The Paper Trail Podcast

Science Meets Beauty: Discover the Skin Lab Experience

• January Alexander

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Nikki Green of The Skin Lab shares how science-based skincare and mentorship are transforming confidence and careers - right here in Lebanon, TN.

>> Nikki Green:

At the end of the day, we are science based, results driven aesthetics. So we're a full service medis spa. We're located right in the heart of Lebnon. And when we say that, we really mean that we really feel like we are a part of that partbe, of a local and loved community.

>> January:

Welcome back to the paipper trail. We are so excited today to have a special guest with us today. she is the founder of the skin lab, Nikki Green. And she blends science, artistry and heart, her heart, all into helping patients shine. So welcome to the paper trail.

>> Nikki Green:

Thank you for having me.

>> January:

So I'm so glad you're here today. I have been one of your patients the last couple years and, I can remember the first time I came, to your, you call it.

>> Nikki Green:

It's our practice.

>> January:

Well, but you also say in the treatment room. That's right. Yeah, in the treatment room. So when I visited for the first time, I've had facials, you know, in my past, I definitely have not had them regularly. Right. so one of the things I was excited to do when we started, you know, I started coming to you and we started working together was I just loved your education behind what you do. It is really, there is a lot of science to it that I think most women don't really realize. Or you see skincare all the time and you know, you're thinking, oh, this looks good. This looks like it could fix me. But you don't really know the chemicals involved or what's in the product or you just see something cute and fun and you want to try it. So I loved your research and how you treated me and just the beauty of the space, the, calmness of the space. I feel like every time I come to you, I say this, this couldn't come at a better day. Yes. Because I'm always going and going and stressed and as we all are dealing with life. And so when I lay down on just like, oh my gosh, thank you for this moment with you because it feels so good. And then I come out feeling better and looking better. So thank you for that. So let's just dive right in. I've got several things I want people to know. Like I said, I've been with you a couple years, but, and we've done a couple stories on you. But I want folks to know more about who you are, what you got going on, and then what they can expect at the skin lab.

>> Nikki Green:

I love that.

>> January:

So the first one, I kind of want to just know who is the skin lab. What if somebody was like, what is the skin lab? What would you say?

>> Nikki Green:

Well, at the end of the day, we are science based, results driven aesthetics. So we're a full service Medis Spa. we're located right in the heart of Leubon. And when we say that, we really mean that. We really feel like we are a part of that heartbeat of a local and loved community. A community, admittedly that used to be small and is much larger now. but we feel confident that we're a large part of that as well. Y. we know that you easily can traverse into the greater Nashville area and get some really beautiful services. But at the end of the day, you actually don't have to this really beautiful community to get that top tier and really superior option when it comes to aesthetics and professional skin care.

>> January:

Yeah. And that's one of the things that we preach here is just stay local and you know that we don't have to go to Nashville. Theseiden hidden jewels are right here. There's so many services, you know, amongst just ourselves. So I agree, thankful for that. So that was really good to hear and I've been, like I said, going and enjoy it. I love that you guys are located centrally in the city. it's really easy to get in and out. you know, I just always enjoy the ease of it. So that's good. So tell us some of the services that you offer.

>> Nikki Green:

Well, we have a wide service catalog. Outside of just your regular facial series house types of facials. We really like to delve into more of the science based initiatives. I will say there is a number of establishments that would find themselves to be comparable or similar to us in their values. but we are not that fluffy facial house. We will give you a very luxurious facial, no doubt about it. but at the end of the day, we are doing progressive changes to skin, brows and lashes each and every session that we provide. so all of these are gonna be science based initiatives. In fact, our most newest one that we've offered, is gonna be our cellular renewal therapy and M. It's a mouthful because it is just a boatload of really good stuff inside of it. at the end of the day it is a major anti aging component. It's done so with growth factor. outside of that, it also is going to be dealing with exism. if you're not familiar with what some of these terminologies mean, the real simplified version is it is a Major anti ager. And it works not on the topical. So not just your first layer of skin, which is known as the epidermis. Instead, it's working very, very deeply past each of those dermal layers, past str of corneum, and then into the think tank or the mitochondria of the cell inside your DNA. So it is a very deep procedure in the sense of getting to the causation or the root triggers of aging deficit and then really correcting it from that internal piece and then outward towards that epidermis that we can see with the naked eye. So a lot of signs is a lot of sign.

