Exploring Life & Business with Nicole Diamond of Nicole Diamond Holistic Skin Care

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Diamond.

Hi Nicole, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
In high school, my best friend’s mom was an interior designer, and up until I met her, I didn’t even know that was a career. My mom was a flight attendant and was gone frequently on trips. Sometimes when she came home I would have rearranged the furniture because I knew it would look better.

She would get so frustrated with me and make me move it back. I always had this innate desire to control my environment and I loved creating my bedroom into an esthetically pleasing space. I identified with how much my environment affected my mood. I grew up in a middle-class family as an only child and neither of my parents was creative, I guess I am sort of a unicorn if you will, I have always been very right-brained and from childhood shown talent in music and art. I always did just enough to get by in school with B’s and C’s and the only classes I looked forward to were art class and music.

I graduated from high school in 1994 in Tucson, Arizona. The question back then wasn’t “Are you going to college it was where are you going to college?” My parents had saved up money for me to attend a University and so I enrolled in Arizona State. I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be an interior designer. I looked into the classes required for that degree and I was swayed because of the math requirements. I had always struggled in Math and I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I decided to major in Art Painting/Drawing and I minored in Spanish. The only math requirement for an Arts degree was Statistics, so I went with that.

I failed statistics the first time and the second time I barely passed it with a D. After 2 years of college, I started questioning what I was going to do with an Arts degree. I didn’t have any desire to become an artist and I didn’t want to teach art so I decided to drop out and move to Southern California where my parents were living at the time. My parents encouraged me to continue going to college in some capacity so I picked up a class brochure from the local community college. I stumbled across Cosmetology which interested me. I always loved hair and makeup and it seemed like something creative I would enjoy.

As I was halfway through the program, I realized that I loved the skincare element more than the hair. I asked my skincare instructor if I should drop out of Cosmetology and just pursue an esthetician license. She insisted that because I was already halfway through the program I should just finish. With a Cosmetology license, I could do hair, skin, or nails. I took her advice and I graduated from Cosmetology school at the beginning of 1998. While I was in school, with the help of my esthetics instructor, I landed a job with Dermalogica. The International Dermal Institute is located in the South Bay Area. While I was an esthetics student, they trained me to analyze clients’ skin with a special skin scanner Woods Lamp and recommend skin care products. I traveled around LA County to different salons on the weekends when I wasn’t in school.

This was a great opportunity for me to work for a well-known skincare company and to get some experience diagnosing sun damage and different skin conditions. After I graduated, my boss from Dermalogica was instrumental in landing me my first skincare job in a spa as a licensed esthetician. My first esthetics job was at a place called Du Bunne’ Day Spa in Lomita, California. It was the best first skincare job I could have ever asked for. The training I received there helped me become confident in waxing, brow and lash tinting, brow shaping, and facials. I will be forever grateful for the training they gave me and to this day, I still do everything the same way I was taught at Du Bunne’.

Over the years, I have worked in many spas, I have worked for a dermatologist, I have owned my own business, and been a professional makeup Artist for Jane Iredale and Kjaer Weiss. I love makeup because it gives me the creative outlet I need. In 2017, I became certified to do Microblading. Microblading is a temporary tattoo for eyebrows. I am always looking for more ways that I can use my artistic skills and bring creativity into my skincare practice. There was a season when I even owned my own floral design business.

I have always had a love for flowers. There was a point where I was getting burned out working in spas and I was needing a creative outlet. I started my own wedding and event flower business. It was called Moss and Willow. After a few years, I grew tired of working weekends and craved a more steady schedule that skin care provided. I closed Moss and Willow and went back to my first love, skin care.

No matter what though, skincare has always been a part of my adult life. I started having kids in 2006 and I loved the flexibility that being an esthetician provides. You can work part-time, full-time, you can become a rep for a skincare company, or work for a doctor or a makeup artist. There are so many different avenues you can take to prevent you from boredom. As a creative, I am constantly in need of changing things up a bit, learning something new, and adding a new service to my menu.

It helps me from feeling stagnant. I also usually have some sort of design project going on the side to help fill my creative cup. All of my business is word of mouth. I’ve done everything from commercial to residential design. During 2020 when I couldn’t do skincare, I was a stylist for Kirkland’s. My friend was a photographer for them and she hired me to style vignettes for their catalog and website. It was just what my creative soul needed during the pandemic. In December of 2021, I left the skin care boutique I was working at in Nashville and started my own business, Nicole Diamond Holistic Skin Care. I always went stir-crazy working for someone else. I feel like I was made to be my boss and own my own business.

