The Face Place is going Green(er)! If you haven’t seen it already, check out our social media @thefaceplacenz to check out our new green logo and expansion on our eco-conscious ethos. From the start of our business in 2001 we had a natural/‘green’ element to our business (mainly because I’m a high heeled hippie at heart 😹) with only using naturally based products and treatments, and a focus on natural looking results for our patients. In the last few years we have become even greener – we’re the first medical clinic to become an accredited ‘Sustainable Salon’ (SS) meaning we were able to send up to 70% of our waste to recycling instead of landfill, and with your added support from the SS green fee of $3 charged to every client treatment, we were able to help feed underprivileged people in NZ through KiwiHarvest.
When we first enrolled with SS we suggested a sustainable sharps bin, and so were delighted to be the trial clinics for this initiative when SS found a solution and launched it – this means we now recycle ♻️ up to 80% of our waste and we are always looking for ways to do more. About 5 years ago we also suggested to Advanced Skin Technology, owners of Aspect, Aspect Dr, Cosmedix, Skin Better Science, PCA – the developers and distributors of the Aspect skin care range – that their products needed to become more eco-conscious, so we are delighted that they have improved their packaging and shipping over the last couple of years! To enhance this, we have introduced an initiative where you can bring your AST skin product containers to us to be recycled (just put them in the big grey bin in reception) and let us know so you get 1 loyalty point for every container you bring in!
The red circle logo has been with us since 2002 (it replaced an earlier logo of 2 silver faces, a man and a woman), and about 18 months ago I had a ‘shower moment’ where I realised that our logo was not as representative of the brand as it was twenty years ago… and the most natural progression to fit our evolution was to go green. Except, we were already green in our ethos, so it was really ‘going green-er’.
It’s been a pretty hectic last few years and we wanted to stabilise as a business before making this significant change, but with some other exciting positive announcements on the horizon, we felt it was a great time to make the shift! A massive thank you to Katie, Kennedy, Jakob and Nicci (and previously Mikayla) who have worked so hard on bringing this change to life!
I have to admit I was all super excited for the changeover, and then when I saw the red change to green on 1 October, I had a little sad moment for the red logo who has seen us through so much growth, development and the ups and downs of the GFC and Covid. I had to remind myself that the only constant is change, and that our new colour represents where our brand has progressed to, and while red has been such a wonderful big part of our journey, green takes us into the future with a fresh outlook. You’ll notice the changes in clinic and on the website, starting this month and rolling out over the next 6 months as we use up the older printed products – we wouldn’t be greener if we just threw them out!
In sync with our sustainability/responsibility conscious focus, our team had a humbling and heart warming two days last month helping to sort, fold and make up packs of donated clothes, family essentials and hygiene products for struggling families through the amazing initiative ‘Nurturing Families’. Their young CEO Tayla is only 22, and started putting boxes together for underprivileged families when she was just 12! She has grown the initiative to occupy a warehouse out west, and she works with social workers and the court system to find families that need basic necessities such as clothes, bedding, formula, hygiene products, toys, books and even car seats. Generous donors will drop bags of these items off at their warehouse at 6/42 Henderson Valley Rd, and the bags then need to be sorted and any damaged items have to be sent to the dump (which costs Nurturing Families money and hence diminishes the good they can do) and dirty items have to be washed (which costs time and money). Having to sort through and see how much stuff had to be thrown away was a great reminder that if you are inspired to donate items, please ensure they are washed and not damaged or stained, as it significantly increases the cost and work for the initiative you are helping to support. I think back to how much stuff of dad’s I donated to hospice when he died last year, and I realise I could have sorted through much more effectively than I did.
It’s coming up a year on 9 October since dad died, and this week my brother is bringing his family up from Ashburton for us to spend some time together in both Auckland and Russell as a family, celebrating dad’s memory and culminating with the official unveiling of his headstone at the Russell Cemetery on 8 October, and a late lunch at Omata Estate. It’s feels a little unreal that it’s almost been a year already. I’m super grateful that it’s brought us so much closer together as a family and send blessings to those who have also lost someone close to them in the last year.
