Today we’d like to introduce you to Vinny Ohh.
Hi Vinny, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m Vinny Ohh, internationally known gender non-conforming alien and esthetician. Based in Los Angeles, I’ve been working in esthetics for 12 years as a makeup artist, working with plastics surgeons and aesthetic nurses in some of LA’s top spas, and now owning my own facial suite, V.O. Aesthetics in Glendale, California.
As a teenager, I would sit in pharmacies and read through ingredient decks on products for fun and it eventually became an ABSOLUTE obsession to learn everything I could about skincare and makeup. I remember ordering off-market international chemical peels and French pharmacy products from third parties online back then. I graduated high school early and set out at 17 years old to LA to immerse myself in the queer community and culture here. I knew nothing about LA, no idea what Hollywood Blvd or Rodeo Dr were, I only knew that queers were thriving here so it’s where my heart needed to go and grow.
It truly was my ignorance to “American Hollywood Culture” that let me navigate LA differently that most people that move here. Taking my obsession with makeup and skincare with me, I dove into every niche beauty store, medspa, doctor’s office, and makeup corporate office that I could to learn and network. Mind you this is before influencers were a thing so people weren’t so jaded to educate/help me. HA! I would get Botox, facials, filler, buy products that ranges from a dollar to two thousand dollar face creams. My hunger to learn about skincare and beauty is insatiable.
I started doing makeup for weddings and prom when I was 15, I remember my dad driving me to the jobs. After I moved to LA at 17 I went to makeup school, then YEARS LATER to Esthetician school. I worked for makeup brands behind counters and opening stores in LA, and saw how makeup changed people’s aura, vibe, and mood and loved it! I started to see the makeup community get dark and influencer happy and got turned off by the fake LA “wanna be celebrity” of it all. I wanted to make an actual difference in people’s skin as time grew on. I left the makeup world to work in PR for plastic surgeons and finally using all my knowledge to guide people in procedures and skin care that actually would provide them with the look they wanted.
I loved every second of working with plastic surgeons and nurses. EVERY SECOND of seeing people glow from facials, chemical peels, injectables, and filler. So I buckled down and went back to school to get my esthetician license. It was time GET INTO CLINIC MYSELF. I wanted to be the service provider helping people, especially with the magnitude of product and ingredient knowledge I was and am constantly absorbing. Two women in my life Tiffany Webb and Ari Moghaddam convinced me and helped make a plan that in five years I would have my own spa/ work in a spa helping people more importantly trans and all queer-encompassing angels meet their skin needs.
After working in spas off and on due to the pandemic and after, I realized just how much I wish the skincare world catered to queer people. In aesthetics, we DESPERATELY need more service providers that cater to the LGBTQ community. I cannot stress that enough. There would be countless times I would go into a medspa or just a classic spa and know I was not welcome as a trans/very queer individual. EVERYONE DESERVES TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR SKIN THEIR IN. In light of my love for the LGBTQ community and the queer magic that has quite LITERALLY kept me alive, I opened my own facial suite., where I now get to cater to my trans sisters, brothers, they/thems, aliens, and queer elders meet their skin goals and make them feel AMAZING!
Truly though, 14 years old me in the pharmacy hallways reading through products, writing down ingredients to look up, wouldn’t believe that she would be looking up new products and new devices in her own business over a decade later. Thank you to all my clients I’ve seen over the years. From your support, I get to continue my knowledge and o that inner child that is still nerding out over the new ingredients to be approved by the FDA. Ha! Thank you.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. Nothing about my life and my career have been smooth sailing. When I was younger to this day being outwardly queer in my image has lost me so many opportunities and made working in aesthetics an uphill battle.
Being queer in this world IS STILL NOT ACCEPTABLE TO THE MAJORITY. I don’t give a f*ck what “accepting white gay microcosm” people think we live in. You step out of the “urban” areas of any state, your life is still at risk. Aesthetics in Los Angeles is still extraordinarily transphobic and homophobic. So spaces like V.O. Aesthetics are sacred to have and be able to provide for everyone.
I’ve had my life threatened too many times to count or recount to even attempt trauma Olympics. As for being in esthetics, I’ve had my resume thrown in trash cans in front of me to many times, spas tell me to give up if I can’t grow my eyebrows back, reality TV shows calling me insane and exploiting my business and my body. I mean I don’t know how personal I’m allowed to get, but being trans or nonbinary before social media became more inclusive was a differently world.
Work was just harder to come by and get. My heart got old and tired real quick of trying to prove my validity CONSTANTLY. Every time I had and have to reground, take my dog for a walk, remind myself that the SKY IS BLUE, the concrete is grey and be present. AND HIT THE GROUND RUNNING… Even if there was blood running down my legs, knees scraped or couldn’t afford food, we made it work. It’s queer magic. GET INTO IT. People that get it will get it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about V.O. Aesthetics?
V.O. Aesthetics is me. I am an LA-based Esthetician/Skin Therapist specializing in chemical peels and cater to all TRANS AND QUEER SKIN CARE NEEDS. Over a decade of my education and love is poured into V.O..
Whether it be skin that’s healing from facial surgery to laser hair removal inflammation to back acne caused from Hormone replacement therapy. I have a plan and a regimen for you and I am so excited to help you meet your skin goals!
I do everything from hydro microdermabrasion to light scar revision, to classic facials with GLORIOUS facial massages, to CHEMICAL PEELS!
I am most proud to be a trans/non-conforming esthetician that is here to help serve and teach anyone my knowledge on all things skin.
How do you define success?
What is success? I AM HER.
SHE IS ME.
Success is getting you to your skin goals. Not you feeling like you need an Instagram filter every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vagaro.com/voaesthetics
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/v.o.aesthetics/
