Dermal Filler Migration w/ Masha Amelina

Filler fatigue, filler migration, Sculptra, discount injector risks & Mesolyft - physician assistant Masha Amelina of Visage Sculpture joins host Kim for a straight-talking conversation on ethical injecting.

Masha brings 20+ years of PA experience to the table and a philosophy that includes talking patients out of procedures when the timing or trend isn't right. She breaks down the key differences between neuromodulators like Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, and Daxxify, hyaluronic acid fillers like Juvederm and Restylane, and Sculptra, the collagen-stimulating PLLA she first used treating HIV lipoatrophy at Boston Medical Center. She explains why Sculptra results depend entirely on anatomy knowledge and proper injection depth — and why it fails when those fundamentals aren't there.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Aesthetics Unscripted. I'm your host and regenerative aesthetic and longevity expert, and I'm so happy to introduce our special guest today, Masha Amelinana, and she is from the illustrious medical spa Visa Sculpture in Newton, Boston. And she is also the creator of Mezzolift. So, Masha, thank you so much for coming today. Can you please introduce yourself? And now's the time to brag. Let our viewers know who you are and what your license is, and then we'll dive deeper into that right afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

My name is Masha Amelina. I'm a physician assistant for over 20 years. My primary interest was reconstructive and plastic surgery because I love transformation, I love making people feel good, and I love seeing instant results. So as a consequence of my passion, I have created a business injecting people and transforming their noses and chins and jawlines and doing non-surgical facelifts. And it's right in line with how I feel. You can see instant gratification, people are happy, and in the process of conversation, we share a lot of medical information that is related to regenerative medicine. And I feel like everything is connected. Looking good and feeling good. It's not just Botox injections, it's not just skincare. It comes from within and from your lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Absolutely, 100% agree with you. So you are the ultimate PA who has never passed the needle. Could you please share with us more? Because I I totally respect that. I know you've had more than ample opportunity over the last 20 years in practice to be able to expand, to delegate, to just have a lot of employees underneath you that are like rinse and repeat trying to do the same thing as you for your patients, but you chose to go a very specific, very hands-on, one-on-one approach with your patients. I think that kind of intimacy is rare nowadays, especially for someone as successful as yourself. So why did you chose to go that round?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I guess I know myself well enough. And it's not just about money. Business should bring money. I feel that if you're in the right profession and if you're doing good for people, and if you're truly following your heart, money will follow as well. But money is a concept, it's an energetic concept. And once you tap into your uh real talent in your feminine energy, it should be easy to make money. It should come from creation, it should come from your you know, root chakra, not from working too much and being tired. And I know what brings me energy and joy, and it's exactly what you just said, it's that intimate setting. Relationships, I feel, are one of the most precious concepts in this life. So I value that, and some of my clients followed me for over 15, 16 years. I don't take it for granted. I think people come not just for injections, they come for this beautiful exchange of energy.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I'm so astounded to listen to you speak just now because I'm like, you know, in our lane of cosmetic medicine. No one talks about energy, or very few people speak about energy while we're speaking about neurotoxins and injectables and enhancement. So I applaud that. I think that's that's amazing. I completely believe in energy and karma and how um beauty, not just from a physical standpoint, but from your emotional standpoint, beauty does come from within. And it's been well documented and well proven that you cannot potentially look good for very long without feeling good about yourself. So bravo you.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Oh, well, thank you. I was just following my heart, really. I just looked at what brings me the most joy. And by the way, frequently people get shocked when I talk them out of procedures. They come for consult, they're ready to spend thousands of dollars, you know, the money is burning in the pocket. Come on, I just want to invest. And I say, I'm sorry, you shouldn't. You're gonna hurt yourself.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Well, see, I think that's a huge red flag, and it ties right into what you just said about um this desperate clinging to the need to make money, make money, make money. Yes, we have to pay bills, but when that becomes your number one driving force, it definitely will cause that break. And patients can sense that, and they know you're just in it for the buck. And there are few and far between, and I know you're aware of this as well. There are very few um injectors, doctors in cosmetic medicine, nurses in cosmetic medicine across the country that actually will tell you no. And I have the utmost respect for every single person that that does because that's also the same mindset that I have.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Oh, that's so beautiful. That's why it's so much fun to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Thanks. Yeah, we all have to try our best, right? While we're in this crazy social media type of world where we are being bombarded by everything every two seconds or even less per day. Which brings me to the question of when you get a new patient, or even if an existing patient has like a moment, you know, like a mental lapse moment where they're like, Oh my goodness, Masha, I saw this trend and I want to do this. Like I've had an injector weigh in on the old-fashioned duck lip versus the Russian lip flip, and you know, these trends. So when someone comes to you and you're seeing their beauty, you're seeing their real facial facial structure, and they're showing you some picture that is not going to aesthetically do well for them. It might even be physically contraindicated, it's just an overall bad idea, whatever it is. How do you deal with that patient that's like, look at the trend, look at the trend, I want to do this?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

