Field Trip: Kim’s Skin Healing Journey | From Chronically Ill To Thriving

Sam 0:00

This field trip is proudly brought to you by RogersHood Apothecary.

Kim 0:11

Welcome everyone. I’m super excited about this episode. It’s all about the skin and the skincare that I do. Today I’m taking you inside Mildred, which is part of Penelope, which became my second home when I moved to Seattle. As you guys can see right here, my skin was not in good shape. This is when I was overloaded with parasites, worms, chronic lime, and black toxic mold. My skin has come a long way with a lot of cleansing and a lot of clean, holistic, non-toxic products. Everyone, welcome Alyssa. She is the amazing esthetician that has taken care of my face over the last few years and as holistic and healthy as you can find.

Alyssa 0:57

Hi, my name is Alyssa, and I’m an esthetician here at Mildred and Gertrude’s Spa and also Penelope and the Beauty Bar. And I have been seeing Miss Kim here for two years now. Yeah. And I have just completely watched her skin transform over these past two years. And we’re just going to talk about what we’ve done for her skin and the different services.

Kim 1:19

It really has transformed. When I came to you guys, I had just started my facials and what I did Bibbachi at the time.

Alyssa 1:28

Yes, you did.

Meeting Alyssa And A Holistic Approach

Kim 1:29

And I didn’t really understand what all of it meant. So we just want to bring you guys with us so you can see what we’ve done. And this is a typical facial for me. Yes, it is.

Alyssa 1:42

We’re going to start with uh the dermaplane service. So dermoplane is a fantastic service. It is safe for most skin types. People who have rosacea, active rosacea, active inflamed acne, uh, we do want to calm that inflammation down before we do any sort of dermoplane service. The number one thing that I want to tell people is that don’t try and dermoplane yourself at home. Um, there are so many horror stories about people dermoplaning their own skin and they go too deep or they cut themselves severely and cause scarring, and it can just really do more damage than good. So, dermoplaning is a service to where I take a sterile scalpel here. I know that sounds scary, but we know what we’re doing. You have to be a trained professional to use one of these. And I am taking the scalpel about a 45 degree angle, and I’m basically taking off all of the vellus hair. And the vellus hair is what that peach buzz is, is what most people know it as. So it’s a really great exfoliation. And what that does is it allows for products to penetrate deeper. It allows basically, I like to explain it as sweeping the bowl the floor before you mop. You like to sweep the floor before you mop, right? You don’t want to mop with all the gunk on the floor. So this really just gives you a smooth surface to work with, as well as just instant radiance. It’s incredible.

Dermaplaning Explained And Safety

Kim 3:11

It is. I’m it’s my favorite. Yes. I like to come in and just get the derma plane. I also get it prior to doing one of the things I’ve done in the past, Morpheus. Morpheus A. Morpheus A and any microneedling. I do recommend doing the derma planing prior. Yes. When I haven’t done those, they’re not invasive, but when you’re new to this world, it’s so different. And I notice my breakouts, hormonal breakouts are so much better. Yeah. Because I’ve cleaned the soil basically. I’ve cleaned it all up. I’ve swept and then mopped.

Alyssa 3:48

Yes, you swept and then you mopped, girl. I love that. What you and I were talking about a few sessions ago is um the mites that live on your skin.

Kim 3:57

Oh, yeah, because there’s little mites that live in our skin, right?

Alyssa 4:01

And our lashes, I mean, everywhere. It’s kind of icky to think about, but they’d be kind of gross. Microscopic little uh mites that live in, especially in that Vellus hair, right?

Kim 4:12

It’s usually like a pin can be on the surface, so thread pins can be on the surface, and that’s what was on my face. Oh, it’s pinworms. They just have two names. Pinworms is what everybody knows because it makes you have itchy butt. But thread worms is my opinion, is when it’s in other parts of your body, but they’re the same, they are the same, okay. So I had them coming out of my skin, specifically in this little area right here. Oh my gosh. And and you can see you can barely see it then. They would just come out and I would think that they were zits. Yeah. They very much were not, and they were alive, right? They would move. Oh, and I would squeeze and I would be like, Oh my gosh, what is that? Yeah. Then my mind would go, it’s just us coming out. Yeah, you know, it’s just wiggling out.

