The Practice Lab

The DermaRoom Collective
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The DermaRoom Collective is where skin health, energy-based aesthetics, business, and community come together. Through honest conversations, expert insights, and real-world experiences, we explore topical regenerative skin care, lasers, light, radiofrequency, ultrasound, and other evolving technologies shaping the aesthetics industry. From strengthening your clinical knowledge and treatment skills to building a trusted brand and navigating entrepreneurship, this is a space for professionals to learn, feel supported, and grow together.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 5: Marie Bertrand - Hydroquinone: When, Why and Alternatives

    Hydroquinone works, but used for too long it can leave patients with worse pigment than they started with. In this episode of The Practice Lab, Tracey Mancuso talks with ingredient expert Marie Bertrand about when hydroquinone still makes sense, how to use it safely, and what to use instead for long-term pigment control. In this episode: Why hydroquinone is still a gold standard, and what Health Canada's 2% over-the-counter limit means Pulse therapy: two to three months on, then switch Marie's four steps to pigment control: exfoliation, pigment reduction, anti-inflammatory care and a tinted mineral sunscreen Why some pigment is really vascular, and why treating it as pigment never works Azelaic acid, the multitasker for redness, PIH and sensitive skin How to talk patients off long-term hydroquinone without scaring them Epidermal vs dermal pigment, and prepping the skin before lasers and microneedling Tretinoin, the Kligman formula, and why the skin barrier comes first As Marie puts it: "Hydroquinone should be seen as a sprint and not a marathon." And on prepping the skin: "We cannot exfoliate our way to a dermal pigment." Learn more: Marie's introduction to ingredients is on The DermaRoom Collective at thedermaroomcollective.com. Her full ingredient masterclass is coming in early 2027. About the guest: Marie Bertrand is a microbiologist and the founder of SkinScience Clinic in Calgary. Reach her at info@skinscience.md or on Instagram at @theskinscientist, and read her blog at skinscience.md. About the host: Tracey Mancuso, BScHS, CMLSO, is the founder and course director of The DermaRoom Collective. A Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer with more than 30 years in aesthetic medicine, she teaches laser, light and RF treatment to practitioners.

    Episode 5: Marie Bertrand - Hydroquinone: When, Why and Alternatives

  2. Oct 19

    Episode 4: Tracey Mancuso - Skin Typing Beyond Fitzpatrick

    Most energy-based device settings are built around one number: the patient's Fitzpatrick type. In this episode of 10 Minutes with Tracey, Tracey Mancuso explains why that scale was never designed for lasers, how relying on it alone leads to PIH, burns and undertreatment, and the fuller assessment she uses instead. In this episode: Why the Fitzpatrick scale was created in 1975 to predict sunburn and skin cancer risk, not laser response Eumelanin versus pheomelanin, and what each means for photoprotection Why you never hand a patient the skin-typing form, and the questions they almost always answer wrong How the aesthetic industry adopted Fitzpatrick for devices, and why fluence charts still lean on it Why a tan doesn't change a patient's type, and what fluence should depend on instead The Roberts Skin Type Classification System: phototype, hyperpigmentation, Glogau photoaging and scarring, combined into one code The palmar assessment and the Lancer scale, and the gaps they fill Building a full risk profile before you choose a treatment As Tracey puts it: "Energy-based medicine requires risk-based stratification, not just some visual assumption." And on the intake form: "Unless they live in a cave, they are going out in the sun." Free download: The DermaRoom Collective's skin typing and patient assessment forms are in the Downloads section at thedermaroomcollective.com. About the host: Tracey Mancuso, BScHS, CMLSO, is the founder and course director of The DermaRoom Collective. A Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer with more than 30 years in aesthetic medicine, she teaches laser, light and RF treatment to practitioners.