>> January:

And every time I hear you, like the whole time I'm laying there, I'm like, she is like a straight scientist. Like, I've never even heard of some of these words. And I'm like, they're huge. I don't even know how you can say it, much less, you know, remember it. But, one of my favorite treatments that I've had, I'LIKE I said, I've been coming monthly for the last two years. Absolutely love it. I've seen huge, you know, progress in my skin. I have what I like to call chicken skin. It's awful. It is, it is porous. It is like, you know, I don't know, it's just not. It's not my ideal skin. I Very, very fair. I say my skin is mayonnaise. I'm very fair. I do have a lot of redness and a lot of, you know, almost like rosacea tendencies. on the minor scale, I have sensitive skin, have dry skin. I have all the things. So, you know, I think one of the things that you've taught me is just the consistency pays out. Yes, the products pay out. The better quality products pay out. And I have been really, diving into that for the last few years. But also one of my favorite treatments that I just had a few months back, a series of three, months, was the micro needling with rad fren frequency. That'right I remembered it. so with that kind of explain that service, because I will say, and I'm going to speak to the ladies real quick on this one, even men. because I'm sure some men get it too. But like I've always heard, oh, my gosh, my friend, need. Well, needles don't scare me. I have a super pain tolerance. So that part didn't scare me. It was just, am I going to come out of here looking like I'beennt? My face has been Runn over and I can't do business the next two days because I've got meetings, I've got, you know, things I got to be at. And I was afraid of looking sunburn and ro rash like I've been drugged behind a car baby. And so I was like what is this going to do to my face? What's the downtime on it? but you do numb your face, which was great. I will say nobody likes to be numb. You know, I know it's like even going the dentist I hated, you know, being numb. But really the pain was not that bad at all. Especially the second and the third one I say was even better. That's right M and the results were huge and the downtime was very minimal. So tell me a little bit of that technology behind of course.

>> Nikki Green:

So microneedling with radio frequency, you put your scientific headt on and you ve got that right for sure. the series of three really aided us in the opportunity for progression of skin. So we saw a really deep correction of your loss of laxity or your chicken skin that you refer to. we also were able to knowe your reduction in fine line and wrinkle as well as static wrinkle. So your aging deficit, that happens normally every six months to a year as we mature, and an all over resurface as well as an all over youthfulization of skin. So that imagery really of a more youthful perfected skin, as you noted, the skin acclimates through series one, then two and then up to three and in some cases more, but in your case three. so we feel as though we acclimate to it each time we work together. So we're building or stacking upon the work we've done previous. So it doesn't quite have that same uncomfortable note that it might have in number one. In subsequent numbers two and threeah, you touched a little bit on how you were numb and that's absolutely true. We topically analges the skin, we make sure that you're your most comfortable all throughout that survey. There's just no reason to be uncomfortable. If you're in a clinic that has a medical director, then you have full carte blanche to have everything that you need. And of course we do. Ye, it's very comfortable, we agree and we like to keep it that way for everybody. There's no reason to have to be apprehensive ahead of a service. In fact, you should be fully informed, micro educated and super easy peasy about everything from start to finish. And that's what we like to do.

>> January:

And I do love that because you share exactly what to expect whole way through. And right before you do something, you tell me, okay, I'm about to do this. This is what it's going to feel like. This is what it should feel like. And then are you feeling anything different, you know, let me know. So it's for anybody that's scared, anybody that's worried about it, I would highly recommend it. And, you do get great results as well as, you know, it's not that bad. And you're going to. She's going to walk you through the whole thing. You're going to be like, okay, when can I come back? So I'm already looking forward to doing another series. It. So I can't wait for that. So, what about. So I know, like, you love your patients, you love your job.

