With the amount of skin care professionals collectively having this unique opportunity to focus all of their time working on their businesses rather than in it, we are experiencing an influx of well-thought out questions about CIT/ Micro-Needling and Nano-Infusion, and we’ll admit, they have our team feeling incredibly enthusiastic about your future!
To us, these questions are a sign that you’re diving deep into the material we facilitate for your growth in the realm of CIT/ Micro-Needling and Nano-Infusion, which is a modality that, if you put in the hours to learn and hone your expertise, can bring a huge boost in the quality of life for your clients due to the results you’re helping them to achieve, as well as your profit margins.
We have watched so many solo estheticians be able to provide more for their families, follow their dreams of growing into a larger space, provide jobs in their community, and make serious changes for the better in clients’ skin by on-boarding the CIT Pen into their esthetic practice.
However, the learning doesn’t stop at our online or hands-on training. Inquisitive minds are constantly thirsty for more knowledge, and CIT/Micro-Needling is a modality where the learning is always an evolving process.
So, to continue the education from afar, here are the most frequently asked, and well thought out, questions our team has received over the past couple weeks:
1 - How long after a CIT treatment can a client exfoliate?
Your client is safe to resume gentle exfoliation products as soon as their skin appears to be fully healed (all red or pinkness and sensitivity has disappeared) from their CIT / Nano-Infusion treatment.
This time frame will likely vary from client to client depending on their body’s healing response and the depth you, the professional, worked on.
For some, that is after a few days (many estheticians in our CIT Pen Provider community will perform a light peel on their clients like our Pro-Glow 55% or Mandelic Acid 25% after the second or third day to help speed up cell turnover and slough off any residual skin shedding).
To save time and avoid any physical peeling, I prefer to do an exfoliation prior to CIT such as Oil-planing followed by Regenzyme. If the client is able to come into the treatment room a week or two prior to their scheduled CIT treatment, a quick pass of the Pro-Glow Peel or Mandelic Peel is a sure-fire way to not only increase that cell turnover, but also inhibit tyrosinase which leads to even brighter results after being fully healed following CIT (and following proper post-care, of course).
Some forms of at-home exfoliation like the Clarisonic brush are a bit abrasive, so if your client is curious when they can resume using a handheld brush, I would personally recommend that this be taken as an opportunity to end the use of a facial brush like that as it can trap and hold onto bacteria.
Alternatively, introducing the scrubby-brush-loving client to the Ultrasonic Skin Scrubber is helpful for showing them how to maintain the integrity of their skin (and avoid over-exfoliation, given they are properly educated on how to safely use the skin scrubber).
If they insist on the Clarisonic-style scrubby brush, advise them to wait at least a few extra days post-treatment when the skin is fully healed.
Always use your best professional judgement, test patch, and reach out to our tribe of esty bestys for support (with photo documentation), and give room for more healing time if you are unsure.
It is always better to work progressively in time than to overwork the skin since the goal is to induce the controlled injury while keeping inflammation down.
2 - For general skin rejuvenation, would you recommend a series of three treatments? What would the maintenance frequency be?
For someone who has no serious skin concerns (like scarring, pigmentation, cellulite) and is looking for rejuvenation/ preventative, skin tightening, a glow-up, etc., a three-treatment series is perfect!
From there, if they want to continue building collagen at a rapid rate, and thus boosting results, they could continue to do treatments every 3-6 weeks (dependent on depth and their personal healing time, health history, etc.).
If they are happy with their results after a three-three-treatment series and are looking to maintain it, I would recommend one treatment every 6 months to a year to keep the fibroblasts (aka the collagen-producing cells) stimulated.
The levels of collagen producing cells are elevated for up to two years post-treatment, and if the body is internally very healthy, you could even recommend as little as one treatment every two years for maintenance.
From my experience, most prefer to keep up with maintenance on a more regular basis with treatments at least yearly to act as preventative and active age management as well as to enhance results.
3 - How do you suggest packaging your CIT/ Micro-Needling and Nano-Infusion services, and what would you include in them?
For best results, we recommend packaging the treatment with literally everything that the client needs to be successful, including post-care and charging accordingly for the cost of the product and time spent.
