More Than Skin Deep, ReVita Medical Esthetics & Spa has been helping to reconnect clients with their self-confidence for over a decade.
Getting older happens to everyone, but not everyone enjoys the process. Sometimes, it can feel as though you’ve woken up looking like a different person than you were when you went to sleep: your wrinkles are much more noticeable, your under-eye area is darker, and your skin has somehow lost its youthful glow. And that’s just on your face.
Aging gracefully simply doesn’t happen to everyone, and that can have an effect not only physically but also emotionally and mentally. There is a certain aspect of aging that can affect how we feel about ourselves. Typically, if we don’t think we look our best, we don’t tend to feel our best. And aren’t we all entitled to feel great about ourselves?
When it comes to looking and, therefore, feeling like your best self, the popularity of medical esthetics has risen dramatically over the last decade or two as a less invasive alternative to plastic surgery. While no one can escape the natural progression of age, medical esthetics can help slow that process, giving you a shining outward appearance and restoring your inward beauty along the way.
Deciding to go ahead with medical esthetic procedures is not something to be taken lightly. Clients must do their homework to ensure their desired results, not to mention their safety. But not many do. In fact, it’s a popular trend to try getting procedures, such as a chemical peel or Botox injections, as cheap as possible. In a society of scarcity, where people want more and more as fast as possible, it’s not uncommon for people who are unhappy with how they look to seek out the fastest, cheapest solution in hopes of ultimately feeling better about themselves as soon as possible.
As cringeworthy as that may sound, it happens all the time, according to Lily Seed, medical esthetician and owner of ReVita Medical Esthetics and Spa. Lucky for her current and future clients, Lily isn’t in the business of quick and cheap fixes but of helping and healing.
Oceans of Opportunity
Lily was born in a small town in Taiwan and is the youngest of four children. “I come from a very supportive, loving family. We didn’t have too much. But education in my family was very important,” recounts Lily. Before becoming a medical esthetician, Lily worked as a television producer, developing documentaries and daytime dramas that often required the use of actors. It was while doing this work that she was first introduced to the importance of quality skin care. “This show that I was producing involved many interviews with doctors; it was about health, talking about different health subjects all the time. I did a documentary one week then a drama the next week. One was on plastic surgery for beauty. I auditioned many actors. We had to be very straightforward to find the right person for the part, so sometimes we had to tell them, ‘You need to improve your skin.’ It happened a lot.”
Upon moving to Canada, Lily worked for her then-husband once her son was in school.
“I have one wonderful son. He graduated from Ivey. I’m a very proud mother.” Her passion for medical esthetics that began in Taiwan now had an opportunity to flourish in Canada. “I went to Elegance School (in London, Ontario) and took esthetics. Then I went to the States to take a more advanced course and increase my opportunities.” A friend who was also a plastic surgeon (and who she learned a great deal from) helped Lily to definitively pursue medical esthetics as a career and open ReVita in 2005.
Inspired Ideas
ReVita Medical Esthetics and Spa is located in a beautifully restored church within the Hyde Park neighbourhood of London, Ontario; Lily moved the business there in March of 2016. “My lease was up at the other location. When I saw the church was for sale, I thought, ‘This is my good chance!’ Before I made an offer, I got to go inside and see it. The church was in very good condition; it just needed some cosmetic lifting. It was built in 1888, so I joke that I needed to give it some Botox and fillers.” (laughs) ReVita is a full service medical esthetics and spa facility, offering a wide range of services for a wide range of clients.
“Pretty much everybody comes in. I have young clients with acne problems that we deal with. I have women who come in for menopause; we give them advice about skin but also about lifestyle. We do lots of different things. It depends on the condition people have or the questions they have.”
Esthetic medicine, also known as aesthetic medicine, is a term that includes procedures specific to improving one’s cosmetic appearance by alleviating conditions such as wrinkles, scars, spider veins, unwanted hair, skin discolouration and more. ReVita utilizes several mechanisms of the most current technology available to help their clients achieve desired results over time, such as cosmetic injectables, advanced skin treatments like microdermabrasion, chemical peels, light therapy, hydrotherapy, laser treatments, body contouring and micro-surgical procedures. Cupping massage and microblading have just recently been added to the list of services available at ReVita. Lily also included a yoga studio when moving into the church to complete the circle of wellness services offered to clients.
