Shine Skin & Body’s Signature Approach to Carbon Facials

By Louise May

In the heart of Melbourne lies Shine Skin & Body, a beacon of innovative skincare led by the passionate and skilled Sheridan Rollard. Crowned the Award-Winning Salon 2024 Skinlympian of the Year, Shine Skin & Body has revolutionised the skincare industry with its bespoke treatments and commitment to excellence.

We sat down with Sheridan to delve into the specifics of one of their standout treatments—the Carbon Facial. With a unique approach that combines cutting-edge technology and their renowned extraction technique, this treatment has garnered rave reviews and exceptional results for their clients.

Sheridan shares insights into the development and success of the Carbon Facial, the science behind it, and the unparalleled dedication to client care.

When did you start trialling the carbon facial? And how long did the trials last for?

We started trailing in July last year when we received our laser machine. We loved the theory and science behind carbon facials and thought it would be perfect for our clients. We started off trialling the 30-minute carbon facial as it is done elsewhere, but as an acne clinic, most of our clients have quite a bit of congestion and bacteria and we found it was great at helping with acne, but not clearing it out fully and our clients were purging.

This worried us a bit and was a stumbling block. That is when we decided to increase the time of the facial to include our famous extraction technique and then we started getting amazing feedback and results.

Why did you want to add the carbon facial to your services?

As an acne specialist skin clinic, we have become famous for our extraction technique and getting amazing results for acne. I had heard about carbon facials and thought it would elevate our game even more as well as achieve faster results for our clients and we weren’t wrong! The science behind it - the carbon being attracted to the oil, skin debris and congestion in the pore intrigued me. I thought it would help us get down further into the pore and really start to loosen the congestion to achieve a cleaner extraction process.

We had used BHA peels for this purpose before to achieve a deeper clear-out, but that had the side effect of downtime from peeling and dryness. With carbon, there is no downtime, and you also achieve radiant skin from the exfoliation process. So, it was a win all round. It actually has been better than we had hoped, and we are getting amazing clearance for our clients in only a few facials.

What results did you see with your clients when you did not follow up the carbon facial with extractions?

Carbon facials, also known as China Doll facials, are well known for the radiant clear skin they achieve and that can happen if someone has pretty clear skin with maybe just a few blackheads. I see how it is a great facial for radiance but as we were dealing with more congestion than that, anything from deeper whiteheads to pimples, we found it just made people purge if extractions weren’t done.

It loosens, stirs things up and brings anything in the pores closer to the surface, but doesn’t pull it out. At Shine we believe it needs to come out to get out, hence why we do the extractions post-carbon.

What are the processes you go through after the carbon part of the facial and typically how long do you spend on extractions after the carbon facial?

After the carbon, we then continue on like we would do our normal facials. At Shine, all our facials are customised to the client. As a typical procedure, we steam and do extractions. For our clients extractions are their priority so we do as many as they need, or we have time for. This could be 5-30 mins. Using our technique formulated over my 27 years, it means we don’t scar or infect our client’s skin, and we can easily do that much on a client without any problems.

If a client only needs a few extractions, then we perform a massage and or a mask, but as mentioned extractions always come first.

What results did you see when you started adding the extractions to the carbon facial?

It was instant from the first trial client after adding the extractions clearer skin. We breathed a sigh of relief! Then we kept trialling to be sure. We even did a couple more 30-minute carbons to check again, and the same feedback of purging was reported back.

What feedback have you received from clients?

Once a client tries it there is no going back and they are loving them. I have one client who I struggled with for years due to underlying issues of stress from studying and her preferred choice of processed foods. I did two carbon extraction facials on her and now her skin is clear and has stayed clear for over six months.

We are both in shock! Another client we have has been doing them monthly and her skin has never been clearer and more radiant. It is managing the severity of her hormonal breakouts and there is visibly less congestion, now it is only one or two cysts that heal quickly. She has told us she is getting comments about how beautiful her skin looks. There are numerous stories of our clients saying their skin is clearer for longer and more radiant.

How important is research and testing in the development of new treatments at Shine Skin & Body, and how did this process inform the creation of the Carbon Blackhead Removal Facial?

There is always a lead-in time before we release a treatment. We are very invested in training our staff and believing in the results we can achieve for our clients. There wasn’t a lot of knowledge about carbon facials out there. Not many studies have been done, so some of my drive was blind faith in limited information.

