for.

You're looking for smooth skin. You're looking for a reduction of bumps, right? You want lighter skin. Well, what if you just have one spot that's lighter? What if you get a new scar from your dermaplane?

What if you dermaplane, get some lacerations and then put a chemical pill on it? That happens a lot. I've seen that a lot. Well, so chemical pills from home. Talk to your esthetician.

Look up stuff like lactic acid, like enzymatic pills. Those are safer maintenance products because they can't go as deep and stuff that's self neutralizing. Because certain chemical pills, if you don't neutralize, you can have one area that's still active and the other one that's neutralizing. So you can have like blisters first. We call them partial or full thickness burns now.

But in the olden days, it would be like first or second degree burns way past a sunburn because it's chemical. I mean, don't quit it. Stop that. My heart is broken because I just hate pain. Hate pain.

It's funny because you tell me not to be my own marketer. You tell me that AI has really good skills at discerning and sorting and making lists for us. But it's still not ready for clinical judgment or critical thinking. Right. So I'm like, why can't I be at the top of Google in one day?

And you're like, ma'am, that's not how the world works. Ma'am, stop doing chemical pills alone with your dermaplane. Yeah. Don't do it. It makes sense.

But what can people do? Oh, my gosh. There's so many things you can do. OK, I would say the top three things that I would do at home to be safe. I like those micro needling.

It's not it's more of a stamp. So they have like serum. We can put them and link them. There's a couple that are really good. Aqua Gold.

That one, I think, has been rebranded and you the serum comes in the bottle and you can stamp it into your skin. It delivers to the right depth and the quality of the ingredients not going to be as reactive. Right. Would you numb your face first? No, because they're very superficial.

That depth of zero point two five, you maybe fill it a little and it's a stamp. So it's not very painful because, like I said, we're not going to a depth where you're growing collagen. You're really doing product absorption. Right. It makes the product absorb better.

And that would make your skin more dewy and fancy. Doing that maybe once a week, things like that. That would be beneficial a couple of times a month, depending upon your skin type and your concerns. That is fantastic. Fantastic.

I think using medical grade products, not everything has to be medical grade. And if you don't have acne, a less expensive CeraVe, like more of the natural lighter brands, use some of those. But then use like a real retinol, like something that's going to cause. From Mexico? Ah.

Oh, no, I didn't buy my retinol from Mexico. Well, you totally can. But that's like more of a prescription, right? Yeah. So you have prescription retinol, you have medical grade, and then you have rando retinol.

So prescription retinol is set up for a disease process. I don't when you buy it from Mexico, I can say that sometimes people buy stuff and it works and it's great. That doesn't mean all stuff from Mexico is great. But do you know how to diagnose and prescribe yourself? Right.

I mean, me and Chad, you do it. Yeah, I know. Yeah, dang it. Some of a, well, anyhow, that type of retinol over time is very aggressive. So some of the medical grade has different delivery methods.

So there would be biphasic or sustained release or they have a barrier and then they release slowly. Where the the one that's prescribed is like it is like a blowtorch. So some people that are like super rosy addict or different patient types can't tolerate it. Then they say retinol is bad, but it's because it's not the right product. Right.

So I feel like when you find somebody that's good at helping you with dupes, just don't do active products or products that have more risk. Right. For you. Yeah. Which brings me to this point.

I you know, I'm tick tock, which is a good thing. But there's this woman on tick tock. Her name is Nina Pool. She's freaking awesome. She's autistic.

Right. And so she'll read the ingredients and like skin care and makeup and then try to find like a dupe of like the exact ingredient ingredients. And usually it's at like the dollar store or elf or at the drugstore. And like people love her. I love her.

Yeah, I do. She's fascinating. You got to like look her up. But when should we not do the do do piece? Um, I think on those active ingredients, the ingredients that are going to protect you from antioxidant like antioxidants.

Right. Um, things that are going to be like vitamin C is because the amount of active ingredient and the amount that's going to give you benefit. So having somebody that can check ingredients, that's fantastic. But the quality of the ingredients. Right.

And the concentrations and ratios, because you can read a list and be like, oh, five products, the same five products, the same. What's the ratio? What's the concentration of each ingredient? What's the source and what's the quality? I'm all for you saving money on makeup.

As long as it's not causing bacteria like breakouts, it's occlusive. Is it does it have different ingredients that are harmful to you? Right. So save money all day long on a cleanser, but not on your actives, not on your retinol, your alpha ray, your. And the other thing too is like there's a lot of really, really good, cheaper acne lines.

Right. Those are some of the differences like a salicylic acid. You know, you if you have a good percentage, all all of it burns the crap out of your face. The medical grade has better ingredients combined with it that will protect your skin a little better. But but yeah, so I would say.

Doop your like do things that have less harm to your body. Yeah, you don't want to trap burn because you're doing a doop off of somebody that can compare ingredients. Right. Right. And speaking of tick tock trends, I've fallen victim to this one.

Korean skin care, the toners, the serums, the mass, the toner pads. I have a question. Have you seen that your skin you like better or it looks better? Honestly, I have gone down to like three very, very simple products now. So, yeah, I can say that I got suckered in, but I love how it looks like afterwards.

