Medical-grade skincare in Mission Viejo

What we carry, and what it costs

The Alastin range, plus exosome therapy as an in-clinic treatment. Prices are listed so you can plan a routine before you walk in.

What products can and cannot do

Worth setting out plainly, because the gap between what skincare marketing implies and what topicals achieve is the reason people give up on them.

The most valuable role of medical-grade skincare is the last row. Protecting a result you have already paid for is a better return than any single product promises on its own.

Exosome therapy, and when it is worth it

Exosomes are tiny vesicles that cells use to send signals to each other, including the growth factors that drive tissue repair.

They work best immediately after something has opened the skin. Applied after microneedling or resurfacing, they travel into the channels that treatment has created and deliver repair signals directly into the layer where collagen is built. Applied to intact skin they mostly sit on the surface, which is why we offer them alongside a treatment rather than as a standalone facial.

The honest framing is that this is an accelerant and a quality upgrade to a treatment you were already having. It is not a substitute for one.

What happens at your skin consultation

1. 01

   An examination, not a questionnaire

   Skin type, sun damage, oil and hydration balance, sensitivity and any history of reacting badly. Products are matched to what is in front of us rather than to what is selling.

2. 02

   A review of what you already use

   Bring it, or photograph the labels. Most irritation we see is caused by two active products fighting each other, and half the time the fix is removing something rather than adding.

3. 03

   A short routine you will actually follow

   Usually four products or fewer, in an order, with a note about which to introduce first. Adding every active at once is the fastest route to giving up.

4. 04

   A plan for around treatments

   If you are having laser or microneedling, what to stop before and what to use after. Getting this wrong compromises the result of a treatment you have already paid for.

The order to introduce things, and why it matters

1. 01

   Start with sun protection, always

   If you change one thing, change this. Daily broad-spectrum SPF does more for pigment and lines over a decade than any serum, and it protects the result of every treatment you pay for. In Orange County this is the highest-return product on the page.

2. 02

   Then one active, not three

   A retinoid or an acid, introduced alone, two or three nights a week before going nightly. Starting several actives together is the fastest route to irritation, and irritation is why most people conclude medical-grade skincare does not suit them.

3. 03

   Give it twelve weeks

   Skin turnover means a genuine assessment takes about three months. Judging an active at three weeks usually means judging the adjustment period rather than the product.

4. 04

   Adjust around treatments

   Actives stop several days before laser or microneedling and return gradually afterwards. We map that to your treatment dates, because using a normal routine straight after resurfacing is the most common way a good treatment produces a poor result.

Bring what you already use, or photograph the labels. Half the time the useful change is removing something rather than adding, most irritation we see is two active products working against each other.

Matched to your skin, by a clinician

Who treats you

Lindsay Short, NP-BC, every visit

Credential

Board-certified nurse practitioner

Consultation

Free, no obligation to purchase

Range

Alastin, plus exosome therapy

Every product here is available online, often cheaper, and sometimes counterfeit. What is not available online is someone examining your skin, knowing what treatments you are having and when, and telling you which two of the six products you are considering are working against each other.

What “medical-grade” actually means

The phrase is used loosely enough to be almost meaningless in marketing, so here is the part that is real. It is not a regulated category and it does not mean prescription. What it usually means in practice is a higher concentration of the active ingredient, a formulation designed to get that ingredient through the skin barrier rather than sit on it, and stability, particularly for vitamin C, which oxidises and becomes useless in poorly formulated products regardless of what the label claims.

Delivery is the part people underestimate. A serum can list an impressive percentage and deliver very little of it to the layer where it works. This is where the price difference between a drugstore product and a professional one is usually justified, and it is also where it sometimes is not, some expensive products are expensive packaging.

The genuinely prescription-strength items, mainly tretinoin, are a separate matter and need a prescriber, which is why they come with a consultation rather than off a shelf. Retinol bought over the counter is a weaker relative of the same molecule; it works, more slowly, with less irritation.

What we will not tell you is that you need eight products. Most routines we recommend have three or four, and the most valuable thing we do at a consultation is often identifying which of the things you already own to stop using.

Related treatments

Laser Treatments

For pigment and sun damage products cannot clear.

Skin Tightening

For texture and laxity. Microneedling and Agnes RF.

PRP Therapy

Your own growth factors, often paired with microneedling.