Sarah Patel is the operating partner at Opulence Chicago, a medical spa in the West Loop, and she came to aesthetics from neurointerventional radiology a decade ago. She explains biostimulators the way you'd want a friend to: filler is the frosting, Sculptra is the cake, and most people who look overfilled needed the cake.

We cover:

• What a biostimulator actually is, and why your own body does the work
• Why Sculptra has been around since the 1990s and was discovered on HIV patients
• How Radiesse differs, and when it behaves like a filler instead
• Why the overfilled look is usually a skin problem being treated with volume
• What GLP-1 weight loss is doing to faces, and why she says everyone needs Sculptra eventually
• The appointment start to finish, and why she mixes it in front of you
• Numbing: topical and lidocaine, and why she does not use nerve blocks for this
• The massage protocol, and why five minutes five times a day for five days turned out to be overkill
• Whether the one vial per decade of life rule holds up
• How long results last, and why she compares it to a 401k
• Real pricing: $700 to $900 a vial, and $1,500 to $1,800 for two
• Who is not a candidate, and the two areas she will never inject

Find Sarah:

Website: https://www.opulencechicago.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opulence_chicago
630 W Lake St, Suite 3, Chicago

Find a Sculptra provider near you: https://getclearbeauty.com/sculptra/?utm_source=podcast

Renee Pinlac spent 17 years as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital before opening De La Belle Wellness & Spa in Memphis. She explains microneedling with PRP as tilling a garden and then planting a premium seed, and she is direct about what it costs and why.

We cover:

• What PRP actually is, and why she calls it your body's own repair kit
• Why combining it with microneedling does more than either treatment alone
• Whether it genuinely helps hyperpigmentation and melasma, and the hormonal reason melasma is so stubborn
• What a medical-grade device does that an at-home roller does not, and how an at-home one can make things worse
• The sterility questions to ask before anyone draws your blood, including what tube it goes in
• Whether age or health affects how well your own platelets work
• Treating darker skin tones, and why she says the darker the better
• Real pricing: $750 to $950 for one treatment, and $1,150 when the PRP is injected

Find Renee:

Website: https://delabelle.net
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delabellewellness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DelabelleSpa

Find a microneedling with PRP provider near you: https://getclearbeauty.com/microneedling-with-prp/?utm_source=podcast

Rachel V-Rey is a nurse practitioner with 25 years in medicine, from oncology to emergency care to aesthetics, and she runs 2Restore & Rejuven8 as a concierge service that comes to you around Tampa.

She explains how to tell a medical consultation from a sales floor, why your first visit should open with an intake form instead of a package list, and what to ask about an injector's training when there is no single certification to look for.

We also cover:

• Why your full medical history decides which treatments you're eligible for, even for something as routine as Botox
• What the red flags are behind an unusually cheap Botox deal, including expired or long-reconstituted product
• How much one syringe of filler actually covers, and why she describes it as the size of a blueberry
• Why naming your real budget works better than hunting for a discount
• What commission and sales quotas can do to the treatment you're offered
• The questions you're entitled to ask, and why a good provider wants to hear them

Find Rachel:

Website: https://2restore-rejuven8.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2Restore.Rejuven8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2RestoreAndRejuven8
Call or text: (813) 417-9797
Serving Wesley Chapel and the greater Tampa area, with free 15 minute consultations.

Find a provider near you: https://getclearbeauty.com/pod