I wanted a multi-application platform with treatment possibilities that allowed me to address the most in demand skin concerns including rosacea, acne, skin laxity, stretch marks and textural conditions

Jun 9, 2020 at 5:50 PM

Wrington

How and when did you start in Aesthetics?

I decided to train as a Nurse in 2006, working within the NHS and at the same time started to do my Aesthetics Training. I was very focussed on wanting to work in Aesthetics and for a long time I juggled my Aesthetics career with my work in the NHS. As the economic climate was not right at that time to take on a premises, I worked from home and built up an incredibly loyal clientele through social media and networking, whom I still continue to treat in 2020.

When did you open Ciao Bella and where did the concept come from?

Ciao Bella means ‘Hello Beautiful in Italian. I am Sicilian and my Grandmother paid for my first Aesthetics course after she visited Harley Medical for a quote. Realising I was a Nurse and could also train she encouraged me and funded my early aesthetics training. By 2017, I had been looking around for premises for a while and was focussed on what I wanted. I was looking for a large ‘destination location’ multiple rooms, great parking, training facilities and at the same time I did not need a town centre location with footfall as all our clients are scheduled and booked.

Can you describe your location and tell me more about your team?

Ciao Bella is on the border of the countryside in Bristol, with five parking spaces and is a large location over two floors. We have a downstairs waiting area and reception space with an open area for browsing and meeting the staff. Upstairs I have two clinical rooms, a large training room and another consultation room. Training is extremely important to me and reflecting on my own journey, I particularly enjoy my role mentoring other practitioners and I am now a MATA training location for all aspects of aesthetics, injectables and Level 7 Training. I am lucky as I am surrounded by the most incredible team of 8 women, 5 nurses and three admin and support team members.

How do you spend a typical day?

Since lockdown started, I have taken up running and am really enjoying the exercise, I also have a 16 month old daughter who keeps me super busy. When I am in Clinic, I am booked all day and am always in clinic before the team starts and the day begins. My typical day is split between treating patients, consulting patients, and also supporting and mentoring my team. There is a strong emphasis on advanced treatments in clinic and in February this year I introduced Alumier MD and now along with my Venus VERSA and Tribella this range plays a big part in our treatment planning. We do a lot of consultations for patients with acne and rosacea and I feel that I now have all the tools I need. I also spend time strategizing and developing my business. I am extremely proud that just before lockdown we were inspected by the Care Quality Commission and are now CQC registered.

How did you decide to introduce Venus VERSA & Tribella from Venus Concept

I did a huge amount of research to the market and other devices available before I invested. I knew I wanted a multi-application platform with treatment possibilities that allowed me to address the most in demand skin concerns including rosacea, acne, skin laxity, stretch marks and textural conditions. I then met Paul Talbot from Venus Concept and discussed Venus VERSA and how my business could evolve with the technology and how simple, straightforward and easy it was to incorporate into my busy practice. Venus VERSA has allowed us to address treat all indications and more besides. Since we launched with Venus Concept we have had an extremely positive experience and I now have a full time Nurse called Emma dedicated to delivering these treatments. Tribella is a great treatment for us as there is a lot of public awareness and therefore demand for the treatment and I love that it won the best new treatment at the Global Awards last year. There is always fantastic press for the treatment and the results are truly life changing.

What is your next step for your business and how do you think our industry will develop?

I work very closely with Allergan and am working with them to further develop my business. At the moment, we have all the treatments we need and we are continuing to grow steadily. We are increasing our footfall, adding new patients and maximising my teams time. I am so proud of my business and this year we have entered the ‘Safety in Beauty Awards’ this is the first Awards we will have entered so I am excited about that. During this period of lockdown, I think patients have had an opportunity to become more educated on treatments that are available and how to choose the right location for their treatment plan. We have more patients engaging with us on Social Media and I am delighted to be able to connect with our audience to educate, engage and inform them about our industry. You can always find me on Instagram and across other platforms. The feedback I am getting already and one of the post lockdown focusses, will be that patients will want to address their own skin challenges – photo rejuvenation and nano fractional RF with VIVA will be huge in demand treatments.

Getting on with business with the COVID 19 Virus.