If you knew how often that happens, you you wouldn't believe it. It it happens every week. And even the most seasoned, the most natural-looking patients who've been with me for over 10 years sometimes have moments. And as a woman, I totally understand that sometimes we're going through hormonal changes, loss, divorce, and sometimes we make very irrational decisions. Right. And some of them could be good, but I feel that as a provider, I am here to guide them, I'm here to help them make informed consent. So if I truly feel in my heart that it's not gonna hurt them, we're not gonna completely change them or ruin their natural looks, sometimes I can give them a little bit and I can say, okay, we can have a little more fun. I understand. Sometimes we women have to buy that. We have to buy that feeling of hi, you know, I'm taking care of myself, I'm changing something, I'm following the trend. But very frequently people bring videos and and shove it in my face and kind of like, look, look, they're they're doing radius in the lines on the neck, or they're look, this doctor is showing where to inject. This is the new Botox. It's very comical because it's marketing, you know, and and the thing is, I I guess that's what I lack. I don't know how to hype up something that's so simple. I guess I am very uh authentic.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I'd like to clear up some terminology where patients and even some practitioners casually group rotox and dermal fillers all together. And I've seen this a lot lately on social media where there will be posts that in the end turn out they're talking about a filler, but they're just throwing the terminology all over the place and they're like, oh, the injectables. And then this the same day or the same two seconds later, you'll see another post that's using that same terminology, but now they're talking about a neurotoxin. So can you just quickly just explain the difference between a neurotoxin and a chemical filler, please?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

So, what is neurotoxin? It's Botox, Disport, Zeman, Dexify. All of those products fall into the category of neuromodulators. When you inject the product into the muscle of expression, the muscle gets weaker. You can still express emotions when injected correctly, but the muscles are weaker so they cannot form a deep crevice, a deep line. The regular areas that usually are injected is globella, this is the area between the brows, forehead, around the eyes, and now we're getting into the category of very, very creative botex. You can release the muscles that pull the corners down, the muscles that pull the neck down, and create turkey neck, and now what we're doing with neuromidulators, you can actually use them to shape the face, the legs, and even the shoulders. When you inject it into the trapezius muscles, you can uncover the neck. It's called Barbitox. There's a lot of marketing terms out there, but it could be very creative, it is very safe because the doses are very moderate. So that's one category. Another category is filler. Filler is something that creates instant filling effect. It's a gel. Most of the time it's made of hyaluronic acid, which is a clear gel. Most of the time it's dissolvable. So it's juvenile, restolin products. So those can be used for filling very deep folds. If the fold is too deep, for example, the marinette lines, the puppet lines, the SMILINES, you can correct them instantly by injecting the filler into it. There is a third animal, so to speak, it's called Sculptron, and it's extremely unique. It's neither filler nor neuromodomodulator, and it's one product, there's nothing like that in the world. It's been around for 26 years, it came from France, and it's cross-linked lactic acid in the form of little crystals that are injected into your skin, and whilst these crystals are sitting in the skin, they're creating an inflammatory response, and your body is producing collagen exactly where we want. So you can feel circles around the eyes, you can feel temples, you can lift the face with your own collagen. So that's a very interesting product.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

