Couture Conversations
At Couture Med Spa, we believe that true radiance starts from within. Our mission is to transform the med spa experience by making self-care accessible, affordable, and empowering. In a world filled with unrealistic beauty standards, we’re here to change the narrative—because beauty isn’t just about how you look, it’s about how you feel.
Join us as we explore the latest in aesthetic treatments, wellness trends, and confidence-boosting insights. We’ll sit down with industry experts, share real client experiences, and dive into the transformative power of personalized self-care.
Whether you’re looking to enhance your natural glow, learn about cutting-edge treatments, or simply embrace a new perspective on beauty, you’ve come to the right place.
Couture Conversations
Beauty Beyond Nursing: Nicole's Aesthetic Journey
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Nicole's journey from trauma nursing to aesthetic medicine reveals how unexpected career paths often lead to the most fulfilling destinations. What began with a casual invitation to shadow a colleague at Couture Med Spa transformed into a passionate six-year career helping clients achieve natural-looking beauty enhancements.
Her story breaks down misconceptions about the aesthetics industry. Rather than feeling disadvantaged by not being "fillered up" herself, Nicole discovered her natural approach was actually her greatest strength. "Clients actually respect that," she explains. "They don't want to look fake or overdone." This authenticity creates a comfortable environment where clients feel understood in their desire for subtle improvements rather than dramatic transformations.
The podcast reveals fascinating insights into the daily life at Couture Med Spa's Ocoee location, where every day brings different treatments and clients. Nicole particularly enjoys performing filler injections, describing the process as an artistic collaboration tailored to each individual's unique features. "It's kind of like creating your own masterpiece," she shares, emphasizing how facial balancing requires a customized approach rather than a one-size-fits-all technique.
Perhaps most valuable are Nicole's revelations about skincare myths. Having struggled with acne-prone skin herself, she explains how using overly harsh products actually triggers the skin to produce more oil—a counterintuitive reaction many people don't understand. This personalized knowledge allows her to connect with clients on a deeper level, creating skincare regimens that truly address their specific concerns.
As Couture Med Spa continues expanding beyond its Florida origins to locations across the country, Nicole finds fulfillment in the growth opportunities and family-like atmosphere that defines the company culture. Her enthusiasm for both the technical aspects of aesthetic treatments and the meaningful client relationships she's built demonstrates why the membership-based spa model has proven so successful in making beauty treatments accessible to a wider audience.
Ready to experience the Couture difference for yourself? Visit couturemedspa.com to learn more about our membership options and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to stay connected with our community.
Introducing Nicole, Nurse Practitioner
Speaker 1Welcome to Couture Conversations, the podcast where we dive into all things beauty, confidence and the amazing people who make Couture Med Spa what it is today. I'm your host, lindsay, lead esthetician here at Couture Med Spa. Today I am excited to be joined by Nicole, our Nurse Practitioner from our Ocoee location. Nicole has an inspiring journey from nursing to NP school and eventually finding her way to aesthetics. She's passionate about helping clients look and feel their best and today we get to hear her story. Nicole, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2Thank you, thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1I'm excited to have you. So let's start at the beginning. Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a nurse?
From Nursing to Aesthetics Journey
Speaker 2So as a nurse I started in Jacksonville. I graduated from Chamberlain College of Nursing and started as a float nurse, actually at a trauma hospital at UF Health of Jacksonville. There I kind of was a float nurse. I kind of just went around the hospital wherever they needed me, kind of like a substitute nurse, and I learned a lot. I loved it. Trauma is a little intense, though you get a little burnt out, going to so many different floors seeing so many different things. So then I made my way back home to Orlando. I grew up in Winter Garden, so I made my way back home and I started to work at Winnie Palmer. I worked there for about two and a half years on a high risk like mother baby floor and then, after I worked there, I actually made my way into aesthetics at Couture Med Spa Nice.
Speaker 1So, as far as starting out as a nurse, what made you to make the decision to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner?
