How Dermal Therapy Can Transform Your Look And Your Life
Tucked away between busy Station Street and Bong Bong Street in Bowral is a gorgeous space of dusky pinks, bronze accents, beautiful décor and a super-knowledgeable Dermal Therapist ready to refresh and reinvigorate the health of your skin.
This is The Skin Club Bowral, where Mardi Johnson shares her 25 years of experience in the world of dermal therapy and integrated dermatology with Highlanders.
“It’s so important to keep your skin healthy – it’s your body’s biggest organ,” Mardi says, as we chat in this relaxing and calm space.
“Ironically, it’s the last thing we look after but the first thing people see.”
True dat!
We loved sitting down with Mardi to get a real understanding of exactly what Dermal Therapy is, how it differentiates from beauty treatments and how simple it actually is to get proactive about the health of our skin(and see and feel the benefits in a short space of time!).
1 // First of all, let’s talk about how you ended up in the Highlands running The Skin Club Bowral.
I’m from South Africa originally and had a salon there for seven years before moving to Sydney. I co-owned a beauty and hair salon in Rose Bay with three business partners then ran a mobile business by myself for a while before joining Laser Clinics Australia for eight years. It was a very fast-paced environment, and I did look at owning my own franchise but after visiting friends in the Highlands and falling in love with the area, I decided to open my own dermal clinic in Bowral.
I opened The Skin Club in February this year. We had such a great first month but then COVID hit and we had to close. So I was very excited to reopen the clinic in July and welcome my lovely clients back in July.
2 // So, what’s the difference between the treatments you receive at a beauty salon and the treatments you receive at a dermal clinic?
A beauty therapist is someone who makes you look beautiful from top to toe-from eyebrows to pedicures and everything in between.
A Dermal Therapist focuses on the health of your skin. My first consultation with you will be up to 45 minutes as I get an understanding of your history, your habits and your current skin care treatment – if you have one. From there, I can get a good understanding of what’s happening with your skin and decide on a strategy to optimise the health of your skin. It may be a specific treatment, a particular machine that I use, a product that targets a specific issue such as rosacea or pigmentation, or a combination of all those things.
Everything I do is bespoke and targeted to your skin – there’s no one size fits all treatment.
3 // Tell us more about the different treatments you offer and how they help improve skin health.
The Essential Facial is one of the bespoke treatments I’ve mentioned. No one facial is ever the same. I use a range of products to target your specific skin concerns or lifestyle impacts on your skin. One month I may be rehydrating your skin if you’ve had a big month of celebrating, let’s say! The next month, your skin may be in better condition, so I’ll focus on building on that.
Microdermabrasion is fantastic for removing dead skin which is a barrier to rehydration. I operate a machine that buffs your skin, through gentle exfoliation which helps reduce clogged pores and allows your skin to rehydrate more effectively.
Peels are a fantastic way to get strong results in a short space of time. I offer a number of different peels each targeting specific skin issues such as pigmentation and acne, and they’re great for anyone focusing on turning back time with fabulous anti-aging results. Peels have a reputation for being uncomfortable with a long recovery time, but that’s not the case at The Skin Club. The key is making sure your skin is well prepped. Your skin will feel hot, and tingle for five minutes, but that’s it. And you’ll be able to leave the clinic without having to cover your face like Samantha from Sex & The City – remember that episode?? It will just look like you’ve been to the gym, so maybe wear your activewear!
And I also offer a Healite LED treatment. This is such a powerful machine formulated to heal your skin. It doesn’t matter if you have good, bad or broken skin, it restores the skin cells to their natural form and builds up elasticity and collagen again. We get great results from this.
4 // What sort of skin health issues are you seeing and helping clients with?
Pigmentation is very common these days mainly due to the sun, the food we eat and contraception (for women). I also treat a number of people with rosacea and acne.
The products used in both the clinic and at-home by clients is very important. The only brands I work with are Medik8 and Mesoestetic because of their high quality and specific ranges that target skin challenges. In fact, Medik8 was started by a scientist who wanted to help treat his sister’s rosacea. Mesoestetic have a fantastic range for treating pigmentation too. I am the only stockist of both Medik8 and Mesoestetic in the Southern Highlands, and clients who use these brands see big changes in a short period of time.
I also see clients who want to freshen up their look – I offer anti-wrinkle treatments and can also plump up the skin with hyaluronic acid. These are popular because it means many clients don’t have to travel to Sydney.
5 // What advice would you give to someone wanting to improve the health of their skin.
Understand that skin health is not just about what is on the surface, it goes deeper than that. I’ve studied Integrated Dermatology which looks at how your history, your lifestyle, your environment, your emotions, nutrition – everything!– impacts your skin. An Integrated Dermatology approach helps us get to the crux of the problem quickly.
If you’re not getting results with what you’re doing currently, come and see me and we can dig a little deeper and see what’s really going on, then make a plan together to improve your skin.
Some people think dermal therapy is going to be expensive or painful, but that’s not what happens at The Skin Club. My experience, knowledge and genuine interest in helping you have beautiful, glowing skin is the key to giving you a wonderful experience. I just love looking after people’s skin in a different, thoughtful and purposeful way, and seeing the positive impact having fabulous skin has on my clients.
The Skin Club Bowral is a Dermal Clinic in the Southern Highlands, dedicated to helping clients achieve healthy, glowing skin. Mardi provides amazing treatments and advice to all her clients, using the highest quality cosmeceutical skincare products. Book a free skin consultation with Mardi to take your skin to the next level (and be prepared for EVERYONE to comment on how amazing you look –guaranteed!). Oh, and she’s super flexible with appointment times, which is very handy!
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