My name is Alessia Spielvogel and I’m the Chief Operating Officer at The Chrysm Institute of Esthetics. I would like to respectfully request that Esthetics remain at 600 hours and Master Esthetics remain separate as its own license requiring an additional 600 hours.

While I can appreciate the Board’s intent to periodically re-evaluate its policies and regulations, I urge the Board to perform its analysis very thoughtfully and understand the gravity of their suggestions and how the day to day operation and overall livelihood of all parties associated with Esthetics in Virginia may be affected.

With regard to the consideration of reducing hours in the Esthetics and Master Esthetics curriculum:  

The Esthetics and Master Esthetics curriculum requirements in Virginia were established in 2007. In the 16 years since its inception, there has been and continues to be tremendous innovation in the skincare industry. If the state of Virginia saw fit to enshrine Esthetics licensure into codified law at 600 hours for Esthetics and 600 hours for Master Esthetics in 2007, it is paradoxical to reduce the hour requirement in 2023, a time when there are so many more products, services, and treatments being developed. Furthermore, the ubiquity of misinformation and aggressive marketing spread through social media, content creators, and influencers makes it fundamentally imperative to legally require formal training to ensure that practitioners offering these services are fully knowledgeable, experienced and can better discern the validity, effectiveness, and safety of legitimate clinical skincare. I don’t believe that this can be successfully accomplished by reducing hours in either program and/or combining the two programs.

With regard to the possible suggestion of combining Esthetics and Master Esthetics into one license: This would do a disservice to the Esthetics industry, its practitioners, and the general public. Speaking from my experience having worked for 12 years at an Esthetics school in the Registration and Financial Aid offices, many students who wish to obtain Master Esthetics licensure want to work in the field to gain experience and greater understanding before entering the Master Esthetics program. Completing a 600 hour Esthetics program permits practitioners to enter the field working in spas, salons, waxing boutiques, lash businesses and more. Some students aren’t interested in Master services and treatments whatsoever. Master Esthetics has a rigorous curriculum, deservedly so, considering a Master Esthetician must be able to modify and adapt the treatments, protocols, products, and techniques used depending on their client’s skin type and concerns. It sets everyone up for the greatest success by allowing those who do make the decision to continue into Master to gain industry experience beforehand and not mandating that all individuals who wish to become Estheticians be taught Master services that they may not have the interest or ability to provide.

In addition to my professional background, I am also a consumer of Esthetics services. As such, I know enough about the industry to determine that I, personally, would not feel safe paying for an advanced treatment in a professional setting, such as chemical peels or microderm, from an individual who does not have a multitude of knowledge and experience. Other consumers may not be familiar with the Esthetics industry and are more susceptible to receiving ineffective or potentially harmful treatments from inexperienced practitioners.

In conclusion, I thank the Board for considering my comment and I respectfully reiterate that it is my assertion that Esthetics remains at 600 hours and Master Esthetics remains at 600 hours.