As the final days of Face Today come to an end, I am finding myself reflecting more and more on my Twenty years in the Anti-Ageing Industry and the Journey I have been on.

As a child I considered myself an ‘Ugly Duckling’ in a world of ‘Swans’ and always wanted to know how it would feel to face the day with confidence and a deep belief in the way I presented myself to the world. Those teenage years hit me hard, glasses, acne, being exceptionally thin, asthmatic and painfully shy. I survived, but I swore that I would do everything to build myself a future that could support lifestyle choices to change all those things that I saw as roadblocks to my happiness.

I took note of the ‘Pretty Girls’, the ones who always seemed so happy breezing through life without a care, confident that everything would just work out for them. As an adult I now know that that just isn’t reality, that how you look doesn’t determine your worth or how successful you are.

What I do know is that with self-confidence comes belief and belief has been key to my personal success.

This moment was when my obsession with understanding “What is Beauty?” began. How do we determine what is a ‘Good Looking Human’?

After 20 years of working within the Anti-Ageing industry I believe that the perception of beauty is influenced by the shape, size, and balance of features.

After a career in palliative care and with the inherent belief that our bodies health and wellbeing was key to a long and happy life, I was ready to move into a happier and joy filled career path. After an opportunity presented itself from a friend of my Mums❤, I was given my first introduction to the exciting world of Cosmetic Injecting.

This led to an obsessive need to educate myself on the medical procedures of designing faces. I spent years analyzing and configuring the best practices, always at the forefront of medical breakthroughs and new treatment pathways.
No matter where I might be I am always analyzing peoples faces, working out the dimensions and what their own “Signature Beauty Features” are. How to enhance that and make them feel confident and beautiful.

Does the shape of your skull make you more beautiful?

Our actual skull shape is the foundation, where our features sit and how balanced they appear. This is where I start, I assess the symmetry and then emphasis beautiful eyes or it could be the perfectly proportioned lips, maybe even a gorgeously perfect nose. With a well-placed tweak I can enhance anyone’s face, balancing features and adding a radiant glow, all adding and enhancing a person’s beauty and confidence.

At 64 years of age I am still just as passionate, I am still filled with joy to give someone the gift of feeling more confident, more beautiful while maintaining the essence of that person and keeping a natural, untouched look. The frozen and filled look is the reason why I spent so much of my own time studying and analyzing the industry. This was not a look I was ever interested in being known for and I am happy that I am still told by my clients that their loved ones would never guess that they had work done.

I am often asked ‘What would be you’re career Highlight?’

Looking back, one of the times would be when I appeared on the Susie Ellman show 14 years ago, I was asked how people could have a more youthful appearance without surgery or invasive procedures. It was there that I first got to talk about a treatment pathway I dubbed the ‘Non-Surgical Facelift’. This is still completely relevant today and is something I recommend to almost all of my patients.

There was also the time I was on Today Tonight I treated a patient with the ‘Liquid Facelift’. This treatment was done solely with fillers and as beautiful as it was the results were not as long lasting as similar treatments with bio-stimulators.  It was then that my obsession with Bio-Stimulators really ingrained itself.

Bio Stimulators are products that stimulate your body to create its own collagen, and to regrow lost volume and shape.

It is also necessary to revitalize the elastin, this is done with a treatment which I was instrumental in introducing into Australia by being one of the very first clinics to use it, Platelet Rich Plasma. I was invited to be a trainer for Advanced Medical and Scientific a full year before it was released to the broader community of cosmetic injecting clinics.

We collated exciting data with Before and Afters as well as presenting the launch in Adelaide over 10 years ago.
I believe Platelet Rich Plasma is one of the key treatments to slow down the rate at which we age. When done yearly there is a noticeable difference, and you may even start to feel as though you have turned back the ageing clock.

Is surgery the only answer?

Once upon a time we were led to believe that when we turned 50 that the only reasonable consideration was to have a face lift. My passion is to let women know that they have non-Surgical options with often a much higher rate of success, with a more youthful, natural look.

I am so excited to have my platform ‘Age Amazingly’ where I am able to inspire, educate and excite women about all aspects of ageing. Showing them that it is not just the outside but that the inside plays just as an important role. If my years of working in palliative care taught me anything it was that Health and Wellness when not taken seriously can have significant effects on how we live out our lives.

When looking to the future I am most excited to be able to spend time working and studying in this area of medicine, really making a difference and showing people how to Age Amazingly.

Nicki ❤