Don't Call Me Midlife

Midlife Glow-Up with Allie Edwards [Modern Mom Date]

• Alix Mackey & Nicole Stassinopoulos • Episode 22

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In this episode of "Don't Call Me Midlife," Alix and Nicole welcome Allie Edwards owner of Renova Medical Aesthetics. Discover the secrets behind their skincare philosophy and the journey of running a successful med spa. Learn about creating a positive workplace atmosphere and the distinctions between med spa treatments and spa indulgences. Join them for a discussion on aging gracefully and cosmetic procedures. From personal anecdotes to embracing midlife beauty, we celebrate self-care and finding balance in all aspects of life.

In this episode, we talk about the following:
1. The difference between a med spa and a regular spa.
2. The importance of starting skincare routines at any age.
3. Embrace aesthetic choices without feeling the need to justify or hide them.

You can connect with Allie on:
Website www.renovamedco.com
Instagram @renova_med
Facebook Renova Medical Aesthetics


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Follow Alix on Instagram @everydaywithalix
Follow Nicole on Instagram @touch_of_stass

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Don't Call Me Midlife podcast. I'm Nicole and I'm Alex, where you're a coffee-addicted, wine-loving, amazon-obsessed mom squad. Think of us as your new besties, but with a podcast. Just like you, we're navigating the Google-defined cast of midlife while wrangling a pack of boys. But here's the twist we're more than just moms and wives. We're on a mission to reclaim our identities beyond motherhood, and we're bringing you along for the wild ride. Now, we don't pretend to have all the answers to life's mysteries, but we're so good at learning and laughing our way through them. So whether you're sipping from your trusty Stanley and doling in an oatmeal latte from Starbucks or raising a glass of whispering angel, get ready to hang with us Together. We'll keep it real, have some laughs and remind you that this crazy journey called life is one adventure worth sharing. We are so thrilled with our guest today. Her name is Allie Edwards and she is a nurse practitioner. She owns a med spa here in the Denver area. It is called Renova Med Spa Aesthetics, and she is just full of knowledge and we just can't wait to dive into this interview. She's amazing. Her beauty goes more than skin deep, and I don't just mean that, the way her philosophy, that she runs her spa and the way that she views skincare is a different take on what I've personally normally heard, so she was a great speaker. She also, nicole, loves Diet Coke, so I love her just from that fact. And she has four boys and owns her own spa. She's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1:

This is a must listen, right? Yes, all right, let's dive in. Okay, hi Nicole, hi Alex, hi Allie, hello, how are you guys? I'm excited to be here. Yes, oh God, we are so excited to have you. You are a guest. That has been like a long waited, like everybody is asking us questions and we finally have our lady. So, allie, let's get started, okay, but first I'm going to ask Alex what's in her cup? Alex, do you tell I'm excited. Allie's been here. Nicole has talked about her since day one of starting this podcast and I know all our ladies are going to be really interested in what Allie has to say. So, what is in my cup? I was super excited to tell you today, nicole, and the fact that we have a guest speaker is even better.

Speaker 1:

I love Diet Coke, right, and I know it's not good for me, you do, I do. I really do Like. I used to be one of those people that would like start your day with Diet Coke, right? And so I found this soda to show it to you. It's called Poppy, right? Oh, I can't it. Well, just listen to that, sorry.

Speaker 1:

It is a prebiotic soda and of course, I got this flavor because it is pink and, for those of you that can't see, it's the raspberry rosé. It's supposed to be like a healthy soda. I don't typically believe in these things, but guess what? I had one in January for or February for the Super Bowl, whenever that was, and I really love it. It's a coffee and I would encourage everyone to try it. It is my favorite thing. Is there kombucha in it? No, but it has apple cider vinegar. It does have sugar in it, but I think you know most photos do so, but I like it. It's instead of my afternoon coffee. So it's little habits, guys, right? So it is better than my total caffeine in the afternoon, because I love coffee too. But okay, so that was.

Speaker 1:

I was very excited to tell you about this, and it is soda that my kids won't drink, right? I'll buy some of those, like other sodas, like ollie pop I bought once because I thought that was a healthy soda, but it is not, and my kids drink it all. So this is like my pink soda that I have for myself. So my pink drink. What is in your cup? Well, I have a brain boosting smoothie, okay, wow, okay. So midlife and brain fog is real. So it's just some frozen blueberries and protein powder and some coconut yogurt. So, yes, I'm just trying to get some, get some healthy stuff in, and it's so delicious. Nicole, what is your? Okay, first of all, I'm obsessed with blueberries lately because you know my frozen shoulder. They're the best anti-inflammatory food right. Everywhere we eat blueberries, eat blueberries. So I love that.

Speaker 1:

And what is your favorite protein powder that you're using right now? I'm curious. It's root ecology Hands down. I won't ever switch it up. So it is.