Alyssa 5:03

Yeah, it’s just wiggling before you realize um, oh my gosh. The grossest. Well, it was so fascinating to me.

Kim 5:12

I mean, it’s so crazy what can come in and out of our bodies, and we just don’t even realize it.

Alyssa 5:17

And especially the skin, because the skin you think of, you know, it is your shield. It’s your shield organ. It’s the only organ that it’s exposed to extrinsic factors. And but within that, I mean, that’s probably why we get so many um like skin diseases, things like that, because it’s such a precious organ and it’s very sensitive. Yeah, it’s our biggest. It’s our biggest thing.

Kim 5:39

70% over everything when it comes to breaking down our organs and the size. But that is a good point of why it’s so important to know what health care or what skincare you’re putting on your oh, yeah, right. So we talk about that a lot. Absolutely.

Alyssa 5:57

The skincare. And you know, the argument that I see the most, like even online, is you know, these people coming in and saying that, you know, oh, you don’t need to spend this money on this medical grade skincare, quote unquote. And they’re sassy about it. They’re like, just go to Target, go to go to the get the store bot, you know, things. And it’s in reality, that’s just there are ingredients in those products that are terrible for you, not only for your skin, but for your whole body.

Kim 6:27

Yeah, because it’s absorbing, it’s just absorbing directly into our bodies. Yeah, absolutely. You guys were the ones that got me to switch over to Biologique.

Product Quality And EU vs US Standards

Alyssa 6:36

Biologique crochets, it’s one of the I absolutely love that line because of how transparent they are. Same with all European skincare. And that’s the huge difference between European skincare and US skincare. Granted, there are some good, you know, there’s some good skincare, clean skincare in the United States. However, the you know, regulations of Europe versus the regulations here in the USA, I think like 1300, um, ingredients are banned in Europe to be used in skincare. And only 11 ingredients uh have been banned in skincare here in the US. That’s crazy.

Kim 7:14

Isn’t that crazy? So, one of my favorite facials is the DermaPlane facial. It basically gets hair off, but it is for actually the peach buzz. I love it because it gives you really soft skin. It has shrunk my pores. I absorb my product way better whenever I’m using masks. I try and do it because it just helps absorb better. Dermaling is amazing because it takes exfoliating to another level, allowing your products to absorb deeper and better so they’re not fighting with anything on your skin. Okay, what’s next?

Alyssa 7:55

We’re numbing. Okay, so very simple. I like to massage it into the skin, and we are going to do her neck and her face, and we’re getting her nice and numb for our microneedling treatment. So, right now I’m prepping your skin for the first layer of PRX. Okay. So with PRX and microneedling, just the method and just the protocol, I prep your skin. Of course, we get you nice and numb, I prep your skin, and I will be doing one layer of the PRX. I microneedle your skin, and then I do another layer of the PRX, and then I neutralize you with cold water.

Kim 8:31

PRX is a little painful until you neutralize it with the water.

Alyssa 8:35

Yes, especially when you pair it with the microneedling. Yeah. I call it stingly. It’s it’s spicy and tingly. Yeah. It’s a little stingly.

Numbing And PRX Protocol Setup

Kim 8:43

It’s true though, because it isn’t the most comfortable, but it only lasts for a few seconds. It’s temporary, right? I’m feeling the anxiety is longer than it. I mean, literally, I’ll tell you guys, I’ll say, oop, okay, it hurts. And I’ll say in a gentle way because I’ve woken up in a hysterectomy. Yeah. So I can tolerate a lot of it.

Alyssa 9:01

You’re like, I’ve got it. Yeah, man.

Kim 9:03

Not much, not much phases, maybe.

Alyssa 9:05

Yes, yes. All right, are you ready? I’m ready. So, first, what I do is I just make sure I spread it around in the area that I’m going to be treating here.

