SKIN solutions

IIAA has undergone a full rebrand and launched its most ambitious project to date. Ellen Cummings spoke to managing director David Alpert to find out more

Last month saw IIAA launch its rebrand from the International Institute for Anti-Ageing to the International Institute for Active Ageing. Alongside this, IIAA revealed its latest project – Eventis, a concept created to help salons boost their business and keep clients engaged in their skin’s health. We spoke to managing director and co-founder David Alpert to find out more about IIAA’s journey and how Eventis can benefit beauty therapists.

What inspired IIAA’s rebrand?

“It hasn’t been an overnight decision – it’s something that’s been coming for a long time. More and more, you start to hear consumers move away from the term anti-ageing and I think that’s because we’re finding that people want to embrace ageing.

“Women, in particular, are feeling more empowered as they age, so they’re moving into a positive phase of their lives; a lot of the concerns that they may have had in earlier years melt away and they gain confidence, and they don’t want to be told that this is a bad process. So, it’s really about the prefix ‘anti’.

“At the IIAA we’ve always embraced ageing in a very positive sense but there’s no such thing as ageing gracefully, so one has to intervene to reverse the biomarkers of ageing by taking an active role.”

What does active ageing really mean?

“Ageing, whether physical or mental, is a use-it-or-lose-it principle. If we don’t use our muscles, they atrophy. If we don’t use our brain, we slow down enormously. This is what we mean, to some extent, by active ageing.

“When you look at the biomarkers of ageing, there’s a direction of travel for certain things. As you get older, skin loses elasticity, and it becomes thinner and more fragile as your collagen and elastin reduces. If we were to intervene actively, we’d want to reverse those biomarkers – so we’d want to see collagen, elastin and the thickness of the skin increase. We’d want to make healthier-functioning skin.

“For us at the Institute, that’s what we’re about. It’s about not looking at the hype but looking at the science and measuring outcomes so that we’re sure that what we’ve achieved is what we set out to do.

What’s the concept behind Eventis?

“Eventis has been about five years in the making and it’s an enormously exciting venture for us; I believe in many respects it will be a game changer for the industry.

“Software is changing the world, but in our industry, we haven’t seen a digital technological change that has made any difference to the industry yet. Eventis is an end-to-end business solution, and it’s a digital software change that I believe will have a major impact because it creates an entirely new channel to market.

“If you think of a traditional beauty therapist, you had your retail outlet which would historically make money from both retailing products and doing treatments. Then along came the internet, and of course the internet can’t provide physical treatments, but it can provide products, often at a lower cost – so now beauty therapists don’t make as much money through retail. A lot of clients go online to buy their products out of convenience or for the price, but they’re still going to therapists for treatments.

“Eventis sits between the two because it combines the convenience and pricing of an online business, and allows clients to follow a bespoke journey made in an online environment. They can have products delivered to their door, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“This keeps the therapist in the centre of that journey, because it’s all about the consultation, prescription and delivery of products. As a supplier, we make it simple for them because we supply the hardware free of charge, there’s only a monthly connection fee for the software, and we deliver the products for them. We take out all the hassle and free up the therapist to do what they do best, which is analyse skin and prescribe product.”

How does the technology work?

The skin scanner involved in Eventis

“We developed a first-class skin analysis machine which measures various parameters of the skin, including underlying pigmentation and inflammation, and the integrity of the skin, which is a way of understanding to what extent the barrier function of the skin is compromised.

“It’s the same technology they use in the International Space Station for monitoring the effects of space on the skin, so it empowers beauty professionals to do a very in-depth consultation.

“Through the software, the therapist can plan a journey for their client which potentially spans a number of years. Of course, people’s skin changes so we obviously want to invite clients back from time to time to modify their journey by taking another series of photographs which is fed through onto their app.

“The therapist has the hardware in salon, and it starts with a consultation. Thereafter, the client has their app, with the ability to order products when they run out, so it gives us the ability to communicate with clients to reinforce what the therapist has recommended.

When is Eventis launching into salons?

“The equipment is being manufactured by Sony and will start to roll off the production line early next year, so we envisage it will be around February. Sony take on very few external products to produce, and this is one that we’re fortunate enough that they looked at, liked and decided to produce in their factory.

“There will be a combination of formal training onsite at one of our training centres around the country, and informal ongoing support from our team of business development managers. There’s also customer support available if they have any issues, and I like to feel that our salons feel we’re there to support them as much as possible if they have any questions or concerns. Ultimately, it’s all about empowering those skincare professionals so that they are able to go out and really enjoy their work and make the changes to people’s skin.”