Speaker 1:

It's actually made from a pharmacist and her name is Isabella Wentz. You can find her on Instagram, dr Isabella Wentz. And it's flavorless and there's no chalky. I'm so, so sensitive to any powder. The taste, the chalkiness Literally you can't tell it's in here. I put it in my kids stuff. They don't know it's the best. She's got a whole line of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Maybe, maybe one day we can get her on here, but right now we're going to dive into Allie? That would be well. I just want to know, is that plant-based or is it? Is it plant-based protein or what? No, it's beef, it's hydrobeaf. Okay, so I would say there's like 26 grams of protein per per scoop. I love that. Okay, we'll link in the show notes. Okay, I know we're saying about Allie.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we could talk about our drinks all day. Okay, allie, what is it? Yeah, allie, what's in your cup? I have? I start every morning with. I am also a Diet Coke fanatic and would drink it all day, every day, if I could.

Speaker 1:

So in the morning I do this Amino energy. It's supposed to be like a pre-workout, but it also has a lot of good stuff in it, and so, whether I work out or not, I drink it, so it makes me happy. Did you just mix it with water? Yeah, it's a great flavor. There's grape or watermelon or some of the other ones, and it gives me a little caffeine boost and has my little all the Amino stuff that I like. Nice, where do you get it from? Who makes it? Yeah, amazon, is it a question? Nicole, it's a great question. I get it on Amazon. It's called Amino energy. I think that's the brand. Okay, we'll put that on. We'll verify with you.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, all our speakers, I have to just say, always have much more interesting drinks than you and I. So I love having speakers because we learned so much. Even in the first five minutes of this, I swear I really thought you were going to have Diet Coke, because when I was in your clinic or your med spot rather, you said you're going to have your Diet Coke, and always, I mean, it's earlier in the day, and so round lunchtime is yes, and you switch it up into Diet Coke, and then the rest of the day your skin can look gorgeous and you can drink Diet Coke. That is the first takeaway. It's nothing else. That's what you need to take away from this, okay, so check, we've got one on this list of your device already.

Speaker 1:

So, allie, this is a podcast about midlife. Obviously, how old are you? 44. I'm going to turn 44 here in a little bit, okay, and if you're watching this on YouTube, ali does not look 44. She looks 34. So any tip that we have is going to be key ladies. So, nicole and I can see her, so listen up for sure.

Speaker 1:

How do you define midlife? Like, you're definitely a midlife, but how do you, how do you feel about midlife? How would you define midlife? How do you feel about? Do you like it, do you not Like? What are? What are the all the things midlife that you think about? You know, I, I like it. I feel like I'm finally getting figuring things out and, you know, I wish that I had this perspective or this mentality when I had more energy. I would be a lot smarter. No, I don't know. I feel like I'm just starting to figure things out and it's exciting and I like this part of life.

Speaker 1:

I enjoy being a mom at four boys. I have boys too. Oh, you four? I have four boys. I thought you had three and there's just so many between the three of us. We have 10 boys. I love it. I have three. Yeah, love it.

Speaker 1:

What kind of team is that? Right, like a more than a basket. It's a basketball team with a baseball. It's a baseball team. We got one more. No, but yeah, no, I feel like I just I'm starting to figure things out and I feel comfortable in my own skin, as opposed to feeling like I judge myself too harshly when I was younger and I wish I would have been happier where I was, and so, yeah, I like this stage of life, I'm enjoying it.

Speaker 1:

Oh, we love you already. I love you already. I met you. What other boys tell us? Because we can talk about boy things and teens too. My oldest is 16. I have 13 year old twins and an eight year old. Okay, guys, she owns her own business and she has four boys. So anyone listening out there, it is possible it's been do it. Not to mention she just graduated with her NP degree. So I mean, that is I kicked my butt, but yes, it was. It's a two year program, right, yeah, two and a half years. Two and a half years and just kicked my butt. But here we are. Here you are, you're showing boys. Yeah, that's awesome. Congratulations, yeah, right. So how long have you owned renova?

Speaker 1:

I opened renova about five years ago and honestly, it was just kind of like a. I worked. I worked as a nurse for over 20 years and in the ER. Okay, I loved the pace, I loved all of it, and then I was getting tired and, on, honestly, a little bit dated. I didn't love people as much. Well, you see that you see the worst things come through your door, unfortunately, yeah, I didn't love that, and so then I wanted something that I was passionate about and something that when people came in, they were excited to see me. Except for Nicole. When she comes in, she's like here I am again. That was just for one treatment. Okay, tell us more, more, but I'm here no one of those days. No, no, but yeah, five years ago in the, I rented a 77 foot square square foot broom in the back of my hair salon and now we have our own place. I have there's seven of us. It's wonderful.

