August 2009’s Featured Article:

Today’s skin care client demands value, results and a sense of personalization. What are you doing in your business to make sure your clients are getting what they want?
Among the specialized services a skin therapist can offer to impress clients is a thorough and scientifically-based prescriptive skin analysis. It is an alluring introduction to browsers and walk-ins proven to build business through increased product sales and service bookings.
Instead of discounting treatments, consider other ways that you can increase your value. When consumers really understand what is going on with their skin and how to get the results they want, they will tell everyone they know about your business. Service is about educating the client, which makes you valuable and proves that skin health is indispensable regardless of the economic climate.
Retailing has never been more important to the survival and success of spas—the split should be at least 50 percent retail sales to 50 percent services. A skin analysis easily opens the door for retailing recommendations by providing a shopping list for consumers without them suspecting they are being “sold.” It is also an excellent tool for skin therapists who are a bit shy about talking with clients about products or do not consider themselves salespeople. Finally, skin analysis also lays the groundwork for future professional treatments based upon the exam’s findings.

Get ‘em in the door

For current clients, offer a free, periodic skin health exam as a way for them to protect the investment they have already made in their skin. Presented in such a context, the benefits of a diagnostic skin examination may be an attractive device for maintaining or even increasing their visits to your business for product purchase reasons, even if they reduce the frequency of their treatments. For example, send out an e-blast offering a free product sample whenever a client visits for their skin exam. Remember the power of the halo effect—just getting the client or prospective client into your place of business is the first step toward making product sales and service bookings.
The shift in attitude at the heart of the message is that it is really okay for skin care treatment clients to become retail customers. In other words, while professional treatment is the core of optimum skin health, your clientele must be welcomed as retail-only consumers if that is all that is on their shopping list. If you are able to help them sustain their healthy skin through the proper use of home care products, they will resume booking professional services when their pocketbook permits.
Job candidates are routinely asked where they “see themselves” in five years. Likewise, it is standard protocol for a business to put a five-year plan—and even a 10-year plan—in place. But the fact is that business changes from moment-to-moment. And the five minutes required to give a prescriptive skin analysis can transform the dynamics of your skin care business and boost your bottom-line.

Every time the client visits, a new map is drawn up and compared with prior maps to note activity and change in the identified zones.

The five minute transformation

Connecting with the client does not just happen once—it is an ongoing experience that builds loyalty and generates sales through added value, client education and customized product prescriptions that deliver results. The concept is essential to the success of the Face Mapping® skin analysis system.* The brief but intensive tactile and visual examination of the client’s skin, given each time the client visits, not only forms a template for the prescriptive retailing, it also strengthens client trust and raises the professionalism of the skin therapist, which then leads to more personalized treatment and product purchases.
Face Mapping is, at first glance, a five-minute reading of the client’s skin condition, which divides the skin into 14 numbered zones. The topographical examination that assesses the client’s skin takes the form of an actual map, which allows the skin therapist to note the condition, and especially any concerns, in each of the zones. Every time the client visits, the skin is Face Mapped and a new map is drawn up and compared with prior maps to note activity and change in the identified zones.
“Skin is a moving target. If people get stuck on the idea that they have oily skin or dry skin, for example, they may just be content to go to the nearest department store or drug store and purchase products that are labeled in this manner,” comments Dermalogica founder Jane Wurwand. “Only a trained professional can assess the skin and determine what is actually happening with it at any given time, and what treatments and products should be offered to support the client’s optimum skin health.”

Volatility happens

Products that identify skin in very simplistic terms (oily, dry, combination, acne, mature) make it easy on themselves in terms of marketing and packaging, but such categorizations cannot guarantee the client optimum skin health. The scientific fact is that skin is always changing and requires consistent monitoring. Shifts in climate, stress level, hormone activity and a myriad of other factors affect skin dramatically. A client who is “oily” in the summer may turn “dehydrated” but “acneic” in spring, and so on. In order to determine the condition of the client’s skin, ongoing contact and examinations are essential, since the condition of the skin is a moving target. In other words, skin health is constant—what changes is how you care for it on a daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal basis.
And such a realization presents both a challenge and an opportunity to the skin care therapist. The challenge is that we as professionals need to pay attention to our clients—especially now that the demand for skin care services is in decline. Truly demonstrating that your services are relevant and generate results is your best treatment strategy in a down economy.