How do you feel about sculpture? Because I know when you go on Reddit that for all those years there's always been a lot of 50-50, like 50% of patients really don't like it, 50% of patients love it. And then I find that with providers, it's actually about the same. About half the providers I know across the country love it and incorporate it. I think maybe because they understand how to use it. And then the other half is just like, no, I tried it, didn't like it, didn't have big patient satisfaction, and I've moved on. So what's your take on that?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

I can answer exactly why. So I was extremely lucky to be at the right place at the right time. I was at Boston Medical Center, Sculpture, wasn't approved for cosmetic indication yet. It was 2006. So it was injected only to correct HIV lipoatrophy. So average patient was a very thin-faced man, and the government would approve the free product, free injection. So we would treat them with sculpture to correct severe depressions of the face, which was a consequence of medications for HIV. And I was so fortunate to have learned that before it was even approved for cosmetic indication. Once it was approved in 2009, I was so comfortable with the product because we were injecting large amounts. We were injecting two vials at a time, we would do two, three sessions. So you could see an amazing transformation how someone gets their face back, and they say, you know, kids are not scared of them anymore. People were crying at their appointments. Thank you for giving me my face back. It was so moving, and I saw what's possible with this product. So once it was approved, I felt so comfortable with it. And the company that was making it, they reached out to me and they said, Listen, we see that you're using a lot of product. Can you teach for us? So of course I said yes because it was a huge honor. I was very interested in it. Absolutely. And I lasted about six years. Um, it was extremely unsatisfying and unproductive to train people to inject sculpture. Oh, why is that? Because with sculpture, you have to have knowledge of anatomy of the face and how it ages, and this should be taught during the classes for injectables, and not everybody knows that. When you know how the face changes, you know how to fix it. Instead of fixing the symptom, which is the wrinkle, you fix the cost, which is the global volume loss. Once you know how the face ages, it's so much easier to restore it and make it look natural. First of all, second of all, knowing the concept of collagen production, which again, every single person in medicine should know it, in surgery, dermatology, and not everybody knows how collagen is being produced. Once you know and you know where to inject the product, it's only dermis and periosteum where the collagen can be produced. You understand it better. I have trained nurses, physicians, PAs, and I'm surprised that not everyone knew. Some people injected it in subcutaneous fat. There's nothing to stimulate there.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Right. You know, I do feel that, and I've seen it myself quite often, um, not for specific product like sculpture, but as a medical aesthetic educator, a fellow of yours, colleague, I have seen that in, especially I think since the pandemic, the level of education seems to have drastically gone down. And it's nationwide, right? I don't feel like it's it's stuck to or attached to any one region where I just feel the education level in particular has just gone down. It's all about the speed, just like with social media and the rest of our our society right now. Like crank them out, get them into school, get them out of school, let's do some hands-on, quick, quick, quick, go, go, go, and you're done. And then bye, you're supposed to be out in practice. And like you, I find that alarming. It's another issue, I think, within our industry. And I just I'm always honored and pleased to be able to meet colleagues like yourself that believe the same thing I do, that uh you should understand things like your basic anatomy and physiology, and then go deeper dive into the science to find out how things like collagen, where do they actually come from, where where are you using this product now? So I can see why uh you used a lot of sculpture and like you said, loved every minute of it because you truly understood the product. So thank you for that clarification.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

