Joanna Vargas on the Science and Art of Great Skin

Skin Anarchy

Celebrity esthetician and skincare founder Joanna Vargas shares her three-decade journey in the beauty industry, discussing how science and

Key takeaways

• LED therapy works across all skin types and tones, offering a non-invasive solution for improving skin health.
• Microcurrent treatments evolved from painful to painless with technology advancements, providing instant visible results and boosting client confidence.

Main topics

• The evolution of aesthetic practices over three decades
• LED therapy and microcurrent as transformative technologies

Notable quotes

"I felt like I could be the big sister in that situation and really help guide people."

"You're beautiful and your skin can be as beautiful as you want it to be. It's just finding the right steps."

Conclusion

Joanna Vargas concludes that lasting skin health comes from a combination of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Skin Anarchy. I am so, so honored to be hosting our guest today. She is truly a trailblazer, an icon in the skin health space, and I have been following her for such a long time. Huge fan of her products. So without further ado, please welcome Joanna Vargas. Welcome, Joanna. Such an honor. Speaker 2 (0:18) Oh, thank you so much. You are so sweet. I'm so excited to be here. Speaker 1 (0:22) I'm so excited to host you. It's really, really, you know, it's been on my bucket list to have you on the show. So this is a full circle moment for me. I would love to get started, like kind of walking down memory lane and talking about your career because it's been so phenomenal so far and you've worked on the best of the best, you know, and you've seen skin in a way that I think very rarely people experience in this industry. And so what got you into, you know, just beauty and skincare and skin health and becoming an esthetician? Speaker 2 (0:51) You know, I always say that it was a winding road. I thought that I wanted to move to New York and be a fashion photographer. And I learned very quickly that I wasn't very well suited for that type of, you know, Speaker 2 (1:07) freelance type work. I was really shy. So I actually went to aesthetic school thinking like maybe I'll be a makeup artist or something that has to do with fashion, but like on a tangent. And when I got into beauty school, I absolutely fell in love with giving facials and really like being one-on-one with a client and helping them solve their issues, what the puzzle of their skin was. And I really felt many times that women wanted to learn more about their skin or what they should be doing, but they really had nowhere to go to. So I felt like I could be the big sister in that situation and really help guide people. So I gave myself a year to try it out once I graduated from school. And I never looked back. That was almost 30 years ago. Speaker 1 (1:59) Wow. That's really fascinating. I feel like when you're meant to do something, it just like it falls in place and you keep going. I mean, were there moments in your career in the early aspects where you're like, I don't know, you know, I don't know if I'm doing this, you know, if I should do this for the long run or did you always know that you wanted to pursue this? Speaker 2 (2:17) I think there's always like people always have doubts. You always have sort of like an inner discourse with yourself about decisions you're making. And especially as a younger person, I was quite insecure and a little bit like, you know, it all felt very serious, all the decisions I was making. And I didn't want to make any mistakes. I think what I felt in some ways In some ways, I was meant to do this because my grandmother was very beauty-focused, and she would always buy me bubble baths and powders and creams and things for my birthday. And so looking back at my life, this career made sense. And then it was just kind of trying to find what... what about the industry really spoke to me. And that took some time. And I really took my time figuring that out. You know, I worked at an organic day spa for a while. I worked for a derm. I, you know, just tried out different like kinds of points of view before I really found what spoke to me the most. Speaker 1 (3:30) Yeah, that makes sense. And, you know, it's interesting, your journey, like when I was reading a bit more, you know, it's like you've, you were so successful in bridging that like world of like, you know, kind of like the natural based remedies for skin health, as well as the clinical based. And I would love to get your, you know, take on this in terms of what actually works for the skin. I mean, especially when you're first starting out, what were some things that you, you noticed were really moving the needle for a lot of people when it came to their skin health? Speaker 2 (3:57) Well, I think it was an interesting time. I became an aesthetician in the late 90s. And Speaker 2 (4:06) I think what was interesting is that most places just offered one type of facial. It was kind of like some version of a cleansing facial with different products and then like a glycolic peel. And people were trying to be more thoughtful about formulas. Even in that era, it was like, you know, is this product organic or what does it do for the skin? What is this chemical ingredient? What does this mean? So people were really starting to kind of dig in there. And for me, what was really obvious in a sort of a painful way was that not everything works for everyone. There's not one service that works across skin types, across skin tones. And really, I started to lean into technologies because that is something that speaks to skin across skin types. Speaker 2 (5:05) Whether you have oily skin, acne skin, super dry skin, for example, LED is something that can help you and can help increase the health and wellness of your skin and what you're seeing when you