 and welcome to Connecting Hawai'i Business on Think Tech Hawai'i. My name is Kathleen Lee and I am your host for this program. Today, we will be discussing Kanoa Lani skin therapy, helping people with correct skin care. Thank you for being on the show today. Kanoa Sakai, who is our guest and welcome. Hi, thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Tell people about yourself, can I? Well, my name is Kanoa. I'm from Oahu. I'm a mother of three kids. I just recently got married two months ago, but I've been an esthetician for about 20 years now, but didn't start my own business until about a year ago. Okay, awesome. So let's talk about like very basic differences, right? There are dermatologists, which you mentioned, and then there are estheticians. What are the key differences, just so people have an idea or, you know, because I love going back to basics when it comes to the show? Yeah, well, the definite main differences that dermatologists are medical doctors. So it's a very big difference. A lot less school. They, we work well together, though, because estheticians are expertise is more non health related, you know, it's not life or death, skin conditions like skin cancer, we're not diagnosing anything. So it's pretty healthy, like mild to moderate skin conditions that we treat and then we refer out to dermatologists if we need to. Some estheticians do have a medical license. So some are nurses and so they can become medical estheticians through having a medical license and having specific medical skincare training. Or you can be a medical esthetician by having a medical director and working under a doctor. And so that's what I am. I'm a medical esthetician, not with my own medical license, but working with a doctor. And you have been an esthetician for almost two decades today. Yeah, it's weird. So tell us how you got into the business and what keeps you there? Why, like what prompted your interest in that sector? Well, it started with giving really terrible skincare advice in high school. For some people, for some reason people would always ask me for skincare advice and I thought I knew what I was talking about back then, but the interest is already there. I had good intentions. But I just went to school for aesthetics immediately after graduating high school and I just never looked back. What keeps me going is being able to help people with these skin conditions and help them to be more confident and feel better about themselves. I think that's great. So let's delve into your business. Canolani skin therapy. How did it start? It started because I took a long break from work during COVID and after I had my last baby and I just decided do I want to go back and work at a med spa and work for other people or do I want to try starting my own business? And you know for a long time because I've been in the industry for a long time, even when I was working for other people, people would always tell me like, oh, why don't you start your own? And I was like, oh no, the business stuff is not really for me. But I don't know, I just thought I'd want to not try it. And so I did and here I am. Great. So how's it going so far? How is the business going so far? Where are you getting your clientele? What types of inquiries have you been getting? Yeah, so most of it is it's all word of mouth. So referrals from current clients that are spreading the word to their friends and family, Instagram. I'm not a huge social media person but running a business these days, you kind of have to get out of your comfort zone and try it. And so I've been doing it and making some posts and I've been getting a really good response because my focus is a lot about like education. So I'm offering a lot of free information on my Instagram page. Yeah, I went through it and I was like, I did not know that. You had one post where you talked about Sunblock or sunscreen. You mentioned in there as well that you should wear it indoors as well. Can you go over that? Because with me, I feel like sunblock or sunscreen should be used when you're outdoors. And on top of that, I only apply what? Which is probably cringing inside. Very common. Tell us more about why sunblock is so important and why you recommend people to wear it indoors as well. Well, I think that generally people just know that sunscreen is something that we need to be wearing every day. We all know that we have to wear it every day, but it's not uncommon. Like you that a lot of people think that that's for when you go out. So you put on sunscreen before you go outside. But when you see all this like inside like I have right now or like you have right now, that's ultraviolet. Like coming in, it comes in through the windows. It doesn't, glass doesn't stop the ultraviolet rays. So it's still going through that. Another thing that people do is that they think they don't need to wear sunscreen when it's cloudy and overcast. Similar to the glass, the sun ultraviolet is still penetrating through the clouds. So you still need to wear it on cloudy rainy days. I'm nodding because I'm like, you need to make a note to yourself, Kathleen. So a lot of people do that though. And so that's why it's good to have an ascetician that can remind you. Yeah. What are some other not so well known tips that you want to talk about when it comes to skincare? A lot of it is about sunscreen because we know now that most of our, we say aging, but really it's just an accumulation of the sun exposure, the sun damage over the years. And so we know now that a lot of that is coming from the sun. It's not coming from other things as much as sun damage. So I really emphasize proper sunscreen use. So not just knowing when to put it on, knowing that you still got to wear it indoors. If there's light coming through windows, you still have to wear it on cloudy rainy days, but also how much you apply is really important because that's it. That's the most common mistake I see people making is they just put a little bit on their fingertips and that's not enough. You have to measure it out and you need to know how much sunscreen you need to use for your body and your, especially your face and your neck and decollete. Gotcha. Does, does SPF matter? And if so, how much? SPF does matter. 