In this case, testing the treatment proved to be our saviour as that is how we found out the 30-minute version that is popular out there and offered by other facialists just wasn’t for us as an acne clinic. It didn’t give the results we were after for our clients and the testing enabled us to make it work for us.

Could you discuss the process you use for an Acne and Scar Reduction Facial and how?

The acne and Scar Reduction Facial is carbon, extractions and then fractionated laser. This acts like needleless needling. Therefore, we can clear any acne and work on scarring and skin texture all in one facial. It has been a game-changer.

Once we clear our clients’ skin of constant breakouts, we then normally move onto needling to help texture, scarring and skin health. The obstacle we come up against though, is we can’t do extractions with needling, so clients are having to have quite frequent facials doing an extraction and needling facial program. The Acne and Scar Reduction Facial puts it all into one and also is amazing for healing.

We love the no downtime and virtually painless aspects of needleless needling.

What sets Shine Skin & Body apart from other salons offering facials?

Extractions. There are other therapists out there that do them, but we are the only salon in Melbourne that specialises in them as a whole salon and have refined our technique to the level we have, plus we use no tools. Also, the level of our training. It doesn’t stop for our staff. We are on a constant learning curve; the skin and body are ever-changing, and you can never learn everything. It’s important to stay inquisitive to help as many people as we can.

Your salon is known for its no-tool extraction technique. Why is this important and how does this approach contribute to the effectiveness of treatments?

I have tested and trialled extraction techniques my whole career. In my first job, I was lucky to be mentored by an amazing owner Natalie from Natskin who first taught me extractions. I then took that initial training and refined it over time. I have used tools on and off in the past, but I find they are quite harsh, leave marks in the skin and can contribute to scarring. We prefer the hands-on feeling as we can gauge the pressure to ensure the client’s skin is protected.

We have also had this feedback from clients who have been elsewhere, they call and ask if we use them and when told we don’t, they always book in, as they have had bad experiences.

What is the importance of a full assessment of the client’s skin, and how much of a difference does it make to the results?

All our clients start their journey with us by booking a discovery facial. This includes an approximately 20-minute consultation and a 45-minute facial. We take skin seriously and know that your medical history, lifestyle, skincare habits, makeup, diet and hormones to name a few all have a big impact on acne, how the skin reacts and how it heals.

With the number of extractions, we do on a client their skin needs to be able to heal effectively and those factors will affect that. More importantly, though, we want to clear people’s skin, so we want to get to the cause. Otherwise, people are having a facial every four weeks without results because of their lifestyle.

We once had a client who had had congestion on her forehead for years and through our consultation, we discovered she had an intolerance to garlic. We extracted what she had, she gave up garlic and came back one month later and her skin was clear. Without the consultation, she would have just been adding to the congestion every month and we would have just been clearing it every month.

What is your approach to skincare products?

We use dermaviduals as our main range in the salon. We have stocked it now since 2019. We love the customisation. I love having a range of 5a reductase inhibitor serums (helping with hormonal breakouts and quality of oil in the pore) being able to help with pigmentation, scarring or healing, all in only a few products instead of one each.

With the rise of social media, people are randomly using some pretty bad skincare, either too many acids, over-exfoliating, comedogenic ingredients or not moisturising. They can come in with a stripped barrier, inflammation, poor wound healing and unbalanced skin. dermaviduals allows us to balance the microbiome and protect the skin in stages and guide a client to healthy skin that functions well and heals fast.

How do you ensure you stay up to date with the latest innovations in skincare to continually offer cutting-edge treatments?

Read! We are so blessed with so much information on the internet and industry magazines. Get to know who is out there. You just need to be careful people have qualifications and knowledge. I have attended training and follow some amazing women, Robyn McAlpine, Chizza Westcarr, Lia Trebilcock, Nancy Abdou from TADLI. Pia Kynoch and Kiarra Olsen are both amazing naturopaths. Dr Miranda Miles for everything hormonal and menopause.

I was lucky enough to attend a training session by Florence Barrett-Hill before she retired and still did pastiche courses. I attend APAN conferences. And from dermaviduals Head trainer Lisa Panone and my DBM Maria. Oh, the list could go on! Also training my staff keeps me refreshing my knowledge on a constant basis.

@shineskinandbody