We have done extensive preparation and introduced new policies which are ready and in place for re-opening which will allow us to have our clients enter the clinic in the front door, five minutes before treatment commences, to be connected to their practitioner and go direct to the treatment room, use contactless payments and exit through our rear entrance. In this way we limit other personal interactions. Our focus will always be to ensure patient and team safety at all times, without compromising treatment outcomes.

Hopes for the future?

I do hope that people will see this as an opportunity to in some ways press the ‘reset’ button. I hope that people will take more time for themselves and their needs – I know I have. It’s a good time to try and understand why we don’t sleep as well as we perhaps could, are we eating the right foods and can we exercise a bit more? At Ciao Bella we adopt a 360 approach to our patients and we want to support our patients and their needs and we hope that our patients will also continue to support their local businesses as everyone has done throughout the lockdown.

I am looking forward to continuing to grow my practice and my team and I also have my eye on a new technology for next year, but you will have to watch this space to learn more.

Find Alex on Instagram @ciao_bella_aesthetics

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Venus Versa™ has CE Mark as a multi-application device intended to be used in aesthetic and cosmetic procedures. The SR515 and SR580 applicators have CE Mark for the treatment of benign pigmented epidermal and cutaneous lesions and treatment of benign cutaneous vascular lesions. The HR650/HR650XL and HR690/HR690XL applicators have CE Mark for the removal of unwanted hair and to effect stable long-term or permanent hair reduction for Fitzpatrick skin types I-IV. The AC Dual applicator has CE Mark for the treatment of acne vulgaris. The DiamondPolar™ applicator has CE Mark for non-invasive treatment of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and rhytides on females with Fitzpatrick skin types I-IV. The OctiPolar™ applicator on the Venus Versa™ system has CE Mark for temporary body contouring via skin tightening, circumferential reduction, and cellulite reduction. The NanoFractional RF™ (Viva) applicator has CE Mark for dermatological procedures requiring ablation and resurfacing of the skin.

NeoGraft^® 2.0 has CE Mark with indication for use in suction-assisted follicular extraction and re-implantation for males and females.

The ARTAS iX™ from Restoration Robotics® is indicated for harvesting hair follicles from the scalp in men diagnosed with androgenic alopecia (male pattern hair loss) who have black or brown straight hair. The ARTAS iX™ from Restoration Robotics® is intended to assist physicians in identifying and extracting hair follicular units from the scalp during hair transplantation; creating recipient sites; and implanting harvested hair follicles.

Venus Epileve™ has CE Mark for hair removal, permanent hair reduction (defined as the long-term stable reduction in the number of hairs re-growing when measured at 6, 9 and 12 months after the completion of a treatment regimen), and the treatment of pseudofolliculitis barbae for all Fitzpatrick skin types. Venus Epileve™ is also CE-Marked for hirsutism.

Venus Legacy™ has CE Mark for the temporary increase of skin tightening, circumferential reduction, cellulite reduction, and wrinkle reduction.

Venus Velocity™ has CE Mark for hair removal, permanent hair reduction (defined as the long-term stable reduction in the number of hairs re-growing when measured at 6, 9 and 12 months after the completion of a treatment regimen), and the treatment of pseudofolliculitis barbae for all Fitzpatrick skin types.

Venus Viva™ has CE Mark for the use in dermatologic and general surgical procedures requiring ablation and resurfacing of the skin, and the treatment of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and rhytides in Fitzpatrick skin types I-IV with the DiamondPolar™ applicator.

Venus Freeze Plus™ has CE Mark for treatment of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and rhytides using the DiamondPolar™ applicator, and CE Mark for the treatment of cellulite reduction, increase of skin tightening, and temporary circumferential reduction on the OctiPolar™ applicator.

Venus Freeze™ has CE Mark for treatment of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and rhytides using the DiamondPolar™ applicator, and CE Mark for the treatment of cellulite reduction, increase of skin tightening, and temporary circumferential reduction on the OctiPolar™ applicator.

Venus Glow™ provides a dermal rejuvenation treatment that works to open up and deep-clean pores. Venus Concept is the exclusive distributor for Venus Glow™.

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