Exercise kick-starts my day...
I usually get up at around 6am and have a black coffee to help wake me up. Then, I’ll do some form of exercise – either by myself or with a personal trainer. I absolutely love working out and I’m a bit of a fitness freak, so I tend to only have one rest day per week. Since the end of the first lockdown I’ve had a really great routine, and I think part of that is having an exercise bike at home. Not having to get up at 5am and go to the gym has really helped my mornings and given me some extra sleep! Sometimes I’ll meditate in the morning if I have time, but most commonly I’ll do it at night because mornings can often be quite a rush.
I usually leave for work by 8am at the very latest, but it really depends which clinic I’m in. Every Tuesday I work in London at the Cosmetic Skin Clinic where I have a 9am start, and it takes me roughly two hours to get there from my home in Kent.
My day is full of patients…
When I get to my own clinic, Illuminate Skin Clinic in Kent, I’m seeing patients back-to-back until the moment I leave – I rarely have time for a lunch break. This differs slightly when I’m in London as I use most of my morning to speak to and see the press, so this helps break up my week a bit! I do a lot of work with key journalists to raise consumer awareness about safe aesthetic treatments. That often means meeting with the media and sometimes treating them, giving them an opportunity to ask questions or interview me, and sometimes treating them.
Typically, I see about 20 patients a day, and the most common treatment I’ll perform is facial fillers or botulinum toxin. I always tend to do a full-face approach when treating, and I very rarely will have someone in to do just their lips or just their cheeks. The ones who I treat more holistically are much more satisfying! The reason I enjoy doing them so much is because of the immediacy of the results, and I think it’s how we can make the most impact non-surgically. Before the patient leaves the clinic, they can see the difference you’ve made to their face and their smiles are what gets me through the day! I’ll finish work any time between 8:30- 10pm. Once I get in, I make myself a quick and healthy dinner, check over all my emails, and go to bed. If I have the energy, I’ll read a book but I really try to prioritise my sleep during the week, so I would rather have less unwinding time and make sure I’m asleep by 10:30pm at the latest.
Helping with complications…
Once or twice a week will involve aesthetic complications. I am part of the Allergan Aesthetics complications help group, meaning that anyone who buys filler from Allergan and feels they need help, advice or medical input on something can get referred to me by their product specialist. The cases are given to me remotely by Allergan so that I can have a phone call with the practitioner and tell them exactly what I would do in their position, which they can then replicate. Every now and then I’ll have to see someone face-to-face if it’s a tricky case.
Having support like this is something that I think is integral in our industry, because when we work in the NHS we’re so used to working in multidisciplinary teams and we lose this sort of support in aesthetics because we’re often working alone. Being a complications advisor means I can give practitioners another port of call for second opinions and stop them from feeling alone.
My most memorable day…
I first trained in aesthetics in 2012 while I was working in anaesthetics and intensive care, and during the next two years I fell in love with the specialty completely. So, my most memorable day has to be when I started doing aesthetics as my full-time career! I remember it specifically as being the first Wednesday in August 2014, because this would usually be the day in the NHS that I would be assigned my new jobs. Instead, I got to wake up and think ‘this is the start of my new adventure!’ At that point I had set up my first clinic as part of the Illuminate brand, and now every first Wednesday of August I think about that day and remember that feeling.
I really do love my job, and even though it seems like I have a really busy schedule I’m so lucky that for almost seven years I’ve been able to do what I’m passionate about every single day.
On the weekends…
My weekends are full of self-care, and I have a strict rule of no alarm clocks. On a Saturday I have a personal trainer in the morning and then make time for pampering – getting my hair and nails done is a must, as well as a lovely hot bath.
What I would change…
Not much now, but I used to find it very hard to get a good work/life balance. It’s important for practitioners to try and make some more time for themselves!
What’s exciting me at the moment…
The Profound radiofrequency microneedling device by Candela! Even though it’s not super new to the UK it hasn’t been talked about that much, and I’m just so happy with the results I’ve been getting from it.
