PLEASE NOTE: in order to maintain the quality of our service, we have a waitlist for new consult appointments.  please click here to sign up – we anticipate the wait to be about 3 months.  in the meanwhile, you may purchase a “getting started” skincare regimen on our online store.  to become a client, you simply need to book your initial consultation and treatment appointment. you can do so online or by calling us at 415.525.2458. all new clients must complete an initial consultation.

during your initial consult and skin evaluation appointment, we will go over your skin, acne and health history, along with your current lifestyle, in order to discover which imbalances are creating and exacerbating your acne. we’ll cleanse and analyze your skin, take photographs, do a few test extractions, and put together a bespoke homecare skin regimen. after that, we’ll create a treatment plan for you to correct those imbalances to clear you up, and teach you the tools needed in order to stay clear for life.  average duration of this appointment is 90 minutes to 2 hours.  PLEASE NOTE that a full treatment is not included within this appointment (see below for an explanation why).

in one word – yes.  different acne clinics have different philosophies.  after all, if you were already clear, you wouldn’t have to come see us, right?  we have found that these clients more often than not need to be reeducated on the acne safe lifestyle that is so necessary for clarity to be achieved.

what we offer these clients is this: you can book a consult, and if the intake process is more of a quick review, we will allot the rest of the scheduled time for a full extraction session (sans chemical peel).  however, if the intake process is more like an entire reeducation, then we will proceed with the rest of the consult appointment as scheduled (read: an in-depth skin analysis will be had, not a full extraction session). 

you have to understand, that the skinSALVATION philosophy is quite a paradigm shift from the old-school emphasis on treatments & home care products. emphasizing treatments and products alone will only afford you short-term results.  only when the two are combined with employing the education we empower you with during your consult, will you achieve the long-term clarity you seek.

on the topical level, there are several reasons for not jumping right into a full extraction session at our first meeting.

the first reason being, most commonly, is that the skin is simply not ready for the incredibly thorough extractions our treatments include.  at the time of the consult, clients’ skin is most often imbalanced, compromised and/or sensitive from products and/or medications that they’ve used prior to coming to sS.

second, the skin needs to be prepared with a proper skincare regime for at least 2 weeks for a successful extraction session, much like an athlete needs to train prior to a victorious marathon win.  at your consult, we put together a skincare regimen bespoke to your complexion which will offer the correct exfoliation & moisture levels your skin needs for an effective follow-up treatment.  also, inflammation is often at it’s highest, so employing the regime & anti-inflammatory lifestyle for a couple of weeks prior to treatment will help bring it down, making for more effective extractions and faster healing.

third, because we have never worked on your skin before (and given the nature of our extraction-heavy signature treatments), we want to give your skin a couple of weeks to get to a healthy baseline and acclimate to the skincare regime, which will also allow us to negate any possible adverse reactions associated with those basics of the program.

our corrective treatments are very thorough, and therefore, extraction heavy. depending on what your skin needs that particular day, we may include some sort of exfoliation (either with steam + enzyme, or a dermatological grade chemical peel), and/or a moisturizing, healing treatment.

we will adjust your homecare regimen as your skin progresses, and support you on your acne-safe lifestyle changes to make sure you remain on the path to self-sustainably clear skin.

this will be part of the treatment plan we will create for you during your first visit, but typically new clients come in every 2-3 weeks until the acne is under control. then, as the skin clears, the time in between appointments lengthens. after clients reach clarity, some do fine without follow-up treatments as long as they adhere to the acne-safe lifestyle and skincare regime; others with more active, oily skin or other imbalances will need to continue getting treatments to maintain clarity.

most often, once clients are clear, they only need to come in for quarterly ‘tune up’ treatments to maintain their clarity.

depending on your compliance to the acne-safe lifestyle, skin care regimen and regular treatments, the average client sees marked improvement after 1 month, and clarity after 3 months. if the skin is slow to heal, purge, or if there is a systemic imbalance present, the time to clarity may be longer, more like 6 months, or until the systemic issues are addressed. we will alert you of any foreseeable delays if and when we feel it is a possibility.

we currently do not directly bill insurance companies. however, many of our clients have had success in using their flex spending (FSA) or health savings accounts (HSA) health insurance providers, which allows you to spend your pre-taxed income on healthcare costs. this turns out to be an average savings of about 30%.

you can approach this two ways: the easiest way would be to use your FSA/HSA debit card at the clinic for your purchases, which directly deducts from your health savings account.  the other way you can try is to submit your receipts for reimbursement from your provider.

most all clients have straightforward success with this process.  a few cases where it required a few extra steps: we’ve only had one client whose treatments but not products would be covered.  another client had his debit card decline about 4 times before it finally got approved.  and another had us help her fill out some paperwork, which was approved!

the initial consultation and skin evaluation appointment is 90-120 minutes long, and costs $245. each follow up treatment is about 30-60 minutes long, and are $145 each. we offer a series discount, of 6 follow-up treatments for $795, about a 10% savings. prices are subject to change. keep in mind, that many of our clients have been able to successfully use their HSA/FSA debit cards for services & products with us, saving an average of 30%.  (see: do you accept insurance?)