Speaker 1:

I love the team that I built and the company also amazing what it stands for. So, yeah, yeah, it's very, it's very welcoming. Like, when you walk in there, I'm just like, how do you know my name? Like I love I know, like I feel like everyone knows me. It's just very I love everyone from you know, and why am I drawing a blank? Melinda, melanie, melanie, oh my gosh, I'm sorry, melanie. Yes, melanie, and yeah, everybody's she checks you in. Yeah, yeah, oh, sorry, go ahead. Oh, that's okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1:

I said we wanted to create an environment where I mean, a lot of these things that people are coming into do are intimidating and the environment's intimidating. You know, you walk into like this like sterile office and all of these like you just assume, all these like gorgeous people are walking out, and we wanted it to be a welcoming and relatable environment so that anyone could come in and feel comfortable. Mm, hmm, yeah, well, you mastered that, what? Well, so one thing I want to tell you, ali, is that I think Nicholas mentioned that if she went and worked in an office, she wanted to work in your office. Did she tell you why? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Full disclosure. I asked before Okay, but go ahead, listen to how amazing Ali treats her employees.

Speaker 1:

Tell, tell um, I do love, love, love my team and, honestly, when I first started this, I really wanted to be that person that people would love to come into work and love the team that they work with, and so I try and find any and everything that I can to show how much I appreciate them and how grateful I am to have them, and so this year we are going to Hawaii for a Renovah retreat, to Kona, to work. Is that amazing? Okay, so I'll come and work for you too, but I, but I, but that is you as a leader, that is you as leading your team and I think that is so thoughtful and I was. As an aside, I was just listening to a podcast. Mel Robbins was talking about the time between 20 years old and I was listening and 40 and 60 years old. You spend most of the time with your coworkers, right, and I was thinking about this with Nicole and how much I love Nicole and for you to value them in that way. I think it's really special and makes you have such a good team. Probably that's really loyal and dedicated to you and the purpose of your craft, right. Making women feel good is not always comfortable, so kudos to you. If anyone is a boss listening to this, they need to follow what Ally's doing. Yes, one day I'll buy you a ticket to Kona, alex.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is going to take off a little bit. There you go and it will, it will, it will, ally. So tell. For those of us that don't know, myself included, I know Nicole knows so much about makeup and skincare and she's so amazing. She teaches me all the time.

Speaker 1:

But what's the difference and this may be a naive question between a med spa and like a regular spa, I guess, can you? I don't understand. No, that's a great question. There's a lot of spas out there that you go in just to kind of be treated for the day, right, like you go and you get your salt scrub and you get a facial and you get a mud bath or whatever. I don't know, I've never been, but it sounds right. Yeah, right, like you go and it's pampering but not a mess yeah, just kidding. So it's more pampering, it's really for like that day, but it's not like you're going to see results from it after.

Speaker 1:

A med spot is medically driven in the sense that there should. There usually is a medical director involved, and so, whether it's a physician, a PA, a nurse practitioner and often there are nurses there could be estheticians there as well. But because it's a medical driven place, having a medical director, you can do certain services that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise, like injectables, so like the Botox, the fillers, micro-needling that goes a little deeper certain lasers. But these the procedures and things, the treatments that we do is more results driven, where we want to see results after, whether it's improved like a tone and texture of the skin, whether it's to improve fine lines and wrinkles, and so, while not as pampering while you're there, the goal is results, and so I think that that would be the main difference between the two. So this is definitely midlife ladies, this is midlife ladies, correct.

Speaker 1:

So do you ever see anyone younger coming in for certain treatments that necessarily don't always need it, but they think they need it because they've maybe seen it on social media? I have some friends that are in their early 30s and they're like I don't know what treatment to start with. Like, do I need a laser? Do I need a chemical peel? Do I need just a facial? I'm like I don't know, but I'm going to ask Ellie, yeah, no, what should our younger ladies start with? Yeah, interestingly enough, I think that our little Gen Zs are very educated More than I was when I was that age on skincare and what they should be doing and preventative. So they're into the preventative box of things, that what they need to be doing. So some of them are like, oh, I need to do Botox preventative, and there's a line there, that.

Speaker 1:

And we talk about it like, okay, listen, you have, you have no wrinkles. So I don't. I mean I could do it, but really, what is it doing here? There are some that, yes, that are forming these heavy wrinkles and then you can help prevent those things. But what the conversation that I usually start with my later 20, 30 year olds is skincare that you can do 100% will help prevent things later. If you do certain things now, whether it's sunscreen everybody needs to be doing sunscreen that is the cheapest way to anti aging is sunscreen, and so if you start earlier, you will be leaps and bounds oh yeah, as you're late, like in your later 40s or 50s or whatever. So sunscreen is a big one. So we talk a lot about skincare, doing things to making sure you're washing your face.

Speaker 1:

Some of these girls come home late at night after a fun night and then sleep in their makeup or whatever, and so I feel like some of just getting into those habits of doing things for your skin and, like you were saying, alex, I think a lot of things that we put into our bodies makes a difference and makes a difference long term, and so really it's your kind of talk to them about like your little savings account for when you're older, later then you have stuff to pull from as opposed to like tanning and sun, like beds, tanning beds and things like that. When your skin is already friable at a later age you really have nothing to pull from. You don't have increased collagen, you don't have like that nice supple skin, and so taking care of it early is a good thing. What about red light therapy? Is that, is that something 20 year olds can do for preventative, or is that? I don't know if it's preventative or I don't know if reversal is the correct term for that, but you know, so it goes both treatment, so there's. It's a nice trend right now.