    Episode 4: Tracey Mancuso - Skin Typing Beyond Fitzpatrick

  3. Sep 13

    Episode 3: Alicia Yap - Pearls for Buying Technology

    Every sales rep makes the device look good. Alicia Yap decides on what happens after the cheque clears. In the first episode of 10 Minutes with Tracey, the founder of ClaraDerma+ talks through how she actually buys energy-based devices — why service and turnaround matter more than the technology, why the brand on the billboard isn't better than the one beside it, and how a $150,000 machine stops being frightening once you divide it by sixty months. She also explains the purchase she got wrong, and what it cost her. In this episode: Where to start if you're buying your first device, and the treatments that are reliably in demand Why after-sale service is the single most important thing to check, and how to check it before you buy What real supplier support looks like beyond the one-day training: marketing, events, and turnaround when something breaks Asking reps for consumables, practice tips and event budget, and why they usually say yes Hype versus science: what a heavily marketed brand genuinely buys you, and what it doesn't Bringing your team into the decision, and the head spa she bought without asking them Getting past the fear of the price tag by treating it as a monthly payment Rapid fire: proven or new, one platform or several, and what matters more than the technology As Alicia puts it, on chasing the brand everyone knows: "At the end of the day, the science is the science. You can get exactly the same results with a different machine if you know what you're doing and you're trained properly." And on where to get a straight answer: "If you wanna know the real information about the device, ask the trainers. The sales reps sometimes don't really know exactly what the device can do or not do." About the guest: Alicia Yap, CMMA, CLT, is the founder of ClaraDerma+, a laser and skin clinic in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Founder and Education Director of ClaraDerma Academy. She is a Certified Master Medical Aesthetician and Certified Laser Technician, and has been running ClaraDerma+ for over a decade.

    Episode 3: Alicia Yap - Pearls for Buying Technology

  4. Sep 9

    Episode 2: Tracey Hotta - Partner Spotlight

    In this episode: From the operating room to one of Canada's first RN injectors, and the year it took to convince a surgeonWhy she built nurse training in 1994 when nothing existed, sold it, and started again in 2016Inside THMA's foundation program: facial anatomy, assessment skills, medical history, skin quality, neuromodulators, fillers and PRP, and the business of practiceAdvanced training, and why lip enhancement is taught one-on-one rather than in a groupThe adverse events course, and the informed consent conversation most providers avoid havingThe biggest obstacle for a newly qualified nurse, and why it isn't clinical skillSocial media and the colleges: what you can post, what you can't, and why self-injecting content is a problemWhy a curriculum that hasn't changed in five years is a red flagAs Tracey Hotta puts it, on informed consent: "If it's documented in the literature and something happens and you haven't told them, you're accountable." And on the Instagram version of the job: "They go, oh my God, there's so much to learn. It's like, yeah, it's medicine. There's a lot to learn." About the guest: Tracey Hotta, RN, BSN, CPSN-R, CANS, ISPAN-F, is the founder of THMA and a partner of The DermaRoom Collective. She began nursing in 1984 and moved into aesthetics in 1990, becoming one of the first registered nurse injectors in Canada. She is a past president of ISPAN, a founding member of the Canadian Society of Aesthetic Specialty Nurses, and a member of the Registered Nurses' Association's Quarter Century Club. She lectures on facial anatomy across North America.

    Episode 2: Tracey Hotta - Partner Spotlight

  5. Sep 8

    Episode 1: Alex Lee - Trainer Spotlight

    Most acne education stops at the surface: cleanse harder, exfoliate more, dry it out. Alex Lee thinks that advice is why so many patients never get clear. In the first episode of The Practice Lab, the DermaRoom Collective's clinical trainer walks through the biology underneath acne — the pilosebaceous unit and the four drivers that feed it — and makes the case that barrier repair, not stripping, is what actually breaks the cycle. She also shares a cystic acne case that improved roughly 75% before she performed a single treatment. In this episode: The gap between graduating and facing your first real acne patient, and why Alex built a course to close itThe pilosebaceous unit, and the four pillars of acne: follicular hyperkeratinization, excess sebum, Cutibacterium acnes, and inflammationWhy over-cleansing and over-exfoliating make acne worse, and what barrier-first treatment looks like insteadReading the pattern: cyclical jawline breakouts versus uniform, itchy presentations, and why one patient often has several types at onceA severe cystic acne case: two weeks of stopping everything, then a simple routine, then mapped microneedlingWhere Alex stands on microneedling over active acne, including her extraction and antimicrobial protocolThree things a practitioner can change the day after finishing the course As Alex puts it: "The key to healthy skin is a healthy microbiome." Or, on why sequence matters more than product choice: "You need to have a healthy foundation in order to use those ingredients and to use them properly." About the guest: Alex Lee, CBAM, is a medical aesthetician practicing at Beauty Mark Medical Aesthetics in Prince Edward Island, and clinical trainer for The DermaRoom Collective. She is Course Director of Understanding Acne: From Pathophysiology to Practice.

    Episode 1: Alex Lee - Trainer Spotlight
  • 5 Episodes

About

The DermaRoom Collective is where skin health, energy-based aesthetics, business, and community come together. Through honest conversations, expert insights, and real-world experiences, we explore topical regenerative skin care, lasers, light, radiofrequency, ultrasound, and other evolving technologies shaping the aesthetics industry. From strengthening your clinical knowledge and treatment skills to building a trusted brand and navigating entrepreneurship, this is a space for professionals to learn, feel supported, and grow together.

Information

  • Creator
    The DermaRoom Collective
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The DermaRoom Collective
  • Show Website
    The Practice Lab