Nicole Carvalho

I did not come to this work through a beauty counter. I came to it because I spent years being given confident, contradictory advice about my own skin, buying things that did nothing, and never once being told plainly what was actually happening or why.

That experience decides how I run this practice. The first appointment is long because it needs to be. I want your history, your routine, what you have already tried, what irritated you and what you quietly gave up on. Most of what shows on a face is explainable, and explaining it is where the work starts.

How I work

I treat one client at a time and I do the whole thing myself — the assessment, the treatment, the review. That is a deliberate limit on how many people I can see, and it is the part of this practice I am least willing to change.

I will tell you when something will not work. I will tell you when you need a doctor rather than me. I will tell you when the sensible plan is to stop using half of what is on your bathroom shelf and do nothing active for a month while your barrier recovers. None of that is good salesmanship and all of it is why people come back.

I would rather book you for four appointments that do something than ten that keep you coming in.

What I do not do

I do not perform injectables or any medical procedure. My scope is advanced skincare — the quality, texture, tone and firmness of the skin itself, supported by home care that fits your actual life.

One of my rooms sits inside a medical practice. That is my address, not my scope. If what you need falls outside what I do, I will say so and point you somewhere sensible.

Where I work

I see clients at Heaven on Earth Skin and Body Studio in Ruimsig, Roodepoort, and at Medi-Doc in Boksburg. Monday to Sunday, eight until five, with after-hours appointments by prior arrangement — which I mention because a great many people can only get to a skin appointment after work.