May I mention one more thing which I think is very important?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Of course, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I personally am very impatient. I do love instant gratification. Um, patience is not my virtue. I'm working on it. With sculpture, because I have seen nothing short of magical results in those HIV patients, that's what gives me faith. I know what's possible. And unless you are on steroids or have a problem with your immune system, um, unless you're over 80 years old, which I will not ever offer sculpture to someone, you should be able to produce beautiful collagen. And I get away with injecting people with just one vial and creating absolutely phenomenal results. I'm not trying to sell them, you know, you should do two vials now, two vials later, two vials. It with one vial you can do a lot if you inject it in the proper place. So, one of the reasons it didn't take for those people that have trained is not having enough patience to see those beautiful results, which leads to having faith in the product and knowing what's possible. How can you sell something to someone if you don't have faith in it?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Exactly, but it is such a common problem in our industry. Uh, which also brings me to the next subject, which is tied right into this conversation, is filler fatigue. And you know that filler fatigue is a real thing, that some patients are just kind of they're over it. You know, like they've been there, done that, they're getting a little bit older, they love what you've done for them so far, but they're looking for the next best thing. And at the same time, with filler fatigue, you have that faction of the general public that is running scared because they haven't been educated about filler migration and they just heard this is a bad thing, you can see it on imaging up to 10 years later, what's happening? Let me just not do it at all. So, how do you what you know how what advice and insight can you share with us about that?

SPEAKER_00 17:37

There has been a lot more information out there that is negative, and even the most seasoned patients that I have sometimes ask me, what do you think about that? Do you really think filler migrates? Do you really think it's a problem when I make a decision to have a facelift? And yes, filler accumulates, and I see it, and I use it to my advantage when I do sculpting of the jaw, chin, nose. I'm glad that it piles up. Again, when it's injected correctly, it's it's a benefit. You don't have to come forever. You know, several appointments, and you have the nose that's gonna last for over 10 years. However, I did I see migration? Yes, only in two cases. The first case is when the patient is too greedy and they want more and more and more. Um, average patient would be a 20-something-year-old girl who wants big lips. And even though I educate and I say, I cannot see you more frequently than every six months, and we cannot inject more than half a syringe to 0.7 because you will get migration. So once they start twisting your arm and saying, just a little bit more, just a little bit more, in the moment of weakness, you give them a little bit more. What's gonna happen? The filler is somewhere here, and we're dissolving it. So predictable.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Or even worse, when they go behind your back and not like cheat on you forever, but when they'll be like, Oh, you know, I really wanted like those two CCs more, and they run somewhere else to a competitor, and then they come back completely botched, crying. Like, please, Masha, can you fix this? Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, I don't like that. I really hate cleaning up other people's mistakes. And I always suggest people, if someone messed up, to go back to that office and cleaning up should be free, it should be a courtesy. Of course, I I will not leave someone in a horrible situation before the wedding. Thankfully, there's not a lot of those situations, and and this is why the relationships with your patients are so important. Educate, educate, educate. And they do test the waters, it's like a kid, you know, they're like, well, can you just do a little bit more? Nope. All right, thank you for keeping me in check.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yes, yes, absolutely. Because, you know, especially in big cities like here in Manhattan, where I'm located, and where you are in Boston. There are so many of the small pop-up shops that have discounted injectables. Um, you know, like to name some, it's it's like you're peachy and your ject. So I'm not saying they're bad places that always have inexperienced injectors, but it is a churn and burn. It's very much treat and street. And uh here in Manhattan, we hear the stories and see the stories about the botches, because that's exactly what they did. They cheated on their regular injector and ran over to one of these discount places and got botched, and then they forgot afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Kim, don't you think that it brings us back to energy? And I feel like if you really love and respect yourself and your body, you will go to someone maybe who charges more and who is booked a few weeks ahead, and someone who's not gonna sell you something just because it's a better service, and you know someone is not gonna take advantage of you, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yes, I agree with that 100%. And I hope that viewers will take this to heart and tap into their inner self and be like, Masha was right, there is something to this, even if they don't believe in it. You know, like it doesn't have to be a hippy-dippy thing. You don't have to be suddenly into astrology and go online and read all about your gemstones and the stars, right? But it's just about a natural energy and honoring oneself. Okay, Masha, another thing I wanted to touch base on is that our country right here in the US right now is in another upheaval that MPs and PAs are having legislative shifts uh state by state, it seems, and there's a beautiful freedom with having experience and being able to be free from underneath the medical direction of a physician at a certain point in your career, as you said, when you have reached a certain skill set and logged X amount of hours and done all of the necessary legal steps to be able to be independent. So, uh, how do you feel the industry? Industry is right now with maybe possibly putting pressure on younger nurses, NPs, PAs to stay under the work or the employment of a physician? And do you feel that's a a step in the wrong direction? Because I personally feel like once you have qualified at a certain degree, then you should, you know, the laws as they are right now, allowing you to be free and work on your own, I believe that should stay in place. But what are your feelings?