30 to 50 is enough. Anything more than that? Like people think that the, you know, if you use SPF 50 versus SPF 100, you're going to get double the protection, but that's false. It's really just a couple of percents more. It's not very much. And so as long as it's at least the SPF 30. Okay. Good to know. Because I think that whenever I get something that's SPF 80, that I'm more protected, and I don't even think of the amount of application or the number of numbers. So this is a good tip. So thanks. Yeah. So that's another thing that I think is dangerous about people who use a really high SPF because it gives them like a false sense of security. So they think, oh, well, I applied an SPF 80. So I don't need to reapply it every two hours. Like the bottle says because it'll last longer, but that's not how that works either. Good to know. Great reminder for me. And are you able to share a simple morning or let's do morning routine first. If you're able to share like a simple morning routine and possibly a simple nighttime routine as well. Yeah. So I think that the thing that I see people doing is they really want to focus a lot on these like specialty treatment products, but they're not, they don't have the basics down. Like they still are not cleansing their face properly. They're still skipping moisturizer. They want just like that one product that they use that they think is going to work a miracle, but really just having a good cleansing, moisturizing and sunscreen, just those three things. Having that down and being consistent every morning and every night will do a lot for your skin. Just sunscreen alone is going to do so much for your skin. And so you'd be surprised how many people are not cleansing their skin properly or enough or using makeup wipes and that's their cleanse. That's a big no-no also. That's not really cleansing your face. And so just being consistent with cleansing, moisturizing and using sun protection because most people are not doing that. And so I would recommend start with that first. And everything else I think seek a professional who can help you and guide you for what would be the best things for you. Got it. What about toner? Should toner be applied as much as moisturizer? No. Toner is not that you don't need it. It's that it can have benefits, but it's not that you have to tone. Like the old toners used to be more like full of alcohol and it would just kind of strip your skin. Or then they said that it was for balancing your pH for your skin. There's a lot of things that people said toners were for, but we don't really have those issues anymore because the cosmetic formulations are so much better now. Our cleansers are not as stripping. They're a lot more gentle. Not like the ones that we grew up with. And so we don't really need to use toner anymore. But some toners do have, like if you have acne, you might find a toner that has like salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide or something that can have a skin benefit for you. And so you can use one, but it should be optional. Okay. So it shouldn't be as frequent as moisturizer is what you're saying. It's more of an optional. It's an optional product. You don't need, I don't personally use a toner and I don't tell people they have to have that toner stuff in their regimen, but you always need a moisturizer. Yeah, I can see that. As far as your clients or the clients that you've been getting since you started the business, what have they typically turned to you for when it comes to learning more about proper skincare or correcting certain things that they feel like may not be working for them? A lot of times it's acne. I get a lot of people who see me for acne and also hyperpigmentation. And so just helping them find the right products and treatment plan for them. So with both of those, it really takes, it's a partnership with both of us working together. So I do my part when you come in to see me. And then you got to make sure you do your part because the stuff you do every day is really, really important. But everyday consistency is way more important than the treatment. So usually I don't even have people see me for corrective skincare professional treatments until they have that home care regimen down. I make sure that that's solid first. What is hyperpigmentation anyway? Just dark spots uneven. So hypo pigmentation is like a lighter skin tone. And then when you see that darker skin tone, it's the hyperpigmentation. And so a lot of people, especially in Hawaii because it's lots of sun and we like to go out and spend a lot of time in the sun. So we see a lot of hyperpigmentation. Got it. Well, that makes sense. As far as making sure people aren't using abrasive products or measures on their face, what do you typically tell them? Usually I tell people not to try to create their own regimen for themselves and stay off of the skincare TikToks and Instagram. I know I'm someone who shares information, but I'm also a professional who, you know, you can come and see me and get specific advice for your skin. Because that's the problem with getting your information online is because it's not for your skin. What works for other people may or may not work for you and you can do a lot of damage. Okay, noted. I'm not going to keep up with my own thing, but I think that's good to know. It's basic, okay, right? If you're just doing cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen, then