Speaker 2So I knew really early on that I always wanted to be a nurse practitioner. That was something that like I wrote essays in like fifth grade to the Elks Lodge, trying to get scholarships for, like, I always knew I wanted to be like like a nurse practitioner. Um, ideally, I thought pediatrics, like I love kids, I thought that I want, I wanted to do peds. Um, honestly, I never really thought of aesthetics. It wasn't like um as big of a thing. Um, until probably I don't know you hear about it more with like plastic surgeons, offices and things like that. And it wasn't until I worked at Winnie where I worked with another couture med spa nurse practitioner, sarah, who had graduated and actually applied and got a job here at couture. And when I was finishing up my last kind of semester of my nurse practitioner program and kind of looking into peds options, she reached out to me and she was like hey, have you ever thought about working in aesthetics? And I was like not really Like, what is it?
Speaker 1Like you know, I didn't really know what kind of it was.
Speaker 2Like I had never really done any aesthetic treatments. I was kind of like naive I guess. Um, and it she was like well, come shadow. You know, we're looking for another nurse practitioner. We do, um, all of our trainings here. We, you know, have people come in and train you. So like you, don't, don't worry about that. So I was like okay. So I went and shadowed her and I saw all the different things that you know, couture MedSpa offers, like the laser treatments, injectables and I was like this is actually kind of fun, like I like this. And I knew it was a hard field to get into as a um, a nurse practitioner. So I was like you know what? Um, let me dive into this and kind of see where it takes me. Peds will always be there so I could always go back to that if I want to. So I came in, I shadowed, I loved it, ended up interviewing and getting the job and then started working there and spent almost six years now. So that's crazy.
Speaker 1Nice, what did your first day of shadowing look like?
Speaker 2I was just like overwhelmed. I think I was like wait, what is what is an IPL? What is a fractional? Like what? What is Juvederm? Like I've I've never like heard of like any of these things before.
Speaker 2Again, I think it was more maybe me as just like a naive, like I had never done aesthetic treatments myself. No one in my family really had, um, I mean, my sister, I think, had gotten like Botox, but um, and I knew what that was, but like I didn't really know a lot of the other services. So I think I was just kind of a little overwhelmed like wow, like what is all this kind of like it's a whole new world, um, and so it was actually really really cool. It was a little intimidating, I think as well. Um, but once you know I knew Sarah, obviously, and once she kind of like kind of guided me and showed me that like no, you know, it's really like fun.
Life at Couture Med Spa
Speaker 2It's always, you know, you never get like bored of the same thing. Like industry is always changing and um, they provide a lot of like trainings and demos and things like that. So, and then once I started in the field and I got more um practice with the trainings and demos and obviously I felt more comfortable and now I love it. I'm like I don't know if I could ever do anything else. I feel like this is where I'll be forever Nice. And how long have you been with Couture for now?
Speaker 1So it'll be almost six years. Yeah, I know time flies. So now that you are a part of Couture and you've been here for almost six years, what do you love most?
Speaker 2about working here. I think I love most about Couture is just like the family that we build as um staff together. You know, I've worked in hospitals and I've worked in a lot of other um. You know different settings and I feel like I don't know like you connect with some people. You have like little clicks and things like that, but I feel like I could tour, even though we have like different locations. Um, I feel like when we all come together, everyone's just so welcoming and so like caring for each other, like always supporting each other, like anyone's kids who have fundraisers or events or things like that, like we're all jumping in and like helping out, and that's just really cool to me. It's like a, it's like a family. What?
Speaker 1makes your Ocoee location special.
Speaker 2Ocoee location special for a couple of reasons. One I grew up in Winter Garden, so Ocoee is like kind of close to home for me, so it's nice to kind of, you know, go into work and all of a sudden see somebody on your schedule you went to like high school with and you're like wait, I know you.
Speaker 2So it's kind of cool. You have like that small hometown kind of like feel working in a co-e at least for me, because I grew up close to the area. I also just love the clients and staff that I have there. The staff is amazing. They are really hardworking staff, they really I feel like we really get along well together and we all motivate each other. So you know, if we're like striving towards certain goals, like we really all push each other, which is nice, um. And then the clients um, they're loyal clients, like they're there for a long time, like I have clients that I have been injecting and seeing since I started and it's nice to build that relationship with them and have that rapport with them. Um, you're not just like seeing someone for one treatment and then they're leaving, like they're always coming back and you know you get to be part of their family. I have clients that have come to my bridal showers and clients that have come to my baby showers and things like that. So that's really cool.
Favorite Treatments and Transformations
Speaker 1Do you have a favorite client story or any transformations that have really stuck out to you?
