Jennifer Bleser,
RN, BSN, MSN, ARNP, CRNA
Advanced Practice Nurse Jennifer Bleser (aka Injector Jen) is one of those caring souls who just has an innate desire to help improve the lives of others. Her more than 20-year nursing career in the Northern Kentucky area is certainly evidence of that. Now, as the proprietor of Skin Esteem LLC in Newport, Jen maintains that credo by providing a host of medical aesthetic treatments that are changing lives one confident client at a time, including neurotoxins (Botox®, Xeomin®, Dysport®), dermal fillers, Ultherapy®, PDO threads, microneedling, chemical peels, hair restoration, and more.
Long before becoming a whiz at all these sought-after treatments, Jen was born and raised in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania…though she had an impressionable childhood stint living in Brussels, Belgium from grades 3 through 5. That was thanks to her father, a nuclear engineer, overseeing the initial operations of a new power plant in Brussels. The experience across the pond afforded Jen the opportunity to travel a lot at a young age, including visits to Austria, Spain, Ireland, and Scotland, among other places.
After moving back to Pittsburg following that adventure, Jen’s ingrained competitive side quickly turned into heavy involvement in basketball, volleyball, and softball throughout the remainder of her academic years.
In fact, during her sophomore year at college, Jen played basketball under Suzie McConnell, a former Olympian and University of Pittsburg head women’s basketball coach. After that momentous experience, she then moved south with her family and transferred to University of Northern Kentucky her junior year. It was then that Jen began pursuing another passion – singing. She has lent her voice to performing in church, at weddings, and other special events…including making it through the first round of American Idol.
Though she was majoring in music and theater at the time, her ever-present caring spirit eventually nudged her to start a new trajectory in nursing. And she certainly didn’t lack the tenacity to forge a new path.
“I’ve always just been the kind of person who’s not afraid to try something new, even if that means failing at first,” she said. “And if I don’t get it right the first time, I’ll do it again and make it better.”
After obtaining her nursing degree from NKU, Jen began her career as a labor and delivery nurse, a position she enjoyed for nearly a decade. During that time, she became a mother herself.
As is common with life, a change in priorities eventually led Jen to set her sights on expanding her nursing career. So, she earned her Masters in Anesthesia from Texas Wesleyan University while doing her clinicals at home in Northern Kentucky. To this day, she credits the skillset she learned in anesthesia to her becoming a better injector overall. That’s because of the “needle-heavy” focus that’s ingrained through every facet of the specialty. There’s a precise art to injecting the right way, and Jen quickly and effortlessly mastered it.
After several years practicing in anesthesia, Jen again found herself needing more out of her career – and her love for aesthetics became the frontrunner in a new business plan. In the beginning, she was injecting in an 8×8 room in a salon and only ordering the precise amount of product needed each week. But Jen was excited about the opportunity to help people in this new venture, and her footprint quickly grew as word of mouth got out about her abilities.
With the subsequent creation of her website and popular social media presence (not to mention a bigger location), Skin Esteem was born. As the name suggests, it’s more than just addressing a patient’s outward concerns. It’s also about diving deeper in many cases.
“I love my relationships with my patients,” Jen said. “That gives me a sense of worth. I feel like I’m not only treating the patients aesthetically but mentally as well sometimes.”
Her years of labor and delivery experience helped solidify her skills of making people feel comfortable in any given situation.
“Listening to your clients is number one, so I think I build trust that way,” Jen said of her approach. “I don’t have them just sit in the chair and tell them what I would do. I say, ‘Talk to me about what’s been bothering you lately.’ Sometimes those are non-aesthetic things. But making that time and building a rapport with them is very important. Also following up with the client is an important piece of the puzzle in their satisfaction and retention.”
Stories of happy clients abound throughout her career, but there are some individual cases that stick out in Jen’s mind to this day.
“I had a young patient who had a very gummy smile,” she said. “She ended up in my chair bawling her eyes out saying she didn’t want to have surgery. A surgeon she had consulted with told her that was the only way to help her. I told her that we can just give her a little toxin and treat her gummy smile. She called me two weeks later, again bawling, saying how I changed her life forever. Her confidence is through the roof, and she can smile as big as she wants now.”
It’s outcomes like that that continue to drive Jen in her pursuit of bettering lives through aesthetics. And she wants to remove any stigma that may be associated with practicing a little self-love from time to time.
“We as women often get labeled as moms, homemakers, nurses, or other things,” she said. “But we don’t belong to one category. We’re all these things and more, and we want to feel beautiful. So, if a little bit of toxin or filler makes you feel more beautiful, then you should do that. And we also have a lot of male clients, too. People are caring more about their appearance. It doesn’t make you self-centered. I think it just means you care.”
And for this expert injector, she has big dreams for the ever-changing industry and her own offerings at Skin Esteem.
“I’m hoping the future of the industry is a more natural look and a more holistic approach to treating things from the inside out,” she said. “Injectables are the icing on the cake. My vision for Skin Esteem is to have a gamut of treatments to tackle recovery, aches and pains, hormone and IV therapy, as well as injectables.”
In her spare time, Jen can be found boating on the lake or cheering on her children in their various sporting events and other endeavors. Golfing with her husband Ben is another favorite, as well as skiing (which she learned to do as a child in the Austrian Alps of all places).
To book an appointment with Injector Jen, call Skin Esteem at (859) 287-4777 today!