This way, there is no guessing about the outcome and you, the professional, are putting the ball back in your client’s court as far as results are concerned.
With this approach, you can explain to your client that you have provided them with all of the tools to successfully reach their desired (and realistic) outcome that you two discussed in the informed consent and consultation process, and as long as they are very healthy, everything on their forms rings true, and are following their post-care instructions to a T, they will reach the skin goals that you set together.
When discussing those skin goals, it is also important to be realistic, under-promise and over-deliver in order to manage their expectations.
Taking photos and tracking their progress by putting the photos side by side (I like to use the DipTic app) during their follow-up has always helped my clients to see the changes while motivating and encouraging them to keep their beneficial practices going.
When figuring out what to charge, audit your time to figure out what that value is, the amount of time it takes to perform the treatment (including time spent in communication pre- and post-treatment and follow-up), as well as the cost of goods needed to perform the treatment. (Here is a breakdown of the average end consumer price per single treatment.)
Once you get clear on those things, you'll be able to add what you would like to net per hour to the cost and have your magic number! Including post-care is one of my top recommendations in managing results AND stress so you don't have to worry about what they are applying post-treatment and most clients see this as added value since they are receiving more tangible items when product is included.
For example, a retail size bottle of Vitamin C+ Enhancement Serum costs you a fraction of what you would sell it to your client for. Therefore, your client sees the value of that product at a much higher value. It also lasts them a month or so, which also adds to the client experience of feeling loved and cared for.
Plus, this is a product that is an integral piece of a solid skincare regimen, thus, including this element of post-care as an opportunity to introduce the products for retail in the future after the client has used them and is ready for more to maintain results between treatments.
When I was full time in the treatment room, I would charge $300 per facial treatment and include exfoliation, 30 minutes of Celluma LED therapy, a serving of Glucosamine and the Vitamin C+ Serum for post-care (all CIT clients had to be on a home care regiment with me first so they would typically already have our Hydrating B5 Cleanser that is safe for CIT and SPF for the following day).
Then, when they committed to a series of three or more treatments, I would either discount the series from $900 to $800 or include the décolleté or hands at the end of each treatment which ends up being over $300 in value. After trying both, I saw that my clients were more impressed with the additional area and more likely to talk about it to their friends, which was a better boost for referrals versus when I would discount the package.
Since then, I've met other estheticians who have simplified the service by strictly charging a set price for the works (everything the skin needs for best results and not even messing with sterile saline) and charging by the hour, $300 per hour.
If you use the search bar in the exclusive CIT Pen Provider group and key in " package price" or something along those lines, you'll see past conversations populate with tons of threads with great insight into what other glow-getters are doing in their esthetic practices.
4 - What do you recommend sending clients home with for post-care?
The Vitamin C + Enhancement serum and/or the Herbal Sheet Mask are both the ultimate go-to products. (The mask also has approximately 1 ounce of serum inside that your client could seal the excess of, or leave in the fridge, to use the following days post-treatment and cocktail with the Vitamin C+ serum for ultimate brightening and rejuvenation).
Anyone getting a treatment from me also received everything they would need to boost the results and speed healing on a cellular level.
I give a shot of the Liposomal C and a serving of the Glucosamine Sulphate (Biotin is given only for hair treatments to those who are not acne prone). By giving a dose or few of the internal support, it not only shows you care about helping them achieve the very best results, but it really ends up being an opportunity for you to educate on the importance of internal health and how it works synergistically with CIT (also showing what an expert you are).
Essentially, this all ends up being an ideal opportunity to sell additional retail if you take the time to educate your client.
Here you will find the link to our documents tab (all downloadable) within the CIT Pen Provider Portal portion of our site, which includes a client progress report you can use for client charting to help keep track of their progress as well any additional notes that are important for liability protection. Many of the docs in there may also contain helpful answers to additional questions, so happy learning, glow-getter!
Do you have more questions about becoming a CIT Pen Provider and introducing this modality into your esthetic practice? Interested in learning more about the CIT Pen?
Get in touch with us at info@herbalskinsolutions.com or click here to view our CIT Pen Packages.