>> Nikki Green:

Y.

>> January:

Tell me what you love most about your job and what it brings. Like, the kind of joys and stuff that come from this.

>> Nikki Green:

You know, I will tell you, the reason that I got into the industry of aesthetics was, number one, I really love all things beauty. I feel like if you know me and well, then you already know. I really love all the things that help you feel really positive, really confident, and just shoulders back and head high. If you put your best foot forward always, you'll find likely there's a positive outcome. And I feel like, females come to see me day in and day out, and life just. Just weighs on them heavily, whether it's being 10 out of 10 mother, 10 out of 10, wife, 10 out of 10 supervisor, like, whatever hat they're wearing. And a lot of times it's multiple hats, for sure. They are trying to be a 10 out of 10 each and every time. And I mean, if you think about it, we all have our own gas tank to fill. and if we're trying to be 10 out of 10 in that gas tank, if we're giving it to each person in each avenue, we really, a little bit, get down to the low part of our own tank.

>> January:

Y.

>> Nikki Green:

And so we need a boost of confidence every now and again. as you spoke about in the beginning, you know, your chicken skin or your mayonnaise skin, I don't see those things, thank you. I see just beauty from the inside. And I see it just kind of come out and exude to the outside. And I can see it from a mile away from you, but from so many of our friends and patients. I would call it discernment But I just can see that from a mile away. And I want to match the internal beauty with the external beauty. So if I have a doll that comes and see me and her shoulders are down and her head is maybe down, she's not as confident as she should be walking through life. I'm gonna do my absol 10 out of 10 best every time to ensure that we change the outward beauty for her. So that intern, it matches her internal beauty, and then she can see it with her own eyes. Because we are our own harshest critic. M. So we need to let others really take care of us. And so that's exactly what we try to do.

>> January:

That's awesome. Well, I don't know if your ears were burning this morning, but, this morning I was having coffee with a couple other colleagues, and, we were discussing how right now it's really hard. We had a guy with us that was young and looking into a career. and it is in her career was not in your field. However, this all kind of made me think of you as you and I have talked about this, but how so many fields now? you know, I'm going to call them kids, but they're early right out of school, right out of college. They're looking for experience and looking for jobs. They havelomas.

>> Nikki Green:

Yes.

>> January:

But they don't have experience on the street or out in the world or in the field yet. Right. And so, you know, one of the things I was hearing from this girl was, you know, she was in that same boat. And I said, you know that. I've heard that, and I've actually heard it. I said, a friend of mine has the skin lab, and she has created this incredible program for that exact reason, because she was, see, you know, in the aesthetics world that you d. Get the degree or you get the, you know, college certificate, for your program, and then you go to apply for that job, and they're like, well, you haven't touched any faces, you know, or you haven't done this yet. Right. So what experience do you have? L. Down. Well, we're not going to hire you. Right. So you created this incredible internship program that I. We did. We've talked about it in NURS magazine. We've loved hearing about it. I love that you advocate women and carry them forward and move them into that next level. So tell us about that.

>> Nikki Green:

