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 (BotoxÂŽ, XeominÂŽ, DysportÂŽ), dermal fillers, UltherapyÂŽ, 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, PennsylvaniaâŚthough 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, Jenâs 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 womenâs 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 â singing. She has lent her voice to performing in church, at weddings, and other special eventsâŚincluding 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 didnât lack the tenacity to forge a new path.
âIâve always just been the kind of person whoâs not afraid to try something new, even if that means failing at first,â she said. âAnd if I donât get it right the first time, Iâll do it again and make it better.â
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. Thatâs because of the âneedle-heavyâ focus thatâs ingrained through every facet of the specialty. Thereâs 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 â 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, itâs more than just addressing a patientâs outward concerns. Itâs also about diving deeper in many cases.
âI love my relationships with my patients,â Jen said. âThat gives me a sense of worth. I feel like Iâm not only treating the patients aesthetically but mentally as well sometimes.â
Her years of labor and delivery experience helped solidify her skills of making people feel comfortable in any given situation.
âListening to your clients is number one, so I think I build trust that way,â Jen said of her approach. âI donât have them just sit in the chair and tell them what I would do. I say, âTalk to me about whatâs been bothering you lately.â 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.â
Stories of happy clients abound throughout her career, but there are some individual cases that stick out in Jenâs mind to this day.
âI had a young patient who had a very gummy smile,â she said. âShe ended up in my chair bawling her eyes out saying she didnât 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.â
Itâs 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.
âWe as women often get labeled as moms, homemakers, nurses, or other things,â she said. âBut we donât belong to one category. Weâre 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 doesnât make you self-centered. I think it just means you care.â
And for this expert injector, she has big dreams for the ever-changing industry and her own offerings at Skin Esteem.
âIâm hoping the future of the industry is a more natural look and a more holistic approach to treating things from the inside out,â she said. âInjectables 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.â
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 1-833-377-SKIN (7546) today!