During my free time, I love learning more about the skincare industry, whether it’s through reading articles or attending advanced education classes. Yesterday, I spent my day at the International Dermal Institute (IDI) which serves as a post-graduate education center for licensed estheticians to expand their knowledge in this constant evolving industry. IDI is also where the ingredient research and product development of the Dermalogica skin care line happens.
I absolutely love spending time here! The staff and instructors are very helpful and knowledgeable, and highly respected industry professionals like Dr. Diana Howard and Annet King can be seen giving speeches or sitting in on some classes. This time I took Skin Analysis 101 which covered what comprises an effective skin analysis, the importance of consultation cards (imperative whenever you get treatments!), a brief overview on understanding how the skin works, skin types vs skin conditions and skin disorders. After the theory portion concluded came the fun part: hands on!
We all got to analyze each other’s skin using a magnifying lamp, a Woods lamp, and a skin scanner.
The magnifying lamp magnifies the face to help the esthetician treat and analyze the skin.
The Wood’s lamp is a hand-held device that uses filtered black light to illuminate skin problems, fungi, bacterial disorders and pigmentation issues.
The skin scanner is like a Wood’s lamp in that it utilizes advanced black-light technology to help identify various skin conditions in vivid florescent colors; however, this machine is a lot bigger and both the esthetician and the client can see how their skin appears under the black light. There’s something pretty cool (and scary!) about seeing your skin in an up close way that is not ordinarily visible to the naked eye.
Once we finished analyzing each other’s skin, we did a quick recap of what we learned and were given our certificates of completion. I earned 6 class hours for today’s class, giving me an overall total of 33 hours at IDI! I am 67 hours away from completing 100 hours and earning an IDI Certificate of Achievement.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you have free time?