SPEAKER_00 22:37

It's such an interesting question, and what I think is it's good to have a choice. It's really good to have a choice. So as a PA, I had a choice a couple years ago to stop working with my medical director, who I've worked with for many years. He's a plastic surgeon. I'm very biased. I wanted to work with a plastic surgeon because I work with a face. God forbid, something happens. I want the best. I want cream of the crop. I want someone who was reconstructing faces in a third world country. And um I've I've signed a contract with him. And when I had a choice to stop this relationship, guess what? I chose to keep it. You're gonna laugh. Uh what questions I asked him in the last few years. I asked him how much do you pay your uh manager? And uh I love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

I love it. That's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

But you know what? It's just like that protection, it's like that you know, cross that you wear on your chest, or like a prayer you say in the morning. It's just it's just like an umbrella. I feel protected, I feel safe, I feel that I'm with someone who I trust. You know, I I never use his services for years, other than how much he pays his manager, but I I feel good about it, and I think it's money well spent. We write it off business anyways, why not? You know?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

That's very interesting because with 20 years in the game, um, I don't want to make generalities, but I almost expected you to say that, you know, like I did, that um based on injectors with experience, that yes, they should be able to break away for good. But you've given a very good viewpoint on the value of being able to keep your mentor and not really rock the boat too much, but still be able to enjoy a wildly successful practice where you can show your individuality.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

He truly is a mentor, and and that's and I feel similarity with my boss from Boston Medical Center, like a father figure, someone that just you know you could always rely on. And I may never need his services, but it's just amazing to have it as a backup plan.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

That reminds me that reportedly you had no backers when you first started out, that there was no one investing in you, and you had the courage and the wherewithal to create a game plan to take your own money. It's your time, your energy, and your physicality that gets you to the next step and gets you through every single day. So, what was that journey like for you? Um, how how scared were you in the beginning, or were you not scared at all because you had the confidence and you just knew this was your calling, this is what you're great at, and you're gonna move forward even without investor backman?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

In the retrospect, I do question myself, and it doesn't seem anything short of being delusional. And I've been told by many people that that I am, and the thing is, it works. Um, or we can romanticize it and call it faith. I was so sure in what I'm doing, I was so sure that the product I'm making is so valuable, it's so honest, it's so unique and so unusual that I don't have a choice but be successful. And you know, I'm not gonna lie. I'm I'm not rich just yet. I'm not making millions. You know, I'm making enough, but I'm not making millions. And I still have faith that one day it will be making millions, but uh I think the process is a lot slower once you sponsor yourself. It just takes a little longer.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

It's a great message, I think, for viewers that there is always going to be an easy way out if you look for it, but there's always a path that you can take, and if you plan properly, you can be successful on a path that you're the only one drumming the drum. But let's talk about your other passion. Um, obviously, you're an entrepreneur, and that is really something to be admired. You're a successful entrepreneur, that's so that's another milestone because not everybody makes it. Most businesses fail within the first three years. It used to be five, now it's more like three. So let's talk about mesolift. And can you please share with us exactly what that is? You're right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Um, it's a hybrid of clean skincare and a microneedling tool in one. And the way I came up with it is that I had a skincare problem after giving birth to my son who is 17 now, and I had melasma after pregnancy. So I got rid of it in a few days. My friend, Patricia, she's an aesthetician, she gave me microneedling roller and a serum. And as I was doing two-step procedure that I absolutely hated, I thought, why didn't someone put two together? And I'm like, I'm sure someone did. Let me Google it. I Googled it didn't exist. I hired a lawyer, he ran patent search, it didn't exist. I'm like, that's so weird because it's so simple and genius. So I did it, which was close to impossible. And a lot of people told me it's impossible. But once you believe, anything is possible. Absolutely. It's clean ingredients. The formulas I made by Olga Goldberger, she has her own clean skincare line. She only uses clean plant-based ingredients. There's a lot of vitamins, there's a lot of peptides, there's no fragrance, so we're not gonna disrupt your hormones and we're not gonna cause cancer like some of the brands. We're not owned by using the liver. Uh L'Oreal that's currently having a huge lawsuit about causing cancer with their products. So once you use this little microneedling tip that doesn't cause any pain whatsoever. Um, and again, I sleep very well at night because that's clean ingredients. So when you massage it into your skin, you know, you're not causing any harm. It just goes deeper, but it's clean, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Nice. Being a fellow entrepreneur that is on the B2B side, it's not easy. It's to, like you said, to understand even how to get the patent search and which lawyer to work with, because not all patent lawyers are created equal. So great journey. Uh, tell us a little bit more about mesolift. So, where would a patient be able to read more about that, learn more about it? And is it if they decide to purchase, where would they get that from?