But then I'm too sensitive. Your skin has a saturation point. So how long between each step, how many products, the order matters. Your genetics matter, too. I can tell you I'm Italian and white lady.

So the type of products that I can use on my skin for sensitive and having solar eutectaria very drastically. So labeling something Korean skin care is totally different than having an outcome based product, because you'll look at Korean skin and you'll be like, wow, that is beautiful. What is that population eat like? What are their genetics? How thick is their skin?

What we rate skin or we don't rate it, but we protect skin based on if it has pigment in it. So how how can we damage your pigment or how can we cause reactions if you have no pigment? Right. So you have to think about all those things before you just get marketed to, because a lot of them look shiny and look really good. But what's the benefit?

So when I say you're 20, play around, have a good time. Do 89 steps as you get older. You don't have the luxury because your estrogen changes, your cortisol, your gut health changes. So when we do skin treatment plans here, we really talk about like the freest way to help your skin. Water.

Give it some water. That's free. Hydrate it. You know, what is your tummy butt look like? Are you eating kimchi or prebiotics probiotics?

What about real yogurt instead of sugar? Right. Those are the type of things that can change the way the cells are turning over and the glandular activity. What if you're micro dosing GLP one? I can change your skin.

Are you on spironolactone? Do you have PCOS? Do you have insulin resistance? Like you rubbing Korean skincare on your face may not be appropriate for your skin problem. So enjoy eight steps of any country of products.

It doesn't matter unless it's right for your skin. And honestly, if you do it and you love it, keep doing it. Right. Do it. Doop it away.

Buy it on TikTok. Just don't buy tox. Yeah, don't buy stuff that you can't reverse and goes inside of your body. Right. I really don't have a problem if people want to buy Korean skincare.

But if you're trying to change wrinkles, you want to make sure that you're using products that have cellular turnover. Right. And my niece, who's 13, she loves skincare like anybody else who watches TikTok. And I see she's buying a bunch of actives because they look fancy like watermelon toner that has actives in it, VHA or whatever. And I just threatened her.

I'm like, girl, if you want to have glowing skin ahead of your time, sunscreen like a mofo. What a smart aunt she has because the other thing is like I actively participate in this. I'm doing this is my profession and I drink some of the Kool-Aid, not all of it. Right. I really personally have a problem of the beauty conditioning that's happening.

I have a 15 year old daughter that is telling me she needs eight and nine steps. And if you have that too. Yeah. She's on TikTok, girl. She doesn't have social media, but she has friends and she has eyes.

Right. Right. But the problem that I have is like a 15 year old skin has great cellular turnover, great turgor, elastin, collagen. It's in a growth phase. So if I'm I'm telling a 15 year old that there's more they can do, we help 15 year olds get habits.

Right. Sunscreen. And if they have acne, we try to avoid Accutane if there's other ways that we can help their skin. Right. Before putting that some people really need Accutane.

That is going to be you and your derms choice. But as far as as far as marketing to younger kids, that's that's a problem I have. Like I don't want to condition my my daughter to be on eight steps. I want her to say prevention, like you said, is the first step. Protect your skin and enjoy being your age.

Have fun. You don't need 89 steps. Clean your skin. Wash it. Feed it healthy food.

Feed it water. Put some lotion on. You don't need actives when your cells are the most active they're going to be in your life. Yeah. Yeah.

I actually have like an ethical dilemma with that because my daughter will come in here and be like, what can I get? What products do I need? And you give her some sunscreen and she gets a sad panda face and you get her a little cute moisturizer. And that's that's about it. She does have acne and we've gotten her to a place where it's corrected.

So she does spot treat with like even incorrect or sometimes like a cell. But other than that, I'm a no. I do like when they get acne, like putting sunblock on it and then there's something called nectar after it starts to heal so that it doesn't become a scar. Like we like to prevent scars. So sunblock would be the best way.

And even like wearing hats and stuff like that. Hats are super cute and she can protect her skin that way. But I do not want my child to become a prisoner of beauty. Yeah, I do not want beauty to become a prison for them. I want it to be something that enhances her life but doesn't restrict it.

Right. But I mean, think like we grew up without social media. Thank God. I would have been called like all sorts of things. I had my space.

Oh, yes. My space was fun. But like even before social media, like women were grilled into them. That beauty is our like number one asset. Like that is a long, very, very long.

I guess there is like a form of hypocrisy. Like I live in this land. The type of beauty that we are the most involved with is modification of confidence. And I can't tell you where how many times people have that wrinkle or that spot. And it's men and women that has bothered them or somebody said something to them or you look tired.

You know, things that people are commenting or somebody that's going through a divorce. It's very weird is because when they think you, they need you. You help them and you get them to a point where they don't need you. And that's the success. Right.

When that lady goes on her first date after her divorce with her fancy new lips. Like that is a priceless moment when she feels comfortable enough to talk to this man because she's been in a negative relationship for years. And then you get invited to their wedding, you know, or you see a lady that's in her 70s. This is my favorite patient of my life. She's in her 70s.

She hasn't dated in 20 years. We help her lose weight. She gets a couple of facials and nine months later she felt more confident. Right. She felt able to talk to people.