In order to determine the condition of the client’s skin, ongoing contact and examinations are essential, since the condition of the skin is a moving target.

Dual approach, double values

Paying attention to the fast-moving landscape of the skin’s current condition also presents unfolding opportunities for prescriptive retailing as well as potential professional treatment. The therapist must be skilled in identifying anomalies and sensing subtleties that suggest potential issues, which may need attention and care. The skill becomes the basis of preventive care, supporting the client’s optimum skin health in a proactive manner.
“The tactile aspect of the examination is essential and perhaps the less-understood component of assessing skin health,” says Annet King, global director of Training and Development for The International Dermal Institute. “Loaded with nerve endings, our fingertips are capable of detecting nuances that may be missed by the eyes. The latter is especially true of richly pigmented ethnic skins, where heat may signal trouble even when there is no discernible change in coloration of the skin.”
Below are several tactile signals that may indicate potential problems, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, according to King.

Skin feels hot and tight

Sensitization or inflammation may be present, caused by genetics, hormones, environmental assaults or aggressive cosmetic procedures and/or cosmetic products. If ears feel particularly hot, it may indicate systemic dehydration and/or possible kidney stress. To address these issues, prescribe cooling and anti-inflammatory products and soothing treatments.

Gritty sensation

Milia may be present. Feel carefully for a sandy texture around hairline and eye-orbit. In these cases, inadequate removal of hair-care products, the use of mineral oil to remove eye makeup or the daily application of cosmetics formulated with mineral oil may be the culprit.
To prescribe: exfoliating products, pre-cleanse makeup dissolver, makeup remover and extractions.

Every examination is an opportunity to refine the client’s retail “must” list, replenish favorites and offer alternative products.

Congestion and surface
impactions: comedones forming on cheeks

Congestion and inflamed lesions:
comedones and breakouts on chin

Periodic breakouts appearing on the right and left sides of the chin often indicate hormonal activity in women. If blemishes appear at random across the lower part of the face, it could be a stress-response indicating overstimulation and exhaustion of the adrenal glands.
To prescribe: acne containment strategy, including spot treatment products and extractions.

Hyperpigmentation

Hyperpigmentation, the most common evidence of sun-exposure, may often be seen as well as felt, in the form of slightly irregular or rough patches on the skin. It may also be triggered by hormonal shifts, injury and other factors. The skin therapist is often the person who may identify changes in pigmented lesions such as moles on the client’s skin. Moles evidencing ragged edges, extremely dark coloration, change in size and irregular coloration or moles that bleed or itch should be immediately referred to a dermatologist.
To prescribe: a hydroquinone-free brightening system and year-round UV protection as well professional exfoliation and brightening treatments to minimize discoloration.

New business at your fingertips

Every examination is an opportunity to refine the client’s retail “must” list, replenish favorites and offer alternative products in the event that current selections are not effectively addressing the client’s issues.
Although clients may be cutting back on big-ticket skin care services, the therapist-client bond created by the examination of experience may lead seamlessly into briefer treatments, such as targeted services for blemishes, jet-lag and sunburn. Most importantly, the prescriptive skin analysis is a bonding experience unique to our industry.
Make the most of the potential opportunities of mapping out your client’s skin—educational, revenue-generating and health-supporting.

*Face Mapping® is a skin analysis system developed by Dermalogica.

Grace Green is a beauty branding consultant based in Northern California. She works with manufacturers in all areas of cosmetic and hair product formulation to identify and successfully engage key retail segments. Green has written extensively about the beauty business for The Santa Monica Evening Outlook, The Los Angeles Reader, Live! Magazine, Know How magazine and many trade publications.

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