Speaker 2I have a few. One of my favorite transformations or I would just say, client story would be that you know, when I first started in aesthetics, I had never done anything myself, so I always, like, was intimidated of it. I was like, oh, they're probably not going to hire me, I'm not bleached blonde, like all fillered up, and I didn't hadn't even done any of those treatments before. So I was intimidated going in as a provider that wasn't overfilled, wasn't the people you see on these like aesthetic TikToks and Instagram and things like that. But I've noticed during my treatments with clients is that they actually respect that they don't want to look like that.
Speaker 2A lot of people are scared to do aesthetics because they don't want to look fake or overdone or anything like that. So I think they actually feel more comfortable having a provider that's more real and that's like them. You know, I break out, I have acne. I, you know I don't like to be overdone either. So they like that and I think it makes them feel comfortable. And I've had clients tell me, like you know, I come here because you make me feel comfortable and I me. Like you know, I come here because you make me feel comfortable. And I've gone other places where I've just been really intimidated. So to me that is a really you know heartfelt message, because I, you know, you want people to feel comfortable to do these treatments. You don't want people to be intimidated and feel like they're not good enough and they can't do them.
Speaker 1So if you had to pick one treatment, that is well, you don't have to pick one, but one or two of your favorite treatments that is your favorite to perform. What would they be, and why?
Speaker 2That's hard.
Speaker 2I like a lot of them.
Speaker 2My favorite treatments to probably perform is going to be fillers, because I feel like you can make a really big, subtle difference with fillers and I feel like clients it's kind of like an art, like there's not like one certain way to do it, which is really nice.
Speaker 2It was a little hard for me at first because I'm kind of like OCD type A so I'm like tell me exactly how I need to do it and it doesn't really work like that in aesthetics, like you're kind of looking at the client and more of like a whole, you know like canvas, like facial balancing, you know like not every person needs the same thing. So it's kind of cool to create like a treatment plan specific to that person and kind of create like your own masterpiece with that. So I really like doing filler injections. I also really like doing Botox and Dysport injections, especially because not everyone's ready for filler. So it's a nice like stepping stone to get them comfortable and to just make them have those little subtle enhancements of like just looking more refreshed and rejuvenated without changing their beauty that they already have.
Speaker 1What would you say? Not necessarily your favorite, but what's the treatment you probably do the most.
Speaker 2The treatment that I do the most. Well, we are a membership-based spa so we do lots of lasers. So I do a lot of lasers, a lot of IPL lasers, a lot of fractional lasers, lots of laser hair. But we also see a ton of injectable clients so I do a lot of Botox and Dysport and fillers as well. So it's really hard to say my day is like kind of a combination between a lot of all of them.
Speaker 1What would you say? Just to give the listeners kind of an idea of what would. What is your? I know it's different every day, but what does a day look like for you?
Speaker 2Well being in a COE. We are one of our busier locations, so my day usually starts. I get to the spa around like 930. I try to, you know, look at the schedule kind of mentally prepare and prep my day. You know, we have huddle with the girls, kind of go over like game plans of how we're going to either tackle the day or little incentives that we're pushing, how we're going to achieve those goals. And then my average day is pretty busy. We have a lot of laser clients, we have a lot of injectables, so I basically like every 15 minutes, go room to room.
Speaker 2We do a lot of client consultations, which I try to take more time with those, because I want to give people the time that they deserve, you know, especially being new in aesthetics, and I want them to feel comfortable coming there. I want to have a good treatment plan for them as well. So I like to spend time with them and, you know, know, also show them all the spa services that we offer, because a lot of times people are like me, they're brand new to aesthetics, they don't know everything that we have to offer. So I like to really take the time with the consults, um, and try to give them, you know, the best experience there. Um, and then if they can't do everything in one day, obviously we don't expect them to. But then we kind of come up with a plan where they're okay, let's start with Botox today and then, you know, next month we have this event coming up, so let's do then your fillers while they're on sale for this event and then let's get you started with some skin pen microneedling.
Speaker 2So we kind of come up with like a full treatment plan to utilize kind of everything that we do in the spa. But, um, basically I see clients from 10 am to 7 pm and we do kind of all sorts of lasers, injectables, consultations during that time frame. So every day is a little different. It is, yes, which is kind of nice. You're not walking into the same thing every day, so you don't get bored of you know the same continuous thing after another. It's always different treatments clients see that they want to achieve, or different trends that they want to do and things. So you're always learning too, which is really nice.