And now she's married. And I see her not very much because it changed the way she took up space. And that's what we specialize in. So we do participate in beauty. But the level of consumption and the way it participates in your life is a choice.

Right. Right. So that's really our goal. I think it's I mean, I think it's a distraction. I remember I remember when I was, you know, my niece and your daughter's age.

And I just knew in my mind that if my mom bought me all these clothes and if I lost weight, my whole life would be better. Yeah. And I just I hope I wish for everyone to get as much money as you ever want. Yeah. As many clothes and to be as skinny as possible to realize that your problems still might exist.

Yeah. But it's man, I want to be a teenager again. You can't pay me. You could not pay me. I'll have like the skin and the butt, but no, not the hormones.

Honestly, I don't know. I I feel like each generation has its challenges. Right. Yeah. This is a new every generation also has a new set of challenges that we haven't experienced.

So I hope that the mental health like for my child doesn't revolve around that. There it is a part of a woman's life in this country. Beauty is. Yeah, it is. And it's part of being a woman in many countries.

So we want to participate in the way that makes people feel the best about themselves. And then it's not overwhelming. And it's not the primary goal. We want to build confidence. Right.

Without harming or right. Or being like a prisoner. Like if you decide not to wash your face, it'll be OK. If you decide not to use a retinol, like it's your choice. Like you can be the type of lady that's a sun queen and sees me once a year for, you know, some sunscreen, you know.

Or you can be the lady that goes down the rabbit hole and has a laser treatment to prevent aging. You know, it's a choice. It's not a prison. So that's really we just really participate in building confidence and help. And there's people with dysmorphia.

Right. And what we want to do is not watch them on the red carpet as a spectator. We want to be a woman and understand what pain they may be going through and refer them to a counselor. Not disrespect them by taking advantage of them and not laugh at them for having a problem. It's a problem.

It's not something to spectate and it's not something to laugh about. You know, like we have these filters on our phones and things that happen where it becomes a spectator sport. So I think for us, we just want to honor men and women's bodies, mostly women. We love our women. Yes, we do.

Yeah, we love the women. And so we want to honor and respect their the whole spectrum of emotions that they can have and see how we can support them. But I I will let my daughter enter into this land as she wants to, but not because of me. That's a choice for her. You know.

So for those watching or listening to circle back on the do it yourself skincare and med spa trends, is it marketing or is both right? If every third thing you see on Instagram or TikTok is an ad to make you better, shinier, happier, then at some point you're going to find that. So before anyone goes and buys that micro needling device, which honestly, I'll be truthful. I was thinking about it until today or that, you know, that strong chemical pill or God forbid, the Korean Botox. What what last words would you like to say to them?

You know, honestly, I feel like almost the majority of medical spas that are not a plastic surgery office do free consultations. I would go talk to somebody that you trust and have a good rapport with and ask for advice because we're women. We understand that you're going to want to do stuff alone in your bathroom. Why don't you ask advice? What's the safest?

Right. I still I will never say I think you should do Botox at home alone. It's a medical procedure. There is a huge difference between an aesthetic treatment and a medical procedure. Chemical pills go into a medical procedure because of their risk.

But if you are like, hey, how can I save money and do amazing things in my own house? And we touched on them. Prevention is the biggest one. Food, water, doing stuff that's better products, really good actives. Find a dupe.

And if the dupe works for you, do it. Just nothing that is going inside of your body. The next thing I would say is making sure the prevention is way less expensive than doing Botox. Right. If you're using sunblock and you're wearing hats and stuff like that, you still can have active wrinkles.

But the damage you get from the sun is drastically more. So protect your stun or protect your skin from the sun is probably the biggest, easiest one to do. And look for mineral sun blocks because there's a lot of controversy on sun blocks causing cancer and all of that. Oh, yeah. I don't even want to go down that rabbit hole.

But if you're looking for a mineral barrier, that's that's old. If you're wearing clothes, you can block the sun very easily, especially as we go into summer. Your tiny shorts, your tiny shirts, you know, half the day in them. Then wear some sunblock. Put on sunblock every few hours.

But enjoy your time. Be happy. Enjoy being happy. The best skin care. No, like just I mean, like enjoy.

Don't spend your whole day focusing on that. And if you want to do Botox at home, get a free consult at any med spa first. So they tell you not to do it. They tell you not. Yeah, don't do it at home.

That has too many risks. The lowest, lowest risk is it does nothing. The highest risk is that you get an infection or a scar. Right. And what if there's a chemical that we don't know what's in it and it goes and has effects in other systems?

So sweet. Yeah. Well, thanks for discussing this with me today. And yeah, no, thank you, Whitney. Thanks for taking me around the tick tock rabbit holes that I didn't even.

Just wait. I have more. OK. But now I'm hopefully my for you page will not. I will scroll when I see this.

Good. Good job. Be careful. I think it's be careful out there, right? Don't DIY DIY your house.

Oh, yeah. Do that. Not your electrical, not your plumbing, but everything else. You get the DIY bug. Do it that way.

Sounds good. Thanks, Celeste. No, thank you.