I would love to. so of course, we offer what's known as the Skin Labs internship program. It is, some parts internship and some parts mentorship and Both really are so important and so aided. as you say, we advocate for females often. Of course, I'm a female myself, and so that just rings true to me. I did not have what you would call. I did have a mentor. Let me step back. I did have a mentor inesthetics, but I did not have somebody right by my side that was going toa help me to walk through each step and know how to navigate it easily. So there were several hiccups in life, as there are for anybody that I had to navigate through. And so what we try to do is really minimize those hiccups for the next crop of females coming through. Aesthetics in general. so we brought this, program in and debuted in 2022. And it has really just grown leaps and bounds with every six months to a year that it's been in place. what we like to focus on is what's pulling behind the curtain and seeing what's truly happening in a medical aesthetics space. it's very different than what you can kind of just learn in the book or online or something like that. so we do take into account when, young ladies are in aesthet school, you know, in real time, whether they have graduated already and letting this be a milestone or a stepping stone for them. but we also do not just, focus only on the young lady in aesthetic school. In fact, there's been several opportunities for young ladies to come and see us. One, most recently, she had a degree in, biology and chemistry. And she was looking to step forward into actually creating skincare in the future. So a whole new step for her. And so she wanted to have a gauge on what is the aesthetic industry in general. So she went through our program andtorship for that. we've also had secondary, scenarios where we've had either LPNs or RNs that, have reached those degree points but have decided to go in more of an aesthetic, you know, jununcture or avenue, maybe injection or something like that. And so they've gone through our program as, again, a stepping stone of sorts. So it doesn't always have to be that cookie cutter, just aesthetician. It can be some things that are similar or near. in fact, we really try to give good mentorship on not only how to be the professional medical esthetic, but how to marry what we call the bedside manner with the skill set. because as you knowge, we as medical physicians can be a dime a dozen. This is a fairly saturated industry nowadays. Side note, When I became an estesthetician a thousand years ago, people didn't even know what that word was. And so it's very different now than it used to be. and so with that being said, we want to set ourselves apart from some of the others generically. And we do that by really polishing every focus there and further education. Ah, new certifications, learning the theory of more in depth and just getting that hands on shadowing and experience.

>> January:

Yeah, I, I know you've had some girls in. In my, you know, days that I've been in, in my sessions you've had some shadows and that's going good.

>> Nikki Green:

Yeah.

>> January:

So I think it's really great that you're doing that. And it's, it's a great opportunity for locals and not locals, you know that like you see the people that could even be in nearby cities that don't have this opportunity. So we love sharing that absolutelying about it. So thanks for, for telling Absolute. I think people will be interested in. They might have students or family members that are interested. So that's a good kind of a note. So if somebody wants to find you, find out about the internship, you know, get services, come to see you where and how can they do that?

>> Nikki Green:

So we are located in the heart of Lebanon. We're at 706 Cadet Court, which is actually a very historic part of Lendon. it's where the military barng were in the military school years ago. It's very beautifully groomed. Just a really beautiful area beside Sammy Bees. Right.

>> January:

Besides Sammy Bees.

>> Nikki Green:

That's right, Castle. Hal. With that being said, we are open Monday through Friday and half days on Saturdays. We try to be flexible for everybody's hours. We even see some patients after the dedicated business hour for those ladies that are kind of traveling in from the greater national area from their job or something like that. So we do try to be really all encompassing of the schedule there. but people can visit our website, it's www.lovetheskinlab.comt. you can see all of our catalog services. You can see an image of what a representation of that looks like in a full detailed archive of exactly what is going to be taking place when you have that type of service done. from there you actually can read more about our internship program, reselling opportunities. We do have private label items that lots of boutiques and other you know, salons or spas carry of our. And so if you want to become a reseller of ours as well. That's another opportunity awome. you can learn all about our team of dedicated medical aheticians on our website. But it's a great way to figure out a little more about us and then also how to book with us easily.

>> January:

And the other thing that some of you may not know is she also carries a great line. Perfumes, mascaras. You've got eyelash, services. That's right. You do guest speaking.

>> Nikki Green:

Absolutely.

>> January:

You have self tanning. We just put yourselff tanner in our fall box and or actually our summer box. Sorry. And it's, it's wonderful. I've used it. It's a great product. It's beautiful. We love very natural looking. So that's, that's a plus that you've got. And you've just got so many other things, you know, outside of just your traditional facials and things. So definitely check them out. and you do guest speaking as well. You can be booked for that.

>> Nikki Green:

Absolutely.

>> January:

So that's an opportunity too. If anybody has needs or wants, in any of those categories, check her out for sure. Thank you for coming today.

>> Nikki Green:

Absolutely.

>> January:

We have just been so glad to have you and I hope that this has been great for you and able, you know, to share some of your services with our people.

>> Nikki Green:

Absolutelye.

>> January:

So continue to follow us on the paper trail and go see Ms. Nikki and her team. They are beautiful, they are wonderful and they will make you feel great. So we will see you the next time. Thank you.