Kim 9:16

Now, when you microneedle, is it pushing it in deeper?

Alyssa 9:20

So, with the microneedling, because the PRX, the molecular weight of the PRX is already so small and light that it does penetrate down, like I said, into the dermis. Um, with the microneedling, what you’re doing is you’re making those micro, the controlled micro traumas in the skin. But while those channels are nice and open, you do the second layer of PRX, and that’s when it’s penetrating in and it’s just hitting everything. That’s when it’s spicy. But we do it fast. Okay, go ahead and gently tilt to the right a little bit for me. And I always like to cover the eye when I’m applying the serum.

Microneedling With PRX: Method And Goals

Kim 9:55

So my latest love is microneedling with PRX. Microneedling is the small little needles that go into your face that allow your body to produce the collagen. And then when you use the PRX, which is similar to like a peptide, and you do the microneedling, it opens up your skin, allowing the PRX to go in, and then you microneedle again, which pushes the PRX even deeper. Giving me some collagen back, and as some of you might not know, that Lyme actually eats collagen, and that is a major issue with people that have chronic Lyme. And so there’s treatments out there that we can actually utilize that produce collagen naturally. I am a as natural as you can get girly when it comes to skincare. And Alyssa has been my girl from the get. So how many times do you do the needles?

Alyssa 10:50

I like to do a crotch hatch method. So I’ll go like longitude than latitude. That’s like my way of saying it. But then I can go in and focus on those areas that I was talking about. Like if you have, you know, the Mary Antoinette lines, the 11s, you know, the lines on the forehead. Um and I like to go, the thing about microneedling and the stamping method is you can really, you can be so thorough because you can see, you know, as this side, as I’m doing this side, this side is starting to show the redness, right? And the um the pinpoint bleeding, and you can go back and you can see, oh, I’m gonna do this area a little bit more because it didn’t penetrate as much as another area.

Kim 11:34

How many times a month can you do microneedling?

Alyssa 11:38

I would say um, gosh, depending on the depth and the healing, but once a month is um just to give your skin a complete, you know, complete time to heal.

Kim 11:49

How many times would you recommend doing PRX? And how many, what’s a session or like a a package, I mean.

Alyssa 11:55

A series. Um a series of four is the package. So um but I rec it’s everyone is so different. It just depends on what you’re targeting on a certain client. So like if you’re targeting like sun damage, hyperpigmentation, that’s like that’s pretty deep into the skin, you’re you might need six to eight sessions if you’re really, really wanting that complete rejuvenation. Um but if you you know, if you’re just looking to tighten fine lines and wrinkles and just do an overall refresh of the skin, right? Um and just texture pores, the series usually is is perfect, the four series of four. I’m ready. I’m doing the second layer of the PRX while her um channels are nice and open from the microneedling. It’s it’s painful. Um, so we get it done fast, but I can do it for a client’s to where I will do one section and then I’ll neutralize and then so on and so forth for more comfort. But him here is a little um tough cookie, so we’re just gonna do it and get it done, sister. And she like doesn’t make a peep, like she just sits there and takes it.

Kim 13:08

It feels like alcohol in a wound, but it doesn’t stop, it just stays alcohol in a wound until she wipes it with the water.

Alyssa 13:19

Good job.

Sessions, Healing, And What To Expect

Kim 13:20

It’s the best way I can describe it. Oh, yeah, I’m good. Feel the pain, feel the heel.

Alyssa 13:25

Yes, feel the heel, and I get these. These are like stopping wet because you really want that water to soak in and penetrate on the forehead, okay?

Kim 13:35

That’s what neutralizes it. It’s gonna look so good.

Alyssa 13:40

There we go. It’s gonna look so good.

Kim 13:43

So now the what does it look like after this? So it’s gonna be red. How many days? How many days do I need to be out for?