it's okay if you look online. But if we're getting into the corrective skincare and the harsh products, like you said, I wouldn't go about that on your own. It's better to do that with some professional guidance. You had one tip on your account that talked about not having too warm of water when you shower on your face. Yeah, so hot water does a lot of damage to the skin because heat is a trigger for hyperpigmentation, but also the heat can damage your skin barrier. And when we have a destroyed skin barrier, we can see things like acne, eczema, more hyperpigmentation. Just everything in our skin doesn't really function properly if our skin barrier isn't healthy. And so hot water is a good way to ruin your skin barrier. Yeah, I didn't know that. I have a tendency to take hot showers. Yeah, and you know, and I tell people that's why I say if you like the hot showers, it's not great for your skin, not just on your face, but on your body too. We have skin there too. Let's not forget. So we don't want to destroy the barrier there either. But if you need it, I tell people don't wash your face in the shower because usually the water, most of the time that water in the shower is way too hot for our face. So I say wash your face at the sink, then you can turn the temperature down. And you do, a lot of people turn to you for like facial care, but your business is skin therapy. So that's the entirety of the body. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, talk to me more about that. Yeah, so I don't just treat the face. I treat the skin anywhere. So if you have hyperpigmentation or like body acne or any kind of skin condition, other areas of your body, I can help you with that too, as well as like stretch marks and scars. I can treat areas of the body with microneedling. And so yeah, I can do lots of things all over. Let's go into that. What are the other services that Canola Skin Therapy offers? Yeah, so my facial, everything is more like clinical, medical style, skin care, corrective skin treatments. So even though we say facial, my facials includes aeroplaning and like a gentle chemical peel and things like that, that you wouldn't typically see in a facial. Otherwise I have some more advanced chemical peels. I usually don't start people out with that though. I start them with a facial or something a little bit more easy and then we can progress. But so there's a lot of room to progress into things that are a little bit more corrective as we go. Microneedling. So with microneedling, we can just do microneedling or I can infuse different products. Their prescription grade like stem cell, skin brightening, things that can help with hyperpigmentation that we can infuse with the microneedling treatment. I also do stem cell hair regeneration. So if you're losing your hair, microneedling is great for that. And I have like a specific product that I can infuse into the scalp to help with regenerating hair growth. That's great that you brought that up because I didn't even connect that, right? And hair growth. Going back to some of your services, you have like, I saw that you had like the lunchtime peel or what is a chemical peel and what does it do? Yeah. So chemical peels, there's so many, you know, they're not all the same. The only thing they have in common is they all exfoliate. And so the different types of chemical solutions, they have different pH, they have different molecular sizes. And so they penetrate to different layers of the skin. And so the deeper we go, we're affecting different types of tissue. And so we have things we call them superficial peels or even very superficial peels. Those help more with just like a general like very surface exfoliation. So your skin should just feel smoother and clearer, but we're not going to be really, you know, treating hyperpigmentation, like the deeper hyperpigmentation. You can see some brightening because we're removing the surface dead skin cells that have the pigment in it, but we're still not treating the deeper issue. And so we usually start with more superficial peels and then we can advance into more medium depth or deeper peels. Okay. Could you give us an example of one of the success stories that you've encountered since starting your business? Oh, well, I personally have fallen in love with treating acne. So I love to treat everything, but acne has like a very special place in my heart because I know how much it affects people's confidence. Like it really like people think of this industry as being like very like about looks. So very like superficial and just about how you look. But if you have a skin condition like an inflammatory condition like acne, it really affects your confidence and seeing somebody clear their acne, their personality changes. Like they just become more social and more talkative. They don't feel like they need to hide. And it's really nice to see that. So that's, you know, my biggest success is being able to help people in that way and just seeing how they just feel more confident and good in their skin. I love that. And you also offer tips on how to prevent or avoid acne. For sure. Yeah. All of my clients or patients that come and see me, they're, you know, they have my cell phone number in there. They have full access to all the information and I'm very happy to help them. That's cool. It's very cool. So let's go back to you know, how, why you started your business. What were the challenges that you ran into, especially since this is such a specific niche? Challenges. Well, first off is not really knowing anything about running a business and just figuring things out as you go. Also, you know, I'm not really, I mentioned that I wasn't like a huge social media person. And so just, my biggest challenge is just getting out of my comfort zone and putting myself out there and talking to strangers and