Speaker 1:

I do feel like it helps with certain things. Is it preventative? I don't know, I don't. I don't think that there are any studies that is saying it's preventing anything. But I do feel like it helps. It doesn't hurt it. How's that? Okay, that's good, because I bought that mask. I'm like good marketer, you know, like I mean people can really. My husband is like you're the dream marketer. I bought that whole like red light mask. You know, I think it's a doctor gross one or something from a place I went and it. You know what. It just makes me feel good. I, you know it's one of those things and I don't know if it's helping. I'm not taking pictures, but you know, I like to hear. I'm going to tell my husband that I talked to you today and that it works. I got the one from Amazon that you guys have and, well, I don't know if it's the exact same one, but it's the setup. It's almost like a, it's like a dome. It kind of goes over your face and I think there's also blue light, which one of your estheticians said it's.

Speaker 1:

She used it on her teen boys, I don't remember why. Inflammation, acne, acne, oh okay, oh okay. Do your boys, do you have your boys on? Are they into skin care or prevented? Now, I am the my 16 year old, everyone now and again.

Speaker 1:

Actually, it was funny the other day. We have a self tanner for the face, which is lovely. We can talk about that later, but he buzzed his head I don't, the basketball team all did it and he looked like he was scary white. Oh, no, somebody called him other things. They're like you look awful, so I put it on his face. I'm like this will help this self tanner and he's like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna look orange, but he looked fabulous Actually. Yeah, but no, they really don't care, but I do.

Speaker 1:

I will say I do use the red light for my eight year old. He has eczema on his feet and so I stick them under it and I feel like it does help. Interesting, I have a friend that has a baby that has really bad eczema on his cheeks and I wonder if that would help. But I think he's under six months old. I don't know if he can do that, like how you would keep your your eyes, that little goggles, yeah, so if you have like you're not hurting anything, you're only right helping, okay, okay, so I like that. I like that, that's perfect, okay.

Speaker 1:

So what about the ladies that haven't done anything really, except you know, they wash their face with their you know, body soap, bar soap, and then they're starting to see things in their like mid 40s, early 50s and they're like Is it too late? I don't even know where to start. No, it's never too late. I, honestly, I'm a big believer that whenever you decide that you're ready, or whenever you want to do it, you should do it. It's not like, oh well, I gotta throw my hands up, I can't do anything now. Yeah, but we do always have. I mean, there's a lot of things that we offer and that we can talk about.

Speaker 1:

And, honestly, when people come in and they're like, okay, tell me all the things that I need and and I'm like, okay, we're gonna stop you there, because as an aesthetic provider, I can see all these things that people probably wouldn't. And so I always tell them, like, if you don't see it, it's not a problem. If you don't see that there's something wrong, there is no way on God's green earth that I'm going to point it out to you. Like right, if someone came in and I was like, oh yeah, those ears, oh my gosh, and they never thought there was anything wrong with their ears. Now that's all they're going to see. And so I always ask, like, so what bothers you the most? And let's talk about that. And then I can tell you like different options.

Speaker 1:

But when people come in, I like to talk about skincare. I do feel like what you do at home matters most more than what we do at the med spa. You come, you know, three every three, four, five, six months, and sure we can do things there, but what you do every day matters, and so do you have proper, good, medical grade skincare? Are you washing your face? Are you using a good retinol, like a retinol that has like a good percentage of retinol? Are you using a good vitamin C. Is it medical grade? And then are you wearing sunscreen? So those, really those like top three things are just that the retinol, the sunscreen and vitamin C, and then after that it's kind of gravy, you know, do you need a little ice cream, do you need more moisture, do you need this or that? But if you have a good base, like in terms of your skin, there's a lot more things that we can do to help out with that. But if you don't have a great barrier, like your skin is your barrier. It's what's protecting everything in your body. If you don't have a good barrier there, it's hard to work with, even in terms of Botox and fillers and all the other things that we do lasers. So you need a good skin barrier.

Speaker 1:

So if someone if someone doesn't, you know doesn't go to a meds bar, doesn't have one near them, what are the brands that you would recommend of? You know products that people could get near them. Maybe it may not be medical grade, but it may be better than what it is right. I know set of fills, a really good, clean brand, but I don't know. I do like set of fill. Interestingly enough, set of fill changed. They're not changed. They're because I would always recommend, like, if you're gonna skimp on something or if you're gonna save money cleansers, get a gentle cleanser, and set of fill was my go to so, but their formulation changed and so a lot of people were having some reactions to it, but the gentle one stayed the same. So I would recommend set of fill gentle cleanser.