Working with a lab out of Orange County, California, Lily has developed her own line of skincare products, called ReVita MD, which are sold exclusively at the spa. If you’re wondering if they indeed work, just ask Lily.
“I try everything before I put it on my shelf. I’m the guinea pig; my face is a guinea pig face.” (laughs) The business that Lily has worked hard to build does not necessarily cater to those looking for the cheap-and-fast solution to their esthetic issues. Lily prides herself on being upfront and honest with her clients so that they have realistic expectations of their results before they decide to go ahead with any type of procedure. “People are very unrealistic with their expectations, yes! Not everybody — but people want overnight results at a cheap price. It just doesn’t happen. I’m very honest with clients. I say, ‘don’t expect overnight results.’ I’m very honest about how long things will take and that it’s up to them to follow the post-treatment instructions. Post-treatment is SO important. I’m very detailed about that part.”
Lily says that a lot of her new business comes by word-of-mouth and referral, which speaks to her integrity and the trust that her existing clients have put in the ReVita team to provide excellent service. A large part of building trust is having a solid foundation on which to build, something that Lily has done by working with outstanding medical professionals. “Before their first treatment, the client has a consultation with our medical director, Dr. J.C. Maytham. He has over 25 years of experience in medical esthetics and teaches other physicians to do procedures.” For further consults when necessary, Lily refers her clients to Dr. Robert Richards, a plastic surgeon and professor at the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University with whom Lily has a strong relationship. ReVita also employs a Registered Nurse who is on-site every day for procedures.
To Lily, it’s the seemingly simple details, like working with board-certified medical professionals, that make the biggest difference when it comes to gaining and keeping the trust of her clients. “I don’t do things to just try to make money. It’s important to be ethical. Be ethical about your treatments and to your clients. I don’t want to provide empty promises to people.”
Beauty from the Inside, Out
Lily continues to foster her client relationships and has found great success in sharing general information about medical esthetics using social media.
“I find Facebook is the best way to share information. It helps with client knowledge when they come in; they’re more informed when they come in for their consultation.”
The most popular procedures at ReVita these days are facials, Botox filler and laser hair removal. Their Registered Massage Therapists are also consistently booked, and, upon Lily’s recommendation, clients are encouraged to relax in either the hot tub or sauna before their massage appointment. But it’s not just for the purpose of blissing out. “You always hear that massage therapists damage their hands. So, when we moved to our new location, I put in a hydrotherapy room. We have a hot tub and a cold plunge, a steam room and a sauna. We recommend that massage therapy clients go to the hot tub or sauna before their massage because they are more relaxed for their massage and their results will be better, and because the massage therapist’s hands can last longer. It also helps with deep tissue massage.”
If you’ve never experienced a cold plunge before — where you deliberately move from a hot tub or sauna to a very cold bath or shower and back again — ReVita may be the place to give it a try, as it has been proven to assist with pain management among many other benefits.
Whether it’s the cold plunge, a revitalizing facial or something in between, continuing to serve her existing clients and provide safe and lasting results is one of Lily’s goals for the future of ReVita. “I just want the business to get stronger. I want to share more knowledge with the consumer. I’m not looking to open a second store or to franchise. I just want to give the consumer more information and help them get better results.”
The opinions people have about cosmetic procedures can range from highly in favour to definitely not. But when you consider all the positive things that can happen as a result of someone feeling better about themselves because they look better, it becomes more difficult to argue. After sustaining a highly successful business for over a decade, complete with renovating a new location and thriving upon moving in, Lily’s thoughts on her biggest professional accomplishment may not be what you’d expect. “My clients are happy!” she laughs. “I don’t care how much money I make in a day or how many appointments I have. But when people come back to me and say they love their results — especially people with acne scars — that means a lot. Maybe I don’t make as much money as other people, but I’m helping people. To me, that’s accomplishment.
[I love] helping people get their confidence back.”
Written by Jess Campbell
Lily Seed | Owner
ReVita Medical Esthetics & Spa
1541 Hyde Park Rd
London, ON N6H 5L4, Canada
www.revitamedispa.com