Speaker 1So we talked about all the different. You know there's a lot of different things that we offer. What is your favorite treatment to get done yourself?
Speaker 2So my favorite treatment to get done would be a combination of two things. One is going to be um neurotoxins.
Speaker 1I'm sorry, but I love my disport, so real quick explain to anyone who doesn't know what neurotoxins are. What are those?
Speaker 2yeah. So neurotoxins are, um, basically like botox and they help relax the muscle. So like when you frown or you raise your eyebrows up, it's going to help relax the muscles so the muscle can't fold skin making deeper lines and wrinkles as we age. Unfortunately, as we age we're losing collagen in our skin so if the muscles keep moving that it just creates those deeper lines and wrinkles that are harder to get rid of as we age. So I personally love Dysport. It just works a little bit better for me in relaxing my muscles and I usually religiously do that about every four months to keep my muscles nice and relaxed, which is usually it's FDA approved for about three to four months.
Speaker 2And then my other favorite treatment is going to be the skin pen microneedling. Because when we do Botox or Dysport we're just relaxing the muscles so we're not really treating like the skin and the skin texture from the collagen loss that we have. So when we do microneedling it's going to help basically stimulate that collagen production and help with the skin texture even more. So the two kind of go hand in hand and I always tell clients that when you kind of have treat with one thing, you're not really fully treating what they're coming in for. So if they're coming in for wrinkles and you just do Dysport, it's kind of just treating the muscle and preventing deeper wrinkles, but we're not really treating the wrinkles until we target the skin texture with like something like microneedling or a fractional laser. So those would be my two. They kind of go together. Those are probably my two favorites as well.
Speaker 1Yeah, so as far as skincare products cause, I know you're like me and you love your skincare products. What are some one, what's everything you kind of something you want everyone to know about skincare and what are your top must haves for skincare products?
Speaker 2So one thing I want everyone to know about skincare is that skincare is different for everybody.
Speaker 2Everybody's skincare is so different. I'm more acne prone and it's really hard, like when I was younger I used to always try to use like what my friends were using and that didn't always work for my skin. Like it cleared their skin, but it didn't really help me with mine. So I've learned that no skin is the same. Everyone's skin's different and requires different things. So for me, being more acne prone, I need to make sure that I have like a nice regimen that doesn't have too many harsh products are going to strip my skin, which is something that I used to do. I used to just be like give me everything drying to dry my skin so I don't have all this oil, but then I didn't realize the science behind it is that when you do that, your body then overproduces oil to compensate. So I was like it makes sense, but didn't click in my head for the longest time. So I think it's really important to really like sit down with clients and work together with your estheticians at the spa to kind of create like a custom plan to really give them the best results with skincare, because it's so different for everybody. Like certain products are going to work better. Me being more oily, I hate really thick, greasy moisturizers, as you know. So I still know I need one and I use one. But I like a lighter moisturizer, that where I don't feel as like thick and cakey, cause I know just like my oily skin is not going to handle that well.
Speaker 2Um, as far as my favorite skincare product, you already know what I'm going to say. It's going to be um the Hygenity, um Hyacinth Mist. I am obsessed. Um, you guys can look in my account. I'm obsessed. I buy. I just bought one yesterday or the other day. Um, it's amazing. So it's hypochlorous acid, which kills 90% of bacteria on the skin within 30 seconds. So it's great for people like me who are more like acne prone.
Speaker 2Um, with me being pregnant right now, I'm always breaking out due to my lovely hormones. Um, and so I use it religiously on myself. Um, even my kids, like my daughter, gets like a little bit of eczema. It's super safe for her to use, so I spray it on her. It's great post-procedure for my clients when they're doing laser treatments, like fractionals to help with downtime and redness. So it's honestly just a great staple product to like have in your skincare routine and I use it on everyone in my family. Like someone falls and gets a cut, boom, hydranity mist. You know, it's just one of those products that we I never can run out of, like Lindsay can tell you like as soon as I start to get low, I have to get another one. We can't go out without our hydroponics.
Speaker 1No, I'm obsessed with it. Where do you see the future of Couture Med Spa going?