Speaker 1:

I'm there, I will say if you can get a prescription for retinol. There are a lot of retinols out on the market. If you buy it from Walgreens, that's not gonna cut it, but there's, you know, like a lot of the medical retinols that are out there are great, but they're not cheap because they're formulated differently and it's very expensive. But if you get a prescription, in all honesty it's probably the cheapest. Yeah, sometimes the chance will cover it, right, sometimes insurance will cover it. Oh, really so. And that's the retin A. Yeah, right, like your, what is mostly known as yeah, yes, but you can get it as a prescription and it is a million times cheaper.

Speaker 1:

And then I would say, like a sunscreen, a good sunscreen that doesn't, that doesn't clog your pores. So Elta, elta MD is a really great one. It's like 20, 30 bucks and it's got 40 plus SPF. They come in tinted, they come in clear and I want to say you can probably buy that on Amazon, but we carry it in our med spa. It's a really great sensitive sunscreen, even for like acneic skin that is very sensitive to clogging and things like that. Elta is great for that.

Speaker 1:

You guys use it on me after certain treatments just to yeah, so it's good post treatment. It's very, very gentle and I do use it every day, like if I'm going to take the kids and I need to go, you know, run a couple of errands, I'll throw it on and just kind of like evens it out and I know I'm protected because, for those of you that don't know, we're in Colorado and the sun here is no joke. No joke. Yeah, I'll drive in my car and I'll like cover my face with like a zip up Like you can't see what Alex is wearing with like a Lulu lemon. You just like zip it up and I'm just like I mean, since I moved here, I've like just really become I've always been aware of you know cognizant of wearing sunscreen and a snap, but here it's like it's in my car, it's in my bag, they're in my pockets, like I've got powder, so I don't get lotion on the steering wheel. I mean, you name it. I feel like I've discovered it Good.

Speaker 1:

Is there a certain ingredient in sunscreen I've heard this before, I don't know if it's a myth or not that makes it a good sunscreen or not. You know, if someone I know there's a lot of lotions that we can wear as women that you know are tinted for moisturizer but for sunscreen. But what if, like, we're putting sunscreen on our kids or sunscreen? You know our husband wants some. What are the good sunscreens that you like? So they're mineral. Good, mineral sunscreen. That's the worst one. But so I will say, in terms of sunscreen, sunscreen. So I'm guilty of this.

Speaker 1:

And Nicole, you have, like the same skin tone. I like to be tan that I grew up wanting to be. Like everybody looks better tan. Fat looks better tan, like it. Just like Silly light looks better tan, it does. It looks healthier, it doesn't look as fat, you know, yeah, but so, like, anything under SPF 30 is not doing anything. So, like, we're kind of kidding ourselves putting SPF 15 or SPF eight, please, like you might as well, not. But so for my kids and for like what my husband puts on when he goes biking and things like that. We do keep.

Speaker 1:

Elta is a great sunscreen and there's so many different variations of it, but the lowest that they go is like 30 for the body, but I do like to have mineral sunscreen. Yeah, I've seen Elta in every dermatologist office I've been in and that's the key. Yeah, and any med spa places that I've gone to, they always carry Elta. Typically, elta and skin better. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to ask you, I wanted to ask you a little bit more about treatment, if we could just circle back to that, because you know, I get Botox and I just did the Morpheus on my neck, which is a lot of needles, and I do have friends that are definitely afraid of needles, but I think it's important to know that just because you go to a med spa, you're not it's not all needles Like there's lasers and peels and I don't know that if there's anything that can replace Botox, that's not a needle but in terms of resurfacing the skin or things like melasma, yeah, there are definitely several things that you can do that don't involve needles and but and I think that you mentioned it there are lots of different kinds of peels that you can do Interesting.

Speaker 1:

Interestingly enough, appeal is not appeal is not appeal. So there's many different kinds and asking a little bit more about like is this a superficial depth peel? Is this a medium depth peel, meaning it goes a little bit deeper? You're going to peel a lot more. What kind of ingredients are in the peel and what exactly is the appeal and what exactly is the benefit? After, there's specific ones for acne skin that helps treat that a little bit oily skin, helps kind of the purge and then clears it. There's one specifically for melasma that not necessarily it will help with the sunspots, dark spots, but specifically melasma. There's some for just increased collagen. Where you can, it'll help firm and tighten that skin a little bit more.

Speaker 1:

We have the hydrophacial, which exfoliates, extracts and hydrates. So you know, like when you go for a facial and they're like picking at and like digging out all the blackheads, which you really want them to do, but it's stupid painful. This does it and it like sucks it out kind of like a. You know, like when you shampoo your carpet. That's an example. I like that. Yeah, it sucks it out. Everybody can understand that. Yeah, yeah, big Dustbuster, dustbuster for your skin, so that and it's actually not painful like the normal extractions. I'm trying to. And Shannon lasers, oh yes, oh, my gosh, I've had a couple of them at a couple of different places and she's hands down. I'm telling you Just fantastic. Hydrofacial, yes, have you ever had one, alex? I have I actually I'm one of my questions that I was actually thinking about how often if someone, you know, if someone's like, okay, I can get my skincare routine consistently.