our goal is to empower you with the knowledge you’ll need to stay clear once we successfully purge all the acne you’ve come into our clinic with.  you won’t need to be married to regular skin treatments for the rest of your life, so long as you understand and employ the philosophy of the acne-safe lifestyle, so that you can make informed decisions (and maybe even compromises), and know how your skin will be affected.

we sell only products that we have tested to be truly acne-safe – meaning that none of our products will ever break you out, or clog your pores, unless you are actually allergic to a specific ingredient within the formulation. with our expert treatments and close guidance and support, you will be in the best care our industry has to offer.

yes – we can definitely alter your treatment plan to be safe for you and baby. we will simply make sure you stay away from topical retinoids (vitamin a products), salicylic acid, chemical peels and high-frequency treatments until you have given birth, and/or are no longer nursing. again, the lifestyle education we teach you will be key to getting and keeping you clear.

there are two types of scarring – hyperpigmentation (which shows up as dark spots, brown-ish spots or redness), and textural.

hyperpigmentation, or pigment scarring, look like brown or darker colored spots left over from old acne that’s healed. this type of scarring we can treat quite successfully with in-clinic treatments and at-home products. redness generally takes it’s own time to heal, without any extra skin care products. however, some stubborn pigmentation remains because a full extraction of the acne impaction needs to take place; if a pore is still clogged, the pigmentation will remain. our expert corrective acne-treatments will take care of this.

textural scarring is when the surface of the skin looks rough, or dimpled; ice-pick, ‘craters’, or pock-marks are terms often used to describe these kind. textural scarring is best treated at home with derma-rolling and peptide-serums, and results with this method are apparent over a course of 1-2 years. it is still a new technology for us, but we have one client who has had promising results so far – he is about 6 months into the treatment.

regular extractions while you are purging, will drastically reduce the chances of new textural and pigmentation scarring, and speed the healing of any scarring that has started to develop.

yes. with our signature thorough extractions, you can expect to leave our clinic looking red and bumpy – and may look this way for a few days post treatment. dryness, peeling, scabs and inflammation are common post-treatment side effects that you should expect, until we know exactly how your skin responds to treatment. it is for this reason we do not advise going out to parties or special events the day of, or few days following, your treatments. we emphasize taking the best care of your immune system while you are working with us, to optimize your skin’s healing capabilities. the good news is, the more treatments you get, the more clear your skin will be = lesser extractions needed = faster healing time.

at skinSALVATION we aim to help as many people as possible – however, we have a few caveats for prospective clients aged 13 – 18. over the past seven years, we have treated hundreds of clients with an average success rate of 90-95%, however teen cases are more difficult. if you or your teen are considering becoming an sS client, please carefully read this information below before booking your consultation to understand the possible limitation of our working with teen clients.

not necessarily, but we believe that it can greatly speed up the clearing process. we can, however, have you exfoliate at home with homecare products instead. imagine your face is a garden bed, and all the acne present are carrot seeds. harvesting (extractions) and erosion of the soil (exfoliation) will help get all those carrots (pimples) out of the skin faster. we omit chemical peels for clients that are pregnant, nursing, or otherwise not fit for this type of treatment.

very high – at least 90-95%, as long as our program is given a fair shot. if we feel your case is going to take longer, or be more complicated, we will advise you of this as soon as possible, and be honest to whether or not we can help you and if so, how much we can help. we have a network of holistic practitioners to strengthen your regimen if we feel that the acne is just a side-effect of a larger, systemic problem. please keep in mind that we are not doctors and do not diagnose or prescribe; but we are educated estheticians that can evaluate and recommend.

yes, but you will not be able to get traditional treatments (peels and extractions), and your home care regimen will not include exfoliants. instead, the focus of your treatment plan will include the acne-safe lifestyle education, along with negating any dryness associated with the drug via acne-safe topicals.

by working with us, even without the more aggressive aspects of our program, you will prolong the (hopefully) positive clear-skinned results you achieve after stopping the drug.

if you choose to go off of accutane, you will be able to start receiving full extraction and peel treatments 6 months after you have stopped taking it with written permission from your doctor. doctor’s notes must include your name, date, and say, “this client has not taken the prescription medication accutane, or any of it’s derivatives under other trade names, for at least six months. the client is allowed to receive full professional extractions and chemical peels.”

skinSALVATION has the discretion to turn away a client, deny extractions, and/or deny chemical peels if we, with our best intentions and judgement, see that the skin is unfit.

absolutely. we have had great success in treating clients that have received a rosacea or acne rosacea diagnosis from their doctors. the protocol is very similar to the acne program, but a bit simpler with faster results.

many of our products are comprised of organic ingredients and are formulated to be chirally-correct. this means that the active ingredients in our formulations are engineered on the molecular level to optimize the ingredient’s activity, making it much easier for the skin’s cells to receive and utilize these ingredients to their maximum benefit.

our products range from $3.95 for a lipbalm to $89.95 for a high level retinolic + peptide serum. we also sell acne-safe makeup, which ranges from $21.95 (blush, bronzer) to $47.95 (pressed mineral foundation).

a full skincare regimen set with cleanser, toner, day cream, night cream and corrective products (serums, benzoyl peroxide) averages about $150-200 and should last about 2-3 months with twice daily usage.