Speaker 2The future of Couture is big. We are expanding. We have, like, so many different locations that are happening. You know, when I first started we only had Ovido. What do we have? A Winter Park and a Coey, and now then they opened up Lake Mary, they've opened up Kiss Lake Mary, they've opened up Kissimmee, we've opened up one in Nashua, new Hampshire, we have one in Virginia. So it's big. I mean it's definitely going to expand.
Speaker 2They have a great business model that clients love. I mean there's not a lot of places that offer memberships like we do and make it affordable for people. You know a lot of people, even myself, if I wasn't in aesthetics, I probably wouldn't pay, or I wouldn't be able to afford to pay for some of the treatments and what they cost at other spas. And with us being a membership base and just making them affordable, it's nice that we give everybody the access to the care that they deserve. You know everyone deserves to anti or to age, you know gracefully, and have those anti-aging benefits. So I think we're going to be all over the U S, kind of like um orange theory or a plan of fitness. I think we're going to be everywhere in a bunch of like really cool states and cities. Um, and maybe even internationally you never know that would be awesome.
Speaker 2I know, I think that'd be really cool. Can we go train? There'd be down. Let's go. Where do we want to go? First, let's start making our list yeah, thinking like um. Amalfi Coast. You know, let's start maybe yeah, where would?
Speaker 1where would be like your dream place to open a couture?
Speaker 2oh, dream place. Well, for me personally, like I want to stay kind of like east coast with, like my family I we know we live in Florida, but it's just so hot. And like I want to stay kind of like east coast with, like my family I we know we live in Florida, but it's just so hot and like I'm just not made to live down here. So I personally would love to live maybe in like Tennessee or like Carolinas or something where we get a little bit, um, just better weather, more seasons, and I would love to see a couture like pop up over there. I think that would be really neat and really, um, target a big population out there. I would love to see a couture like pop up over there. I think that would be really neat and really target a big population out there. I would agree with you on that. Yeah, tennessee, yeah All right, let's go.
Speaker 1So we're like Eastern Tennessee or one of the. Yeah, All right, we'll make it happen. Okay, I'm ready. What excites you most about being part of a company that's growing like this? What excites?
Speaker 2you most about being part of a company that's growing like this.
Speaker 2I think what excites me the most is that there's always like room for growth.
Speaker 2You know, like you could start as a client care coordinator, like one of my assistants, and then you could end up being like a manager at one of our spas, at like a new location.
Speaker 2Like I've seen girls grow so much in the company, which is really cool, like watching them, you know, start at like in high school or right out of high school and then they're now in like their twenties and they're like helping me run a spa Like it's. It's pretty cool All the growth opportunities that they allow people to achieve. And even for myself, like you know, I'm able to go to conferences and just continue my education and learn and train from other national injectors that come to the spa and just learn different techniques and just make sure we're always doing the best for our clients with patient safety and innovative like new, advanced, like skincare and technology. So I definitely think that that's something that's really great for a company to have and not a lot of companies do. They kind of stay stagnant, of what works, works and that's it, and it's nice to have like a company that's always continuing to grow.
Speaker 1Okay, so we're going to end with a little fun. Oh gosh, we're going to do a little rapid fire this or that or not, this or that, because it's going to be, but some rapid fire questions. Okay, just give me the first thing that comes to your head. Oh, gosh. Okay, neurotoxins or filler Neurotoxins. Favorite step in your skincare routine Hydranity, mist, dream vacation spot I'm off the coast. Coffee or matcha.
Speaker 2Well, I'm a tea girl. So, oh yeah, you are a tea girl, Okay.
Speaker 1So chai tea in case anyone cares One word to describe how you feel about working at Couture.
Speaker 2One word to describe how I feel. I don't know, I feel like it makes me feel empowered like important.
Speaker 1Love it. Yeah, nice. Well, nicole, do you have anything else you need to add, or any last words?
Speaker 2No, but thank you so much for having me. This was fun, it was but see it wasn't scary, no, no. She was a little nervous. Where we started, I was, I was. You did great. Thank you, you did great.
Speaker 1Thank you Well, Nicole. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I love hearing about your journey from nursing into aesthetics and how you brought the passion into your work at Couture To any of our listeners for tuning in to Couture Conversations. Stay confident and be your authentic self, and always remember that being yourself is always beautiful. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like and subscribe. Share this with any of your friends. You can find any of our information at couturemedspacom. You can also find us on all of our social media platforms. We're on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and thank you for joining. We'll see you next time, Thank you.