Hi there! This is Karen from Beautiful by Karen! The last time I blogged was when I was pregnant with my oldest son….he’s now 17 years-old, so I know there have been a lot of changes to the blogging scene. Please bare with me as I figure all this out. Figured I’d start off with an intro/about me post.
A little about me: I am a Filipina-American Gen-Xer (the best generation IMHO) born and raised in the USA. My father was in the military, and I spent most of my childhood in San Antonio, TX. I started my health care career as a respiratory therapist. I moved to the Bay Area in 2002 and continued working as a RT at Lucile Packard Chidren’s Hospital at Stanford and John Muir Medical Center. I met my husband on Match.com in March 2005, he proposed in June 2005, and we got married in December 2005 (no, I was not pregnant). We had a late honeymoon in Australia in February 2006 and then found out I was pregnant the following month. My first boy (JX) was born in November 2006 and my second son (JZ) was born in June 2009. I guess I felt like I needed more stress in my life, so I enrolled in an accelerated MSN program at Samuel Merritt University while my husband opened his own dental practice and we raised our 2 boys. JX was 3 and JZ was 1 when I went back to school. My parents moved from Texas to the Bay to help us out while I went back to school (I cannot thank them enough). I got my Master’s in Nursing in 2010 and have worked at Children’s Hospital Oakland, Hill Physicians Medical Group, and Kaiser Permanente. After years of working in hospitals and with insurance companies, and dealing with illness, death, denials and our messed up health care system, I decided to switch gears into a happier specialty, enter the wonderful world of facial esthetics.
My training started with my husband. For privacy and the sake of this blog, I will call him Dennis (he’s a dentist…see what I did there?) Dennis and I took a class on injectables (neurotoxins/dermal fillers). Then a class on PRF, then another class on PRF, then microneedling, then lasers, then I attended some conferences and continued to learn. During this journey, I met so many people and different providers from all over the world and learned so much. My family and friends were gracious enough to let me practice my new skills on them (Thank you friends and family for trusting me with your faces.). Then I bit the bullet and opened my own med spa. Which brings us to where I am today. Special shout out to Dennis for all his guidance and support. Without him, there would be no Beautiful by Karen.
With social media and the world today, there are expectations on staying fresh, young-looking, and beautiful. I had client tell me they went to another provider just for neurotox injections for their 11s and the provider told them their face was uneven and made suggestions on what to do to make everything even so she would look good. They told me they left feeling like she looked like Sloth from the Goonies (BTW, I love this movie). While I understand where the provider was coming from, I would be horrified if someone left my office feeling down about themselves. EVERYONE is beautiful in their own way. My goal is to enhance your beauty and make you feel rejuvenated and fresh. As a working, middle-aged mother/wife, there are just not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done and get adequate, uninterrupted sleep. And, let’s face it…moms often put other’s needs before our own. Then we have people saying “you look tired,” which let’s face it, is a nice way to say “you look like crap.” Well, no shit! You try running a business, commuting 80 miles round trip, working in a clinic with sick teens while raising kids, making time for your partner, worrying about your aging parents, and trying to have a social life. And because that’s not enough, I am looking into going back to school for a nurse practitioner license. So, yeah, I am f*cking tired. Lol. While I do offer the normal neurotox (Botox/Dysport) and dermal filler (Restalyne/Juvéderm), there are more ways to rejuvenate your skin and look fresh and beautiful that do not involve injecting foreign substances into your skin. Don’t get me wrong, nothing is wrong with injectables, but what if I told you, you can look beautiful by using your own body’s natural healing powers? Now, I can’t make you look 21 again (unless you’re actually 21), but I can make you look rested and rejuvenated and help you let your beauty shine. Skincare is not superficial because it’s healthcare. When you have beautiful skin it’s a sign that you have a healthy mind and body.
Okay, the last part is my way of asking you to come in for a consult or treatment. There are many purposes to this blog…1. For you to get to know me. 2. Education. I want to explain the science behind the procedures I offer to get beautiful skin and feel refreshed. 3. Entertainment. My family and friends that know me, know I love to make people laugh. So, I may share some quirky stories now and then. 4. Awareness. There is so much going on in the world today. So, I will be discussing current events and the injustices of the world today. 5. Promote my business. This blog is on my website, so of course, I’m going promote my services.
With all that said, thank you for joining me on this journey! I hope to meet you all soon. In the meantime, stay beautiful!
