Skin Spa medispa director, Margaret Young, talks technology, treatments and therapy with Professional Beauty.
How did you get into beauty?
“I was approached by a salon owner in High Street Armadale in Melbourne, when I was around 18. The owner thought that I had the right nature for beauty. That’s 32 years ago and I still get the same enjoyment now in driving skin improvement results for our clients.”
When was Skin Spa established?
“Skin Spa opened in 2005. Unlike the premises which looks great, the business itself was misaligned with new technology. We have owned it for the last six years and have driven many significant technological improvements since then. The Skin Spa branding attracted us, but systems were old, communication with our clients was not modern and the service menu was irrelevant to demand. We stocked about five different brands of skincare that no one understood, let alone could commercialise. We now have Ultraderm and Ultraderm only.”
Tell us about your staff?
“There are between five and six of us that make up the Skin Spa team with most of our staff having been longer term members. Adair, our most recent team member, undertook three courses of study at once and has a tenacious appetite for dermal treatment knowledge. She’s calming, elegant and serious about her career in dermal skin treatments. Katt she has several laser accreditations, has worked with cosmetic doctors and performed well over 10,000 treatments. Tamika has modelled internationally in about six countries, understands contemporary trends with brows and lashes and has around 140,000 followers on her social media. We also have other clever advisory people that informally make up the team from medical, legal and financial backgrounds. Keeping our staff motivated is easy. We believe we reward them well. We inspire them with new technology solutions to drive results with our customers, training from Ultraderm’s product range and specific training related to our equipment, customer service and communicating with our customers. We provide regular feedback to them on areas for improvement.
How important is training and education?
“All Skin Spa staff are encouraged in their own time to use our technology on themselves. We have found that understanding how it feels and what effect it has increases our ability to provide better quality service. Of course, education is vitally important with our team. Diploma and post graduate qualified, we ensure that everyone is up to date, compliant and seeking that next learning opportunity.”
Who is your typical clientele?
“Skin Spas clientele ranges from eight-year-olds requiring their skin to be decongested to 82-year-olds that want to try our latest anti-ageing and skin tightening technology. But in most cases our clientele are professional people including many doctors of varying specialisations, physiotherapists, solicitors, dentists, television journalists and most importantly, local mums seeking smoother, clearer skin. They travel far and wide too, from active military service in Afghanistan, remote islands in the Pacific and Caribbean and remote mining operations. One of our favourite client’s drives a 4WD more than six hours to see us, booking twice in two days, dodging feral pigs and kangaroos along the way.”
Most popular and signature treatments?
“This varies by the season, but decongesting skin, tightening skin and anti-ageing skin is where we get our best results for our customers. We deliver the latest dermal technology such as the Rezenerate dermal treatments, RF (radio frequency), peels and LED therapy to assist us in driving results. When this is combined with quality home care, our clients are rewarded with superior results.”
Brands you stock?
“Ultraderm. Not only has this brand transformed the quality of the services we offer, the feedback from our customers has been overwhelming. We have many clients that are camera-facing each day for their roles as television journalists who love the anti-reflective sunscreen.
Skin Spa highlights?
“There have been many. Partnering with internationally published scientific author and experienced medical doctor Dr Andrew Clarke has been a highlight for Skin Spa and our clients. Some of the more notable, emotional highlights have been helping people rid themselves of problematic and severe acne conditions, when prescription medicine has resulted in depression. It is very rewarding when we begin to get results in just a few treatments.”
Margaret Young’s qualifications:
• Diploma Beauty (Melbourne Beauty College)
• Diploma Beauty (Electrolysis)
• Diploma Clinical Aesthetics (Capillary Diathermy)
• Diploma Guinot Product Treatments
• Graduate Certificate in IPL / Laser Therapy
• IPL / Laser Safety Officers Certificate
• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
Skin Spa Medispa, 2/20 Stewart Rd, Ashgrove, Queensland, 4060
skinspa.com.au