Two literacies. One practice.
The discipline brings the clientele. The cabinet — the four instruments at the centre of any contemporary practice — is what allows the practitioner to stay in business with them. The Master and Elite programmes train each.
The discipline and the cabinet, taught together.
A practitioner trained only in the discipline graduates able to keep a chair full. A practitioner trained only on the instruments graduates able to run a clinic that does not know what it is doing. The Maison curriculum refuses the choice. We teach both, in the order in which the discipline asks for them.
The cabinet — what an earlier generation of European practitioners called le cabinet, the working room and its instruments — has, in the past fifteen years, become as central to the modern practice as the facial protocols themselves. We treat the cabinet with the same seriousness.
What follows is the four instruments we teach, what each is for, and where in the curriculum the practitioner learns to operate it.
Hydrafacial-class systems
Hydradermabrasion
The instrument behind the modern signature treatment. Patient throughput begins here.
Hydradermabrasion has, in fifteen years, moved from a curiosity to the workhorse of the contemporary cabinet. The device is not, by itself, a treatment. It is a delivery system for the protocols the practitioner brings to it.
The Maison curriculum treats the system as it should be treated — as a serious instrument that rewards an unhurried hand and punishes the careless one. The protocols come from the discipline; the device is what carries them.
Foundation introduces the modality conceptually. Master includes thirty supervised hours on the calibrated device, cleansing and tip protocols, contraindications, and a written exam on serum pharmacology.
IPL & laser platforms
Lumière pulsée intense
The most regulated instrument in the room, and the most consequential to operate well.
Intense pulsed light and laser platforms are the instruments that distinguish a clinical practice from a cosmetic one. They are also the instruments that, operated without discipline, do the most harm. The Maison position is unambiguous: a practitioner does not operate one of these systems until she has read the physics of it, observed its use under supervision for forty hours, and passed a calibration assessment.
We teach IPL and 1064 / 532 nm long-pulsed laser. We do not teach ablative resurfacing — that is a medical procedure and the practitioner who undertakes it requires medical credentialing the academy is not in the business of conferring.
Master includes the regulatory frame, the physics, and forty supervised hours across two platforms. Elite candidates pursuing clinical-leadership tracks complete an additional residency under a partner medical director.
Radiofrequency skin tightening
Radiofréquence
The instrument that has changed what an aesthetician can responsibly offer in the second half of a client's life.
Monopolar and bipolar RF have, in the last decade, turned a category of treatment that once required surgery into a category of treatment that requires patience. The instrument is forgiving; the protocol is not. The single most common error in unsupervised RF practice is under-titration of energy across the visit, producing a result that disappoints the client and obscures the modality's actual value.
We teach RF as a longitudinal modality — a treatment whose value is read across a series, not within a single visit. Practitioners learn to set expectations, to document, and to refuse the visit that exceeds the safe envelope.
Master includes twenty supervised hours and a written treatment plan for a representative case series of six.
LED phototherapy
Photothérapie LED
The instrument the contemporary cabinet most often uses badly. Paired correctly, it is the connective tissue of the practice.
LED phototherapy is the instrument the contemporary cabinet most often uses badly. Operated as a stand-alone treatment, it is — frankly — underwhelming. Operated as the closing fifteen minutes of a Hydrafacial visit, or the recovery phase of an RF series, it transforms what the client takes home from the appointment.
The Maison curriculum treats LED as the connective tissue of the practice rather than as a treatment in itself. We teach the wavelengths, the dosimetry, and — most importantly — when not to use it.
Foundation includes eight hours of LED dosimetry and protocol pairing. Master and Elite extend this into the clinical decision-tree for combination treatments.
Equipping the practice, when the time comes.
The Master and Elite programmes include a working module on equipping a practice — lease versus own, the resale market, and the eight clauses of an equipment contract that practitioners most commonly sign without reading. The point is to give the graduate the literacy to judge, not the temptation to hurry.
We hold no vendor placement arrangement and accept no referral fee from any manufacturer. The reading list is independent. We will, on request, introduce graduates to the buying group of alumni practitioners who negotiate together.
The four instruments, and where they are taught.
| Instrument | Used for |
|---|---|
Hydrafacial-class systems Hydradermabrasion | The instrument behind the modern signature treatment. Patient throughput begins here. |
IPL & laser platforms Lumière pulsée intense | The most regulated instrument in the room, and the most consequential to operate well. |
Radiofrequency skin tightening Radiofréquence | The instrument that has changed what an aesthetician can responsibly offer in the second half of a client's life. |
LED phototherapy Photothérapie LED | The instrument the contemporary cabinet most often uses badly. Paired correctly, it is the connective tissue of the practice. |
The discipline and the cabinet, together.
The Master programme trains all four instruments. Elite extends the training into clinical-leadership and the buying group.