During certain seasons, like when my kids were little and my husband was traveling a lot, it was nice to just work for someone else and let them worry about the business side. Once my kids became teenagers though and more independent I just had this urge to start my own business again. There is truly no better feeling than making your hours and calling all the shots. Since I had my daughter in 2006, I started shifting my focus toward holistic skin care, natural health, and healing. I realized that the medical side and chemical side of skin care just didn’t line up with my personal beliefs and values. I started researching natural skin care ingredients and alternatives to using chemicals, botox, etc. I became known as the “holistic esthetician” where I worked previously and everyone knew my passion for natural products.

I began to draw those clients to me who were interested in a more natural approach. I decided that personally. I want to age as naturally and gracefully as I can. I also decided that I wasn’t going to use or recommend products to my clients that I knew were toxic and could potentially be harmful to them. Starting Nicole Diamond Holistic Skin Care was like birthing another baby. I was so excited to find and offer the best luxurious natural skin care I could find. Over the last 25 years, I have worked with hundreds. of products and I have become incredibly picky and honestly hard to impress. I am constantly trying new lines and trying to fill gaps in my retail so that I have something for everyone. Sometimes I will order 1 of every product a line makes and there may be only 1 or 2 products I like. My rule is that if I don’t love something then neither will my clients.

I also really enjoyed customizing my service menu and creating my facials. My faith is a big part of my life and I wanted to be able to incorporate my spirituality into my treatments. My Custom Healing Facial is my most popular service. It is 90 minutes of pure pampering, where I create an experience that touches all 5 senses. At the end of the facial, I always pray over my clients silently. I pray for their marriages, their health, their children, their businesses, their protection. My goal is to leave them with a calm nervous system and a sense that they are loved and cared for. I give all of the glory to God. I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for His goodness and grace.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My road has not been smooth. Marriage, kids, health issues, life!!! I have always been a dreamer and an entrepreneur at heart. My husband helps keep me from starting every business that I dream of or ideas I want to pursue.

I am always dreaming and scheming but, he helps bring me back down to reality. I think it’s the creative curse, I’m good at starting and lousy at finishing. I have a million things I want to do but not enough time or energy to pursue them all.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Most estheticians use chemicals and promote Botox, fillers, peels, etc… I feel like I am very unique in that sense. I hand-pick every product with whole body health in mind. Your skin is the largest organ of the body, so what you put on it matters greatly. Also, botox is a neurotoxin and if it’s being injected into your face it is building up in your brain. I also do not shun the sun.

I think that the sun is good for us and you will always see me sporting a tan in the summer. My goal is not to burn because it’s sunburn that damages your skin, not just sun exposure. The sun is also the best way to get vitamin D. I wear SPF on my face, neck, and chest if I’m out for a walk, but I only wear physical SPF, not chemical. Chemical sunscreen has been linked to the rise in skin cancer. I specialize in brows. I think brow shaping and micro-blading come naturally to me because I am an artist.

I enjoy doing brows because they are an artistic outlet for me. I have also been asked by my clients over the years if I am a licensed massage therapist. I do a lot of massage in my treatments and I feel that I have a gift for it, a healing touch if you will. I enjoy getting massages and facials, that’s one way I train and learn new techniques. If a therapist does a move on me that I think feels good, I will sometimes incorporate it into my routine.

I share office space with a chiropractor, Dr. Jeannette Mucciolo at Back to Health Chiropractic Center. She has been my chiropractor for 18 years. I love being in her office because she is also very holistic-minded. We share a lot of the same clients that want a more holistic approach to their health and skincare.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
I don’t believe in luck. I do believe in favor of the Lord. I believe that God has blessed me with my business and given me the talents and gifts that I want to use for His glory.

I also believe that hard work is necessary for success. I am a perfectionist when it comes to my work, I want every service to be executed at the highest standard. There is no room for error and for I do not give 100% of myself to every client.

Pricing:

• Custom Healing Facial $250
• Mini Facial $150
• Brow Shaping $25
• Microblading $600 up
• Brow Henna with Shape $75

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @nicolediamondholisticskincare

Image Credits
Nathan Freitas Spa and Gipe Photography