Every October, the beauty industry comes alive with excitement as it celebrates National Aesthetician Month. This special occasion is dedicated to honoring the skilled professionals who work tirelessly to enhance our skin's health and beauty. Aestheticians are not just skincare experts; they are artists and scientists, blending creativity with knowledge to help us look and feel our best. In this blog, we sat down with Leslie Joy Dammer, who is a licensed Aesthetician and Owner of SkinLIV, Results Driven Skincare in Newport Beach, California.
An interview with Leslie Joy Dammer
FACTORFIVE Skincare had the privilege of sitting down with Leslie Joy Dammer, a licensed aesthetician and the owner of the renowned skin care clinic, SkinLIV, located in Newport Beach California. In our interview, Leslie shared her insights into why she chooses FACTORFIVE Post Treatment Serum and Nourishing Silk for her professional skin treatments. Leslie emphasizes the importance of selecting high-quality, science-backed products, and FACTORFIVE’s cutting-edge regenerative biotechnology aligns perfectly with her commitment to delivering exceptional results to her clients. Leslie attests that FACTORFIVE’s unique approach, harnessing the power of human stem cell growth factors, not only enhances the efficacy of microneedling but also promotes faster recovery and skin rejuvenation, making it an invaluable asset in her skincare toolkit at SkinLIV. Check out the interview below to learn why SkinLIV is Newport Beach’s premiere skin care clinic for results driven treatments!
Leslie, can you tell us a little about yourself and your practice?
I'm Leslie Joy Dammer, I’m 62 years young, and I’m the founder of SkinLIV. Twelve years ago, I became a licensed aesthetician; this is my fourth career in life. I decided to go into the aesthetics industry to learn how to age positively. Seven and a half years ago, I started SkinLIV, which is a results driven skincare spa and a medical grade skincare line. We're right here in Newport Beach, California. Last year I opened up an additional location, in the building right next to SkinLIV, which is the Skin Learning Lab. I use the space part time for mentoring and training aestheticians and aesthetic medical professionals on advanced procedures in skincare. We also offer medical aesthetic treatments in this location led by Dr. Milan Shah from Beautologie.
How did you hear about FACTORFIVE?
When I started SkinLIV, I wanted to learn how to microneedle and the company that was training me on microneedling had a partnership with FACTORFIVE. As part of my training kit, I received a microneedling pen and I was given a small intro package of FACTORFIVE Post Treatment Serum. After microneedling with FACTORFIVE, I have really never consistently used anything else. I've tried other things that people have asked me to try, but I would never have any reason to go anyplace else. The results speak for themselves…faster healing, more collagen, better skin.
Which FACTORFIVE products do you use for your personal routine?
When I do a chemical peel on myself, I use FACTORFIVE Nourishing Silk as my aftercare product with my LIVLipids on top of it. I regularly use my SkinLIV Retinol, which is quite strong but one or two nights a week, I use the new Night Retinol Cream by FACTORFIVE. There's no flakiness, there's no irritation, it’s super gentle. If you know about anti-aging, you know that we really need to have retinol on our face every night in some form. So it's actually something that I've been able to put right into my regimen really easily. Recently I tried the Lash/Brow Growth Serum and I’m really impressed with it.
Which FACTORFIVE products do you use at SkinLIV?
I use FACTORFIVE Regenerative Serum during microneedling; I use Post Treatment Serum and Nourishing Silk as the aftercare product. When I finish performing a strong chemical peel, and I know the skin is really compromised, I normally like to put down a layer of post treatment serum as a way to begin the healing quickly. With my peel clients, I'm sending them home with Nourishing Silk or the Post Treatment Serum and letting them finish up with my lipid product.
What has your client’s experience been like using FACTORFIVE?
My clients are blown away by FACTORFIVE. I feel like it's partly responsible for why they return to me for more microneedling sessions and why they believe in microneedling. Many of my clients have tried microneedling in other places. They're the type of clients that have the ability and the means to go anywhere that they want. Some of them go to really expensive places that do heavy marketing or they've even tried microneedling with radio frequency, where I often hear a lot of bad stories. So when they come to me and they have a microneedling experience, it’s very comfortable and my results blow away my competition. I use FACTORFIVE Post Treatment Serum during the procedure, and then I use Nourishing Silk as part of their home aftercare. The thought of any bad experience they have ever had fades quickly after they see their results…that is how you keep your client forever!
Can you talk about the downtime/healing you’ve seen with FACTORFIVE and microneedling treatments?
My clients say that the healing is around 36 hours before they feel great. I have them use their aftercare products with sunscreen and they go back to regular life. The day after they feel nothing more than a little wind burn and maybe a little itchy. After the treatment, I have them re-applying their FACTORFIVE post treatment products almost hourly for the first 24 hours. I refer to this as Wet Healing, it takes away any discomfort and makes healing really simple and fast!
Exosomes vs Stem Cell Growth Factors. Can you talk about your experience using both?
I've used both during procedures and in post-treatment products. I've been approached by many companies trying to get me to try their exosome products or other stem cells. I had a lot of exosomes here at one time. One of my regular clients who always gets a FACTORFIVE microneedling treatment, agreed to be my guinea pig and try the exosomes, and I've tried it on probably three other clients besides her. .They all said they don't feel that they get the collagen renewal. It's more of a delayed healing and a lack of results. So I quickly steered away from them and I'm really not that interested in exosome products. I hear a lot about it constantly, but I think that what drives me as a practitioner is my clients’ feedback. I know the science behind FACTORFIVE, and I know the feedback from my clients’ is compelling…that’s really all I need.
How has your experience been with Nourishing Silk?
Nourishing Silk has an amazing slip and you could actually add it to the Post Treatment Serum to get more slip, when you microneedle, you'll want to be able to move across the skin very easily. Silk is something that has ingredients that I've always believed in. People who follow my skin ideology, hear me constantly talking about lipids; it's a very lipid rich product. Silk has a ton of stem cells in it, too. So you have the barrier repair that you're going to get from a lipid product and the stem cells for healing and regeneration. It feels like you're literally soaking nectar into your face. I think that the client feels good with it. As a practitioner, it helps me do my job better, and it's the best way to heal your face after the treatment.
Why FACTORFIVE Skincare?
I'm a really loyal person, and I like to work with companies that have great ethics. I get asked a lot about the ethics of stem cells in my business. FACTORFIVE contains ethically derived stem cell products. It's a company I've dealt with for a long time. I go with science; I like proof. I've read a lot of the studies from FACTORFIVE and I know that it's not just a heavily marketed product with fake claims. Probably not enough people know about Factor Five! I like knowing the company I’m dealing with and I’m loyal to them because of the results they help me deliver. I think people are looking for more natural ways to hold onto their beauty, less invasive ways, and I think FACTORFIVE really fits into that paradigm within the aesthetic industry.
I should also mention the value, FACTORFIVE is not priced out of the marketplace. I think that's one of the things that really pushed me away from exosomes. I never want to be that practitioner who has too many services that are out of reach for normal men and women within their budgets. I think everyone should be able to get treatments done and it should be able to fit into a normal budget and not be so extraordinary. I feel like the value of FACTORFIVE is really good. It's not going to be a product that's going to make you spend too much money. They are decent sized products, so they last a long time. There is an initial spend, but it's just so workable in many people's budgets.