look in the mirror. So it was really kind of realizing that we needed a bit more science in the conversation and that just wasn't happening in those moments. Speaker 2 (5:32) As far as I know, I'm the first esthetician in Manhattan to have LED. There was a derm that had it, Pat Wexler. And that's what really I was like, wow, I had a client that was going to her and I was kind of blown away at how much her skin improved. So that's what made me like, okay, let's read some scientific papers and get into this. Speaker 1 (5:54) Yeah, no, that's, I mean, that's really the interesting part is that I feel like, you know, when I was noticing like skincare for the first time, there was this huge division between like, you know, natural organic skincare and then like the super heavy clinical focused skincare. And I always used to like kind of turn to estheticians myself, you know, try to figure out what really does work, you know, in terms of what is the science and where does it really play in? And so when I, you know, when I look at this world, it becomes very confusing because there's so many products now. right? That are like philosophy, both philosophies. And I mean, I'm sure in your career, you watch this evolve, you know, this whole like industry evolve. So what were some of the first, I guess, like big things that you were like, okay, this is huge. You know, like, I know you just mentioned LED, but like, what were some of the big treatments that you were like, this is going to really change the game for aesthetics? Speaker 2 (6:48) Um, I felt, you know, at the beginning of my career, microcurrent, for example, has been around forever since the fifties. It changed so much by the time that I started my own spa in 2006, I tried one device that I was like, Oh, this is a game changer because microcurrent in the early years, when I was first starting out, it was kind of stung. It would make the skin very red. I was like, why would anybody want to do this? And then suddenly, you know how technology kind of evolves. Suddenly I was trying out this machine that I wanted to possibly buy for my space and it was painless. It gave you an instant result. You could actually feel like one side of the face was lifted and the other side wasn't like when they did one side. And there was something so rewarding about giving somebody that boost of confidence right in that moment. I was like, that's going to be a game changer. That's something that I can tell clients about, that whether you're 25 or 85, you're going to see a difference with this. And it was at a time when everybody was very concerned with going non-invasive and really looking for things that weren't. filler and Botox because that was sort of exploding in that time. Yeah, Speaker 1 (8:13) no, I like microcurrent, I feel like it's still like super in the scene, you know, they keep trying to come out with new versions. Speaker 2 (8:20) Totally. I mean, I think, you know, that's what's cool about tech is that it does evolve the, you know, in my career, it's evolved so much. And it's just, I think sometimes people might have a funny viewpoint about technology, like, oh, I tried that. It doesn't work. Well, you know, it evolves over time and gets better over time. And then it's like, okay, what machine have you used? Well, this is something that was just created last year. And this is going to be like the most cutting edge. You know what I mean? Speaker 1 (8:52) And Speaker 2 (8:53) that was sort of, you know, alongside of all of that was sort of this conversation about product and active ingredients. Cause like I said, at the beginning, when I first started my career, it was like glycolic was the acid ingredient Speaker 1 (9:08) or Speaker 2 (9:09) the active ingredient rather. And so like, then we were kind of bringing in, um, some plant-based ingredients, um, you know, stem cells, epidermal growth factor, all of those kinds of things were really interesting. Um, I can remember there was one product line. that claimed that there were oxygen bubbles inside the product. I don't want to say the name, but, um, and like, that didn't make sense to me. Like, how could there be, how could, you know, I know that it's the skin needs oxygen, but how could you claim that? So anyways, so that actually inspired me to create my very first product, which is the, my. green juice for the skin product, my daily serum, because what gives oxygen to the skin greens that you could put into a product and give an oxygenating effect in that rosy glow. And that would make sense to me. So it was just sort of like applying what I knew scientifically with what I thought was possible to put in a jar and call it a something, you know? Speaker 1 (10:16) Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, I feel like we're still in that. era of like buzzy ingredients or like, you know, and that actually is one of my biggest questions for you is like, I know, I mean, you've seen, I mean, you've seen so many clients you've worked with skin, you know, in such a like, you know, close way that when you were developing your line, what were some things that you noticed that were maybe recurring in all of your clients that you were like, I got to figure this out and I got to bring this to my skincare line, you know, as a social? Speaker 2 (10:47) I think It's such an interesting question because I used to, I actually still have the question when you, when you become a client of my salon, you answer like, you know, what is your goal for your skin? Speaker 1 (11:01) Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:02) And, um, I thought that my clients were focused on anti-aging, you know, I know it's like, you're not supposed to say that anymore, but in 2006 to 2010, everybody was saying it. So I thought that that's what everyone would write down, but it, The first hundred people that I ever gave facials to at my spa, you know what