Speaker 1:

If someone was like, you know what, I'm going to start with a facial, I'm going to start with a facial and you know what I'm going to splurge on a facial or hydrofacial. How often do you recommend you know? I mean, I know it varies on skin type, but people get a hydrofacial, say, for instance, in terms of like stimulating and extracting your cell. You have like cellular turnover every like 28 days. So I say once a month, once a month going in and just getting a nice cleanse and extraction. And the nice thing is is, once you get that, all the skincare stuff that you're using works so much better it penetrates the skin, better it. Just you're getting the most bang for your buck if you have nice clean skin.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, I didn't know that. Wow, okay, I know what Alex is going to do when we get off this call. She's going to make an appointment. One of my best friends, she's a PA at a skincare place, so she recommended actually, I like that you guys are, you guys are very aligned on all your things she listens to this podcast too, and so she was one to recommended that I do a hydrofacial. So I think if you're going to treat yourself, ladies, maybe you know, ask for that for your birthday or you know, some other day.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's coming up soon. Love it. Oh, did we touch on everything? Cause I was going to ask you about skincare around spring break time, because it is coming up. Yes, so you know you're going to be in the sun. Do you wait till after? Do you get a little something beforehand? What are your thoughts, allie? So I, you know all of most of the treatments that we do are like anti sun. Yeah, in the sense that you're getting, like this baby, fresh skin exposed and then you're going into the sun. So we always recommend doing something either a few months before or doing it a month after, so you also don't want like tanned sun, exposed skin right after. But it is a good time to purge all of that stuff.

Speaker 1:

But I would definitely say, especially like spring break, if you're going somewhere, sunscreen if there's nothing else in your skincare bag is sunscreen, you need sunscreen over 30 SPF. Like it's so interesting, one of my takeaways is sunscreen, which I knew. But you think of us 20 years ago, right, like oh, my God, have sunscreen. Like I would put baby oil on my face with like the foil thing, like I was astronaut or something I don't know. Like, yeah, it was, it's so. It's just like. The one takeaway is like sunscreen is important and I think we're so lucky because they do make sunscreen proof shirts or hats, or you know, my husband is really fair skinned, he has red hair and you know it's really important to him and his family, I mean all of us, my kids, my kids. So I think I love that we're moving towards this like normalizing sunscreen, I guess, and I mean, do you, we parents, know better too?

Speaker 1:

I feel like my mom was out in the backyard too with her little thing. I mean my mom still is guys, like, literally, I was going to tell a Botox story about my mother too, where she got so much Botox at 70 years old where she couldn't even sip a straw, you guys. I mean, it was like I think I know exactly what she got, exactly my like she spent so much money on this Botox and she calls me and I'm like so I think about starting now. Yes, but if you're 75 years old, like I'm sorry, she's beautiful, I'm like you do not need to spend money on Botox. And she couldn't even sip a straw or brush her teeth. She's like I'm drooling. I'm like, oh no, that was exactly where she got it. It was. It was like too much or too bad. I was like, okay, too much. She's like I'll never do it again. So don't get too, don't get bad Botox. But you know that's the takeaway. I got bad Botox once.

Speaker 1:

What happened? It was my first experience and one of my friends husband's is a dermatologist and his brother's also a dermatologist, but the one that I was closer to. I just, I just felt comfortable like going to him. He was, he had, he runs a Moe's clinic and, for those of you that don't know, that's more like skin cancer type treatment. So I went in. I went into his clinic and the girl that was checking me in was like are you sure you're not? You didn't mean to go to the brother. And that should have been my first clue, like she's subconsciously telling me you don't want to go to him, you want to go to his brother. So I just it was like a drop. So I just kind of looked angry instead of like I do know, but, and I was like I couldn't.

Speaker 1:

And when you first get it, like you that first, week later or two weeks, you can't really move it, like you don't really get your movement for like a little bit longer. Right, like you should have a little bit. But I had none and it was like just straight across and I'm like, oh, this is not what I wanted. But it eventually got better. And then I went to his brother and had you know the results that I was looking for. But yeah, that was, it wasn't like bad, I think it was just a lot. Yeah, it wasn't the most too much.

Speaker 1:

No, we always tell people that good Botox is not cheap and cheap Botox is never good. So I like that, I like that. Yeah, if somebody is charging like lower than everybody else, it makes you think like, hmm, it really does. Yeah, why am I getting a deal here? And but yeah, yeah, flash sales are okay. Flash sales are okay. We like that, do you see?