Alyssa 13:54

So everyone is very different. Like earlier, I was saying that, you know, there’s some people that I do this treatment on. By the time they go out to the front counter with me, there’s barely any redness. Like they just have thick rhinoceros skin, nothing can phase it, nothing can hurt it. It’s crazy. Um, but then there’s people who get really, really, really red, get really pink, they just react differently.

Kim 14:20

So I know I go red. Yes, you I go, um, which is why we’re gonna show you guys the lima next. Yes. Um but there’ll be some peeling.

Alyssa 14:32

Yes.

Kim 14:32

And that’s from the PRX.

What Is In PRX And Why It Works

Alyssa 14:34

Why? Yeah. So the PRX, um, because so what it’s doing is it’s pushing because it’s working from the inside out, um, and especially because of the it’s the TCA in there. So um, you know, the hydrogen peroxide does um calm down the TCA, the 33% TCA, but it’s still a TCA. It’s still what’s a TCA? But basically, it’s an acid, right? And what it does is it that’s gonna be what um tightens and firms your skin. That’s going to be it’s gonna help with the texture, the pores, the cogic acid is what’s gonna help with the pigmentation of the skin and brightening the skin. But think of the TCA as like is like they do like chemical peels with TCA. Got it. PRX is so wonderful, um, in my opinion, is because it’s non-invasive. And um, you know, it does the same. I mean, if you do enough of like the PRX Plus, it it works like an IPL, right? Yeah. You get kind of like you do get the same like coffee ground effect, you know, on Dark Spox as you do with like an IPL if you do have a lot of sun damage. Um, this is just like a single example. But um, you know, with enough sessions, um you will get the same effect as like you would a laser. But yeah, this being non-invasive, this also being like way back to the beginning of the session, this being designed for pediatric burn victims, this being safe for rosacea clients, this being safe for like super sensitive skin, on top of um for any Fitzpatrick skin tone as well. I really like that aspect. And I like that, you know, people, I mean, it’s like all walks of life can use this.

Autoimmune Considerations And Skin Triggers

Kim 16:20

And it in it in it’s such a short period of time that it’s uncomfortable. So like it’s already calmed down. It’s already stuffy as normal, it’s your body reacting, uh-huh, immediately reacting, and that’s why we talked about making sure that you prepare if you do have specific autoimmune issues, and that’s why that’s asked on your guys’ health forms. That’s why aestheticians ask because if you do have HSV, you know, which is herpes, yeah. They have like nine different kinds, probably more than that. Yeah, if you do have Epstein Barr virus, yeah, it can trigger them. It can trigger you to go into something that you think you’re in remission from. Oh, yeah. It can trigger it because your body is no longer giving energy to stopping it. It’s now like, oh wait, something’s been done to her face. And that’s kind of a blessing, and you know, because then it goes right in and heals. Yeah. When I started my healthcare journey, I was so chronically ill, it really did take a toll on my face care, and I was able to do some research to find out different ways that you can plump your collagen. So I started with Vivachi, it is a radio frequency micro needling. I did three of them. It was okay, it wasn’t really the best that you could find, so I stepped into Morpheus 8. That goes deeper, it is a lot more aggressive, but when you have the sagging skin and you lose a lot of weight, you can do it to help with breaking that fat down and plumping up the collagen. So I’ve done multiple Morpheus 8s, love it. I have found that it has helped change my skin to make me look like I’m 47 years old instead of when I was chronically ill. I looked very much like I was in my 50s and 60s when I was really in my early 40s. So I researched even more ways to allow me to be more natural and utilize these, well, like biohacks for my skin without me doing any toxic treatments or anything aggressive. This is the gentle way of doing it, and I really do credit my second home, Penelope, Mildred, and Alyssa. Anytime you have a wound like this, oh, exosome, it helps feel so much faster. So much quicker. We’re all about the stem cells and what’s eating you and Roger’s hood.

RF Microneedling, Morpheus8, And Results

Alyssa 18:54

Okay, how’s your skin feeling? Good, good, a little tight, I could tell. Tight feels good. Okay, so this is our Lima, the Lima Pro. Um, this is three times uh bigger than the original Lima, and it covers so much more of the surface.