Our other super exciting announcement is that Revitalash Pro – a next level lash formulation available only at medical clinics, with 3 lash stimulating peptides as well as lash conditioners to support the health of your eyelashes – is now available at The Face Place. I have been using Revitalash Pro for about 6 weeks now as I was the first in NZ to get to use it – I’ll pop into the clinic for before and after photos to show your the results on social media in the next couple of weeks (@drcatstone ). I feel very honoured that we were invited to be the first stockist in NZ, which means that we are the first stockists outside the USA! There is an incredible alignment as Revitalash was developed for the founder’s wife while she was battling breast cancer and the company has an ‘eternally pink’ pledge where they support research into breast cancer and people journeying with breast cancer all year round, not just in October.. The Revitalash NZ team work closely with Look Good, Feel Better, and recently held their annual very popular event, Eat, Drink, Pink, raising funds for the breast cancer rehabilitation initiative Pinc and Steel. You can read more about their support of breast cancer initiatives here https://revitalash.co.nz/pages/pink
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and in recognition of the number of our patients and team who have been impacted with breast cancer, we will be donating $2 from every appointment booked in October to the Breast Cancer Foundation to support their work in advocacy, research and supporting those diagnosed with breast cancer. In January 2024 it will have been 4 years since my first diagnosis, and it was around this time in 2019 that I noticed the lump in my breast had changed. Please, even if you do nothing else, learn how to self examine your breasts and get any significant changes seen by your doctor. I was lucky I got mine checked when I did, and feel extremely grateful we were able to catch it at an earlier stage each time. It could have been quite a different journey if I had left it another 6 months.
I’m gradually improving my health and energy, but it has taken a lot longer than I expected it to. I was grateful to have Queza and Marjorie assisting me this month with our Hyalase and Profhilo workshops, both of which were again a resounding success. We are currently working on dates for next year and will hopefully have some exciting news to announce in the education space over the next couple of months! Keep an eye out on our sexy ‘new look’ socials for the latest info!
You might already know that one of my passions is teaching and speaking about the amazing treatments that we provide, and so when I was offered the opportunity to workshop and present a TED-Style 13 minute talk to Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) which I am a member of, I jumped at it. I submitted two potential topics ‘How Cancer Made Me A Better Entrepreneur’ and ‘Grow Younger With Great Sex’… both were accepted but I could only workshop and present one of them as I was one of 8 entrepreneurs selected to talk. Can you guess which one they chose? Of course the sex one! It was a real challenge compressing the huge topic of sexual rejuvenation into 13 minutes, and staying within the ‘non-solicitation’ rules of EO, but I learned a lot about how to structure and deliver an impactful talk, and looking back I’m proud of what we all achieved that night. The EO team also interviewed me about my entrepreneurial/cancer journey for their website – you can read it here if you’re interested! https://www.eonewzealand.org/blog/2023/9/20/crisis-cancer-amp-covid-how-dr-cat-stone-turned-to-eo-when-she-needed-it-most
Golly, it’s hard to believe it’s October already! IPL treatments will be finishing soon for the summer, but our skin team is playing with some new products and treatments so keep an eye out for those! If you haven’t booked your pre-Xmas appointment yet, either give the team a call or book online via the (newly greened) website or app. The app makes it super easy as it remembers your previous appointments, and serves these up as options for you to just click on. You can also check your skin or injectables plan via the app to see what’s coming up next. If you are struggling to get an appointment, especially a longer one, we recommend calling the team on 0800 226 869 as they may be able to change a few things around to accomodate you!
The school holidays will be over and the silly season will be upon us before we know it! We look forward to seeing you in clinic soon, and you can check out some of the exciting new ‘greener’ changes while you’re there!
Thank you as always for your support,
Love and hugs,
Dr Cat 😻