Speaker 1:

You know, I feel like people are now more open about getting Botox at our age and midlife, you know, and it's, it's okay. It's not like a secret, like, ooh, I get Botox. I mean, hiding it from your husband is one thing, but I think us talking about it, do you see? What do you see, ali, as trends in this midlife era? Like what are more people coming in as complaints? I also want to say you know, I have friends that have beautiful skin. They don't do Botox, and I love your philosophy of if it doesn't bother you, then don't do anything about it. You know, like some people are really adamant about not getting Botox, and that's okay too. They want to age. Grace for that. It's not Nicole and I. So what do you see we're going to fight? What do you see as more of the trends?

Speaker 1:

As you see, women hit their 40s and 50s, that they're coming in their complaints, what they want. You know, that type of thing. The thing that I see the most is that they and I'm glad that we've gotten to this point but they're unapologetically getting what they want and as opposed to having to hide it or, you know, like I don't want to talk about it or, oh, don't post my picture. I don't want anyone to know Like they're like you know what? This is me, this is what I do and this is why I look the way I look like, and I love that.

Speaker 1:

I love seeing the confidence or even people that aren't quite as confident at first and then later see themselves and like are just thrilled like I'm shouting it from the rooftops, like I feel and look amazing, and I think that's probably one of the best parts of my job is to be able to see women comfortable in their own skin, and they don't have to look like a supermodel and they don't have to look like you know anyone. Really they just have to be themselves and be happy with all of this. But I do like that as older women come in, they are a little bit more confident in like yeah, I'm going to do all the things because of me. I don't want to do it because my husband. I don't want to do it because my friend is doing it. I don't have to get bow talk if I don't want to, and they don't have to explain it. So I do. I do like that part. Yeah, I love hearing that too.

Speaker 1:

You're like, you're so much more than just what you do, right, when Nicole and I love this and you're, you give people who want it like this confidence that they may not have right, and it's a different level of confidence than we were when we were younger, and that ownership over our journey is super, super powerful. So it's beyond your beautiful studio, right, you're giving them the confidence to maybe they're going to start their own business or whatever they're doing. You know, maybe they're in front of a camera a lot who knows but, uh, I love that owning. Owning your journey like own your skin care, right. I hate when people are like, ooh, I'm not telling you if I get bow, talk Some. Or I'm not telling you how old I am. I'm like, really Like, are we real Right? It's like come on, right, uh, and I think that, um, that it gets to.

Speaker 1:

There's such a stigma and I think that as women, we fall into this thing where we have to, um, justify pampering ourselves, we have to justify doing something for ourselves and if we spend X amount of money on ourselves, like, we have to be able to like, oh well, you know, like this is why I did it and the, the, the, and it doesn't have to be that way and you can do it for you. You can do it because you want to and you feel like it and it, if it helps you feel better than great. It's not. You know, I have all these people come in like, oh well, I guess I kind of want to fix this, but it's so vain.

Speaker 1:

Like it's not vain. If you want to feel good about yourself, that's not vain. Um, if you want to like what you see, that's not vain. And, um, it's part of who you are, it's part of your whole person. Like, you know, we feed our spirits and we feed our souls and like, yeah, feed your body, feed your face, like all of the things that help you feed you know, like that, make you feel good. Do that, um, I mean obviously not in excess. And that's also something that we, um, we're very cognizant of is that we can kind of, you know, women and people in general get into this loop where they just want more and more and more, and we are there to kind of put on the brakes and be like no, this you're good. Where you're at you're good. So we're going to help you in moderation.

Speaker 1:

I like that, that you put people so you don't have like the Joan Rivers walking around, right? No, the faces that people see, that's, that's your business card, right? Right? Well, and people I can't tell you how many times we say no.

Speaker 1:

You know people are like I want more lips, I want more of this. I want, and you know, and I tell them, like you know, for the most part, we try to educate like there's a balance and everything Like let's look at all of your features and see how that will balance it and it won't like the first thing that's going to walk through the door or your lips, and that's not how it should be and so it needs to be. You know you need to have a balance and really like that factors into every part of your life, but you need to have a balance just in your face, and so you know, I'm sorry that you feel like that this is what you want, but this is not our aesthetic and I wouldn't do that to you. You wouldn't be happy and I'm sure that it's not healthy. It's, at a certain point too right. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's like and that's a whole another, like body dysmorphia and people wanting more, and you know, like I look at, we could do like a whole podcast, I'm like celebrities and what they did. But yes, we should. Oh my gosh, but I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like. The thing is that terrifies me is that someone did that to them. Like there's a medical professional that said yes, that said sure, let's do that. And I almost think that goes back to, like the first, do no harm, like you harmed this person, like this. This was very unethical. What happened here. And, yeah, I just think that there's a whole other aspect to that in body dysmorphia, morphea.

Speaker 1:

But I think that if you have somebody, if you go to somebody that you trust and will say no to you, that's someone you should stick with. I love that, I love it. Everything has been so like perfectly explained and I love your. No, it's true, I've learned so much and I do know, I do feel like I know a lot, but, yes, thank you, allie, for explaining all the things. Alex, give me more questions. Oh, sorry, I was gonna say something.

