Institute for Laser Medicine — Local services in Skippack Township

Recently took the Dermaplaning and Microneedling class at the Institute of Laser Medicine. Instructor was very nice, however there needs to be more transparency in who should take this class.

Would only recommend this class if you currently work under a Licensed Medical Doctor. If you are an esthetician only, the products they use in the class CANNOT be bought unless under a licensed Physician. This means you must find your own vendors to buy supplies after the class including the Microneedling device. This was not discussed when booking the class.

Pros: Instructor was nice and the facility was professional and clean.

Cons: There is NO KIT included in both classes which means you have to buy products after the class on your own . The products used in the class are Medical Grade Products which means you can ONLY buy these products under a licensed Medical Physician. If you are an esthetician, you CANNOT BUY any of these products. Does not make sense to learn from these classes unless you can buy the products.

Trainer Feedback: The instructor Beth was nice, however, she was recently hired to do the trainings and does not do dermaplaning or microneedling for a living. When I asked her questions about the products such as the numbing cream used in the microneedling training, she didn’t know what percentage was the lidocaine. Other students asked her what is a comparable microneedling device we can purchase that does not require a doctor, she has never used anything else. The same goes with the peels we learned. We were not given recommendation for peels a licensed esthetician can purchase.

Brittany, the Student Coordinator, made it sound like one of the nurses that works there will be providing the training. When you go to a training class, the instructor should have years of experience not a few months.

The Glytone peels we spent over 2 hours learning about during the dermaplaning class is useless because you need a medical doctor to purchase these. We ended up wasting half of the day learning about medical grade peels that we CANNOT BUY unless under a Medical Doctor. As an Esthetician, we are Not looking to purchase medical grade peels. They also do not use other brands, so are not able to recommend other brands to use. This means you are on your own to find your own products after class.

Before training started, we emailed Brittany, the student coordinator, questions about the products used, how much they cost, is there a kit included so we can forecast how much it will cost us. We had also scheduled people to practice on immediately after training. But we did not receive a kit or know where to purchase these products from. We are still researching where to buy these products, delaying us from practicing right away. They also told us that we should ask our doctor or dentist friends to use their name to help us purchase products which is a horrible recommendation.

I was only planning on taking the microneedling training and was planning to take the dermaplaning training thru Dermaplane Pro . They offered me a discount on the microneedling training so I decided to go with them for both training. Their dermaplaning training was more expensive that Dermaplane Pro and Dermaplane Pro provided you with a full kit. So I regret taking this class with The Institute for Laser Medicine.

In conclusion, I DO NOT recommend this class for a licensed esthetician unless you are working under a licensed medical doctor. For dermaplaning, I recommend looking up dermaplane pro. They are less expensive, they provide a kit, they are trained by professionals who actually perform these types of services for a living with a lot of experience. Moral of story...Do your research on who is training your class and thoroughly vet out their background...

Catie was a great instructor for both the laser course and the tattoo removal class. She was very informative, answered all of our questions and told us about her experience in the industry, giving tips and advice on how to obtain a career. I was reading some of the other reviews before I wrote mine and I noticed that the negative ones were mostly about obtaining a job. Some people just think that you take this class and then are going to automatically just get a job no problem. I’m sure it happens but in reality it’s just like any other field. You have to apply and apply and build your resume. People go out of college and still have to look for jobs too. It’s crazy how some people just think just because they got certified they are automatically going to be given a job somewhere. You have to put in the work too! The school teaches you the skills and even gives you tips on how to build your resume. The medspa that it is affiliated with even gives you the opportunity to shadow after you finish the class to give you more experience. That can really help build your resume too! The one bad review that was written was a girl in my class. She started the laser class several months prior and hasn’t finished it but applied to jobs and got mad she wasn’t hired right away. She came in to finish the class the week I was in and decided the end of the 3rd day (in a four day class) that she didn’t want to learn lasers anymore. In no way did the teacher or directer tell her she needed an aesthetic license to get a job. She has said she didn’t want to work with lasers anymore because they gave her a head ache and only wanted to do radio frequency. She asked if she needed an aesthetic license and was told no she didn’t but it would never hurt to have one especially since she didn’t want to do lasers anymore, it would allow her to do other practices as well. Radio frequency is popular but it’s not like most places are hiring a tech to just do that so she was limiting herself. She didn’t even stay for the radio frequency portion of the class. And it was kind of shocking that she was demanding a refund for a class after completing 75% of it already. She had this epiphany half way through the class and took time away from the rest of the students who were taking the class. Also she said that the class was made of people who already had their esthetician’s license but that wasn’t true. I think it was only 1 of the 7 students who had it. This class gives you the knowledge you need to get started in the field. It’s up to you after that to put the work in to get the career you want. If this is a field you want to get into this is a good school to go to. All of the staff was extremely friendly and professional and it was an enjoyable class to take. It was very informative and we got a lot of hands on practice. I would recommend...

SCAM! If you aren't already in this field you will have a very hard time finding a job unless you are a licensed esthetician. When i first inquired about their comprehensive laser course I was told i didn't need any experience and just needed to be 18 years old. Most of the people in the class already are estheticians or already work in a med spa and are adding onto their skills. My instructor "suggested" that i go get my esthetician license if i wanted to be successful in this field. If i knew that i would have started out there so i understood more of what they were talking about. I have had multiple med spas/ plastic surgeons either not call me back or tell me they only hire estheticians. When i tried to voice my concern to the "girl who runs the school" she told me it was my fault and no one forced me to take the class, and insisted that it is not required to be an esthetician to get a job.. well even though that may not be a requirement MOST places will not hire you. After talking in circles for a half hour I decided to end the conversation and i was told to "do you". In no way is that a professional response to my concerns let alone a way to resolve or end the conversation. After paying $4,000 to take this course which i am not finishing, this was a waste of time and money, with not even an apology for things not being made clearly in the beginning of the sign on process. I was told they don't care about the money, but also wouldn't refund me of my money or even a partial refund since i am not finishing. Be ware and really do your research before you attend...