promoting myself in a way that I never had to before because it's just me. Walk me through how someone would approach you and get your consultation and services. Yeah. So it's, I mean, I guess it depends on how you found me. So if you found me through Instagram, I would usually recommend that you go to my website to schedule an appointment. Before you schedule an appointment, it does say that a virtual consultation is required. And so I do them either on Zoom or FaceTime and we just talk for you know, about 30 minutes and we go over what your goals are, what your concerns are, talk about what you like and don't like about your skin. And then we go over like a good, you know, I try to give you a treatment plan, or at least where we start, I give you a good like, okay, we should start with this and give you your recommendations for home care and whatever your first treatment is. And then as we go, I can kind of give you a better idea of what we will do next. Okay. You also, well not also, you mentioned that starting this business and being successful in it has you, have you pushing yourself out of your comfort zone? If people wanted to follow in your footsteps and wanted to start a business on their own, what would you like to tell them? I would tell them that they, you know, as the first most important thing is this, you have to just be good at your job, you just have to be the best you can be at the skincare, you know, don't focus even though it's important to make good posts on Instagram or all the other stuff. If you're not good at your job, you're not going to be successful. You have to know the skincare, you have to know that first. So really invest as much and especially in the beginning as much time on just getting your hands on as much skin as you can do your whole family, your own friends, do everybody and you know, just practice, practice, practice and hopefully you will work for other people for a while because that is really good experience to get, you know, like different types of clients and work in different ways with different product lines and get more experience that way. I don't recommend that you just jump straight from school to having your own business because you might have the textbook smart, but you got to know, have all this other skills first. Yeah, but as far as skincare goes, like what, what else would you want to share aside from sunscreen and moisturizer? I really just think that more people should know that they should seek a professional to help them instead of getting their information online because a lot of the things that I am treating is coming from mistakes that people have made from advice that they followed from influencers or whoever online because it wasn't specific to them and not just that. I mean, you end up wasting a lot of time and money. Even if it's not dangerous and you know, your skin is okay, it's still a waste of time and money to go that way, to go that route. Instead, you should just see somebody who knows the ingredients and understands what your skin needs. So I think the Instagram and TikTok skincare advice should just, you know, be for fun and take it with a great assault. Now I'm curious, can you give like a short example of like someone that came up to you because they learned something online that made you go, that should not have been tried? I mean, it's just the wrong products. It's not usually anything. It's not anything crazy. It's just using the wrong products. It was a lot worse in the beginning. I think there are a lot of really smart, savvy people who are giving necessarily bad advice. It's just the wrong advice for that specific person who's trying it, right? It's not customized to their skin. So it's not crazy advice, but I mean, some old crazy advice would be like, you can use lemon juice or on your skin or baking soda as a scrub or you know, things like that. That was a lot crazier, older advice, but we're not seeing a lot of that anymore. That's great. Right now it's more just the advice is not appropriate for everyone, but they're presenting it like it is, like this is the best product or this is the best way to do it, but it's not always the best for everyone. So it's not a one-size-fits-all, like you mentioned because everyone has different types of skin. Yes. So yeah, if you could share one thing that you've learned from this adventure, this business that you are very versed in, what was it that you learned? Something I've learned about like the business side, running your business. It's a lot harder than I thought. I mean, I knew it was hard, but it's just, it's a lot of work to see that. It's a lot of work. You're just always, always working, but it's a good thing because it does force you to keep wanting to improve yourself and it forced you to grow as a person and as you grow as a business. So it's good and bad, but just be prepared to work hard if you want to start a business. Good tip. And if people want to get a hold of you or they want to reach you, where do they go? Instagram is great because you can always message me there and you can look at the content I have there. It's at Kanoi Lani Skin Therapy or you can go to my website. I have descriptions of the treatments that I offer and also you're able to schedule a consultation with me. It's that's what you want to do. And the website is www.ksthi.com. Thank you, Kanoi Sakai, for joining us today on Thanks at Hawaii's Connecting Hawaii Business. We appreciate you being here. So thank you for all the great tips that you share. I have more. So if you can visit your website, I think your number's on there as well. Yes. Thank you again. And thanks to Jay Fidel and the staff at Think Tech Hawaii for making programs like this possible. Today we had Haley and Mike helping us up until next time. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.