Medical Esthetics

          Even if you don't plan on working at a med-spa you should familiarize yourself with medical grade products. You might not plan on using medical grade products on yourself or clients, but sometimes there are conditions that warrant prescription based skin care lines vs. the traditional skin care lines. You want to be familiar with these so you can refer a client to a doctor if necessary.
           Products like Obagi and Skinceuticals (mention these two because I've personally used them) are physician grade that allow the products to penetrate deeper into the skin. The active ingredients are stronger and can penetrate through the epidermis, and clients with problematic skin conditions need medical grade products. Unfortunately, as wonderful as some of the esthetics product lines are right now they do not have the concentrated active ingredients that FDA approved pharmaceutical lines have in them.
           Certain conditions like: pigmentation, rosacea, acne, and/or deep lines might need medical grade products to help facilitate a greater change in the appearance of the skin. Your clients can still use the standard product lines while incorporating the medical grade lines (if recommended by physician) to achieve a better outcome.