SPEAKER_00 29:11

If you go to mesolift mesol.com, you can read about technology and science. You can read about ingredients, you can see before and after pictures. I am the best after picture. I used it before the shooting the video with you. I used mesolift lip, so it's a lip plumper. I used uh meslift face to get my glow. So I look like I just had a facial and I didn't. I had five minutes to prepare because I was running late from another appointment. And we always do promotions, we always do discounts on bundles, we promote relationship with clients there as well. I always look forward to your feedback. If I can improve, if I can give you something that you dream of, please let me know. And I always want to hear experience with skincare, but so far, whoever tries it usually repurchases it and tries to gift it to their friends and mothers. It's a great Mother's Day gift. And um, people who are conscious about their health and what they're putting in their body and onto their skin. That's my customer. Someone who woke up, someone who wants to continue being healthy, and someone who doesn't chase expensive brands that don't disclose ingredients.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

So the little ticking that we heard in the background is the mesolift. Um, is that something you plug into the wall or is it battery operated?

SPEAKER_00 30:41

It's um not plugged in. It's just uh a tool that is filled with the serum, and once you're done using it, which could take three, four months, you throw out the pen. You just dispose it. And I know I'm looking into doing some refills. I'm trying to be conscious of the environment. Um, it's challenging with this technology because these needles are made of plastic. They're teeny teeny tiny, you can see them under the microscope, but once you use it completely, you throw it out.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Do you recommend using it like 12 months out of the year, or is it patient-dependent and also depending on their lifestyle and sun exposure and things like that?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Of course, I recommend using it for 12 months because it really works. But I'm also a girl and I do love to try different things, and I do sometimes try other brands. I I'm not biased. I truly come back to my brand just because it it works. I love how hydrated I am, especially in the winter, when the skin is extremely dry, the lips are hydrated, the skin is hydrated, you always look like you just came out of the spa. So even though I give other brands a chance, and I do have a couple, you know, like Skin Medica and uh image skincare, there's a couple of products from there. I know it's it's less medical skincare, but they they do have good products. Um, I always come back to Mesolift because it works. So I have a few patients who buy it religiously. Every time they come for their appointment every five, six months, they stock up, you know. But um, some people, you know, they try on to the next brand, but I feel like they just like that in general, you know. They just try, try, try, try, try. Yeah, they can put it in their drawers, and you know, they're like, Oh, it doesn't work because you haven't been consistent enough. If you give someone a chance, and again, I'm super impatient, super impatient. But I guess I'm a walking proof that you can change your skin from inflammation, acne to a constant glow.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

100%, absolutely. I've walked uh I actually got into medical aesthetics in general because of having bad skin when I was in my teens and twenties. So uh I remember that being, you know, like constantly new products, new dermatologists, more new products, too much scrubbing, more new products, and it was just it now. I look back and I'm like, who are you? That was terrible. Why did you do all these things to your skin and constantly just change products all the time? You know, it's creating more of an issue, even though I was being led at uh certain times professionally, it was just compiling and creating more and more of an issue. So I agree with you, and that's also my philosophy, that you don't change your whole product line at once, and when you find something, if it's not broke, don't fix it. As much as we love to incorporate new products every now and then, don't go crazy and bombard your skin because it's just a recipe for disaster. Falling back on your 20 years of experience, uh, now that the industry seems to have more and more persons graduating into or through coming through medicine, shall I say, into cosmetics. Um, give me your two top tips for viewers that are either new practitioners or considering becoming a practitioner in medical aesthetics. What are your top two tips for them?