Kim 19:14

Shout out to Penelope and Alyssa. This is where I found out about the Lima laser. The best FDA approved cold laser out there that you can use at home has transformed my skin. I combined it with the microneedling PRX, and it just helps smooth your skin better and plump more collagen, allowing you to heal faster. Now, your protocol, which I want people to hear for when you do these things, is the facial first. Uh-huh. And then you do the intrusive needles. Yes. And then you do this after.

Alyssa 19:55

Yeah. So you usually like if you’re doing a dermoplane before doing, you know, the microneedling or the PRX, of course, you do the dermoplane first, and then you’ll do the invasive, and then you end it with the lima. The the um the lima just really helps calm down that inflammation. It really does. And it it stimulates, like I was saying, the microchondria of your skin cell to promote the healing process. Okay, my dear. So with exosomes, it’s like I’m almost applying it like how I did the PRX. And you need to be careful with these, you don’t want to just dump it on. You really want to get the most out of the exosomes. They’re precious. It’s precious, I know.

Kim 20:36

Precious and they’re expensive.

Alyssa 20:39

And expensive, I know, but it’s so worth it.

Cold Laser, Exosomes, And Healing Faster

Kim 20:42

The biggest alert for me when I was chronically ill to figure out that I had parasites was the fact that my skin was a disaster. I used really great products, but I had problems with my face. So it made me really look into what else I could be doing to help my internal gut. Your gut dictates what happens to pretty much your whole body, including your skin. So I dug down and I found out that parasites can actually cause you to have skin issues. Then I did the parasite cleanses and I came over ParaFy. And as I was deworming, some of my skin issues obviously went away. When I paused from doing the ParaFy Kit, my eyes swelled shut. And again, my skin alerted me to having an understanding that something else was going on internally. So it was my body’s way of telling me to wake up, pay attention. So I then realized that we had black toxic mold in the travel trailer that we were living in while we were building our log home. And I then dug into finding out more about mold and created the MolDeze cleanse kit, the amazing Moldeze cleanse kit, which came with Immune and Recover. Recover is specifically because of hair, skin, and nails. Most of my issues that alert me are my hair, skin, and nails. And when you have mold poisoning, your skin becomes a mess as well. You lose hair, your nails are frail. When you’re able to go in and help move out the mold and the spores, your skin gets better, your hair starts to grow back, and your nails get stronger. And that’s what Recover does for you. It has pumpkin seeds, milk thistle, oyster and shiitake. Little do people know that oyster and shiitake are one of the most amazing mushrooms for your hair, skin, and nails. And that’s because of the different nutrients that you’re absorbing that your body is just not used to getting, and it just boosts your beauty.

Gut, Parasites, Mold, And Skin Clues

Alyssa 22:47

You’ve taught me so much since I’ve over the last two years since I’ve met you. It is crazy. You and I coming into each other’s lives, and it’s magical. I just think you’re awesome, dude. Yeah. Me too. Well, this is what happens when you just like, I don’t know, you live your truth, you find your people. Yeah. And you, you know, you just like find your, I don’t want to say find your tribe, but like you. You’re my tribe. Yeah, 100%. Yes, it’s so much more. And that’s like why I love my job is because I get I get blessings like Kim.

Kim 23:28

Oh, thanks.

Alyssa 23:29

It’s like we would have never met if it wasn’t for you coming in for some self-care.

Kim 23:37

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey of my skin and how much Penelope and Mildred helped me get to this point. And if you’re in the Seattle area, I highly suggest looking them up and grabbing a facial from them and specifically ask for Alyssa. When you’re an esthetician like that and you’re that up close, you know, and like I this is a high pressure environment. I’m not in like an easy going type of place. And you when you don’t have a lot of friends in person, especially because you were chronically ill, I went from the woods to downtown Seattle so that I could have better medical care. Thank you, Alyssa, for all that you’ve done to help my face outside and heal my heart at times on the inside.