Speaker 1:

I think that, nicole, you underestimate the fact that you know. You do know so much and I love people that come in and have done their research and have all the questions, like, okay, tell me more. Look, I looked up this, what about that? And I rather have somebody that has all the questions and that researched all the things so that they're well prepared for what they're going to be getting, as opposed to somebody that comes in and like, okay, I'll just let you do whatever, that's fine. I'm like no, no, no, I think you need to understand. This is a big deal. What you're getting into, this morphias that you're gonna do is gonna hurt. This is disclaimer. This is not gonna feel good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, anybody that follows me on social media knows my, oh, my God. I was like. I like literally text. Nicole was like I couldn't even watch your story. I look oh my God, I'm looking at her now I'm really paying for you. No, allie, we appreciate your time and I think you are just a beautiful person. It seems like on the outside and the inside, and I think that seems what you promote at your med spa. So I think we appreciate you as women for your words and for it's not just on the outside, is on the inside too, right, and if you're trying to fix something on the outside, maybe it's something on the inside. So I feel like you work with both parts of that, of the sort of holistic aesthetic business. I don't know, I'm not in this business, but know that you inspire us and you and we appreciate women like you having four kids and owning your own business. So, yes, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1:

So, nicole, what time is it? It's my favorite time. It is unsolicited advice time. Okay, it's our favorite time, especially today, ladies. Okay, it's unsolicited advice time. Probably Alice is going to be the most helpful and, nicole, it's not mine, because I learned like a bazillion things today.

Speaker 1:

I think what I would give us my solicited advice and I'm not the expert here is you know, if you want to start somewhere, look at I love what you said about just start with the consistency of what you're doing on a daily basis. I'm a big fan of that and health and wellness. So, you know, look at your products. It doesn't have to be fancy, you don't have to go to a fancy, expensive place, but look at what you're putting on your face every day and that consistency is going to matter, and I think that would be. You know, start somewhere, start with your daily routine and your daily habits, I think. I think that's important. So what would you say?

Speaker 1:

I would say, if you're nervous, go and just get a consultation. I know, sometimes I don't know about Alice Med Spa, I'm sure, but you can get a zoom. Just get your information. Don't be scared. Like like Ali said, don't think you're going to walk in and it's going to be intimidating. It's, it's a lovely, typical. I've been to a couple different places and different states and each experience has just been lovely and welcoming and far more relaxing than I initially thought it would be. So I guess I like that Because, like like Ali was saying, it can be intimidating. It can be. When you're talking about your health and wellness, you can be vulnerable, right, because you're talking about things that you want to fix. So so I like your advice of just you know, just little steps at a time, baby steps, right? Yeah, love that. All right, ali, this is the time. You've already given a lot of advice, but what's your solicited advice? So I would say that, when looking for somewhere to go, research the place or start following them If they should be on social media, most likely on social media and make sure that your aesthetic matches with theirs.

Speaker 1:

So, looking at their before and afters, looking at some of the lives that they do or the things that they teach about. If their models or their before and afters look crazy town, then you know that's not for you, or maybe that is, and I don't know. No one's judging, but make sure that that person's aesthetic matches your own. If you walk into a med spot and the person that is doing your stuff looks insane and looks like Joan Rivers or whatever that's their aesthetic, and so that I mean this isn't this is where you do make a judgment call and are like, okay, no, that is not the look I'm going for. That's where I found you. Yeah, see, there you go, we matched, but it is. It's finding somebody that your aesthetic matches with. So if you want somebody that's like holistic and does all that stuff, find somebody that you align with. But that would be my unsolicited advice is just research it and find somebody that your aesthetic matches. Perfect.

Speaker 1:

And where can people find you? Allie, on Instagram. We're very heavy on Instagram at RanovaMed, ranova, underscore med Online. We have a great website that has a lot of information. We send a lot of people there, ranovamedcocom. But and that's the other thing go to somebody's website and look up all the things, look up their credentials, look up, like, how long they've been doing this. Do they go to trainings? Do they value education? This is such this field is changing so often that if somebody's been doing this for like 10, 15, 20 years and has been doing what they've done forever, that's. You want somebody that values education and like the new up and coming things, but also not jumping on every bandwagon and doing every new thing that comes along. So, but yeah, so that's where you can find us.

Speaker 1:

I would I diverge. Awesome, no, no, that's good. Thank you, allie. You're amazing. We'll put everything in the show notes. Thanks for having me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And that's a wrap for today's episode of Don't Call Me Midlife. We hope you had as much fun as we did. Absolutely, your support means the world to us. If you're just waiting in the carpool line, don't forget to follow the show, and if you're feeling extra spicy today, leave us a rating and review Before we part ways. We've got a special invitation for you Join our newsletter to stay in the loop with all things midlife, magic, bonus content and more. Head on over to the show notes for how to sign up. We can't wait to keep the conversation going. And, of course, remember, in the whirlwind of life and motherhood, don't forget to fill up your own cup first. Your extraordinary and your journey is worth every moment. Until next time. Cheers, cheers.