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Pray. I think you need to get somewhat lucky to find a mentor who actually wants to teach you. And it's not enough to take a few classes if you can be around. And I'm not meaning observing, looking over the shoulder, that's not how you learn. It's doing, being observed by a provider who knows, correcting you as you go, helping you fix your mistakes, kind of guiding you all that way, teaching you how to handle difficult situations emotionally with patients, because this is very, very important. It's a beauty industry, so the average patient is very, very picky. When you pay that much money for a service, you are allowed to pick, you're allowed to come back for a touch-up, you're allowed to complain about a millimeter difference. You have to be cut out for that. You have to have a right personality and the right trainer. And other than good luck finding one, I don't know what to say because you cannot pay me enough to convince to train someone like that. It's a huge expenditure of time and energy. And unless it's my daughter, I don't see myself teaching anyone to this extent. It's it's it's part of your heart, it's part of your body. Um, and then another thing, yes, you can start on your own, of course. You can go slow, the growth will be a little slower. Just try to get as much information, not from TikTok videos, but from conferences where uh real physicians with real experience present. You don't want to know uh successful stories, you want to know how people handle disasters, how they handle uh difficult clients, difficult situations. And I listened and I applied it in my practice.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

That's that's absolutely something that I agree with, and I think for the viewers, that's invaluable advice both. You know, you have to have the luck, or if you prefer to call it prayer, uh whatever you happen to believe in, right? You have to have some good energy coming at you to be able to locate the right mentor. And if you don't, please keep moving on. Know when to shake that off and move on and keep keep going with your search to find that great mentor. But then also, um, I'm not sure how many viewers know that you can go on all of the major sites, whether it's uh Allergan or a filler conglomerate, like a huge company like Alderma, uh, to the laser site, um, to Soma Cell, which is my B2B, that's my non-surgical facelifting treatment that is actually not heat damaged, so you could use it with mesolift in it.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

I hope that I should uh interview you and repose that.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Well, we'll have to talk again at a future date because you're fantastic. But um, but as you pointed out, you know, there are ways to find those gatherings. Um there are weekend conferences, there's always new product launches, whether it's a heat energy-based device, whether it's MSL, whether it's Mesolift, um, you know, like sign up for newsletters. That's your start. And then as each company is having an event potentially in your area, or maybe you're ready to go fly somewhere to go be at that convention or be at that weekend event, you have to get on the newsletter first. So remember that continuing education in our line of work is for life. So if you're a patient or a potential patient watching, then please do your diligence and your homework on us, the providers. And if you're a provider, remember education is forever. So, Masha, let's wrap it up again with a reminder. How do people follow you on social, all of your social accounts, and um how do they get in touch with you directly, especially as a potential patient?

SPEAKER_00 37:53

There's three accounts. There's one for Medical Spa, which is Visage. It's a French word for face, visage sculpture, together. There's Mesolift Skin Care, also one word. And there's Masha M-A-S H A, beauty hacker. So it's all no spaces. You can reach out. I answer personal questions all the time. I try to do it right away so I wouldn't forget and brush it off. So a lot of potential clients or just random people sometimes ask questions related to medicine, cosmetic medicine, and I'm happy to answer and direct and connect if I can, or if I cannot answer, I will direct you to the right source.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

I just feel like I'm a kindred spirit with you because from the education level, see entrepreneurship from Mesolift to Somacel, um, from your clinic with Visage to mine with IT intelligent treatment, uh, we've walked a similar path. And it's it really is an honor to meet to meet you, to meet someone such as yourself and to meet you in particular.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Thank you so much for inviting me. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I really hope to talk to you soon again.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Thank you. I appreciate it, and yes, let's hook up again soon.