Hydroquinone works, but used for too long it can leave patients with worse pigment than they started with. In this episode of The Practice Lab, Tracey Mancuso talks with ingredient expert Marie Bertrand about when hydroquinone still makes sense, how to use it safely, and what to use instead for long-term pigment control.

In this episode:

Why hydroquinone is still a gold standard, and what Health Canada's 2% over-the-counter limit means

Pulse therapy: two to three months on, then switch

Marie's four steps to pigment control: exfoliation, pigment reduction, anti-inflammatory care and a tinted mineral sunscreen

Why some pigment is really vascular, and why treating it as pigment never works

Azelaic acid, the multitasker for redness, PIH and sensitive skin

How to talk patients off long-term hydroquinone without scaring them

Epidermal vs dermal pigment, and prepping the skin before lasers and microneedling

Tretinoin, the Kligman formula, and why the skin barrier comes first

As Marie puts it: "Hydroquinone should be seen as a sprint and not a marathon." And on prepping the skin: "We cannot exfoliate our way to a dermal pigment."

Learn more: Marie's introduction to ingredients is on The DermaRoom Collective at thedermaroomcollective.com. Her full ingredient masterclass is coming in early 2027.

About the guest: Marie Bertrand is a microbiologist and the founder of SkinScience Clinic in Calgary. Reach her at info@skinscience.md or on Instagram at @theskinscientist, and read her blog at skinscience.md.

About the host: Tracey Mancuso, BScHS, CMLSO, is the founder and course director of The DermaRoom Collective. A Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer with more than 30 years in aesthetic medicine, she teaches laser, light and RF treatment to practitioners.

Most energy-based device settings are built around one number: the patient's Fitzpatrick type. In this episode of 10 Minutes with Tracey, Tracey Mancuso explains why that scale was never designed for lasers, how relying on it alone leads to PIH, burns and undertreatment, and the fuller assessment she uses instead.

In this episode:

Why the Fitzpatrick scale was created in 1975 to predict sunburn and skin cancer risk, not laser response

Eumelanin versus pheomelanin, and what each means for photoprotection

Why you never hand a patient the skin-typing form, and the questions they almost always answer wrong

How the aesthetic industry adopted Fitzpatrick for devices, and why fluence charts still lean on it

Why a tan doesn't change a patient's type, and what fluence should depend on instead

The Roberts Skin Type Classification System: phototype, hyperpigmentation, Glogau photoaging and scarring, combined into one code

The palmar assessment and the Lancer scale, and the gaps they fill

Building a full risk profile before you choose a treatment

As Tracey puts it: "Energy-based medicine requires risk-based stratification, not just some visual assumption." And on the intake form: "Unless they live in a cave, they are going out in the sun."

Free download: The DermaRoom Collective's skin typing and patient assessment forms are in the Downloads section at thedermaroomcollective.com.

About the host: Tracey Mancuso, BScHS, CMLSO, is the founder and course director of The DermaRoom Collective. A Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer with more than 30 years in aesthetic medicine, she teaches laser, light and RF treatment to practitioners.

Every sales rep makes the device look good. Alicia Yap decides on what happens after the cheque clears. In the first episode of 10 Minutes with Tracey, the founder of ClaraDerma+ talks through how she actually buys energy-based devices — why service and turnaround matter more than the technology, why the brand on the billboard isn't better than the one beside it, and how a $150,000 machine stops being frightening once you divide it by sixty months. She also explains the purchase she got wrong, and what it cost her.

In this episode:

Where to start if you're buying your first device, and the treatments that are reliably in demand

Why after-sale service is the single most important thing to check, and how to check it before you buy

What real supplier support looks like beyond the one-day training: marketing, events, and turnaround when something breaks

Asking reps for consumables, practice tips and event budget, and why they usually say yes

Hype versus science: what a heavily marketed brand genuinely buys you, and what it doesn't

Bringing your team into the decision, and the head spa she bought without asking them

Getting past the fear of the price tag by treating it as a monthly payment

Rapid fire: proven or new, one platform or several, and what matters more than the technology

As Alicia puts it, on chasing the brand everyone knows: "At the end of the day, the science is the science. You can get exactly the same results with a different machine if you know what you're doing and you're trained properly." And on where to get a straight answer: "If you wanna know the real information about the device, ask the trainers. The sales reps sometimes don't really know exactly what the device can do or not do."

About the guest: Alicia Yap, CMMA, CLT, is the founder of ClaraDerma+, a laser and skin clinic in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Founder and Education Director of ClaraDerma Academy. She is a Certified Master Medical Aesthetician and Certified Laser Technician, and has been running ClaraDerma+ for over a decade.