The Break-Up Diet - How to Feel Like the Hottest Girl in the Room ft. Olivia Ebba

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

This week I'm joined by the amazing Olivia Ebba, an aesthetics nurse and skincare expert, for a conversation that every girl needs to hear.If you've ever thought, "Maybe I'll feel more confident if I just fix this one thing..." then this episode is for you.We get into everything from Botox, fillers, skincare, SPF, microneedling, red light therapy, chemical peels and salmon sperm facials (yes, really 😭) to the treatments that are actually worth your money... but we also talk about something so much bigger.Because you're not chasing beauty, you're chasing confidence.We chat about:🤍 How to become the best version of you instead of looking like everyone else💉 The truth about Botox, filler, skin boosters & when (or if) you should get them✨ The skincare products and treatments Olivia actually recommends💸 The beauty trends that aren't worth your money👀 How to choose an injector you can actually trust💖 Why the hottest girls aren't the ones chasing perfectionWhether you're obsessed with skincare, thinking about your first treatment, or just trying to feel more confident in your own skin, this episode is packed with honest advice that'll hopefully save you money, time... and maybe even a few insecurities.I loved this conversation, and I have a feeling it's going to change the way you think about beauty. 💋 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would you do for somebody that came in and they're like, I want to look like this girl, but really didn't? Because I feel like that must happen, especially when you're younger, it must be like, oh, I want to look like Haley Bieber. How do you, in like a nice way, basically be like you don't look like them? We can't do that. When I feel like someone wants to have something like facial balancing done, which is when I am using fillers to adjust proportions in their face, I will always ask, what do you like about your face? And then I like to tailor the treatment protocol around enhancing those features. And I think that when they do that, they will then feel better about themselves. And I think often it's not that people want to look like that specific person.

It's that they don't feel good about how they look and they want to look better. So when you make them look like the best version of themselves, they focus less on what other people look like. Buckle up, bitches. is going to get bumpy. This is the breakup diet. Welcome back to another episode of the breakup diet. Olivia Eber on. So welcome.

Thank you. So before we get into the episode and what we're going to talk about because we're going to talk about like glow-ups, what you should be doing with your skincare to feel like your best. Let's start with who you are, why you got into doing aesthetics,

all of it. I want to hear it all. I am an independent nurse prescriber. So I went on to do my nursing degree, which I did at Kings, and then later on I did a prescribing course so that I can work independently, because if you're not a prescriber, you have to work with someone who is to get Botox, basically, and any other prescription-grade skincare has to be done through them. So I just decided to do that on my own so that I could work independently with my patients. And how long have you been doing it independently?

Did you have to, like, assist somebody else before you did it? Yeah, so I was assisting one of the residents. aesthetic doctors in Harrods from even before when I started my nursing degree. And she taught me everything that I know about aesthetics. Her name's Dr. Malwa. She's amazing. So I was working with her for four years, I think. And she trained me up. And then all throughout my nursing degree afterwards, I then went on to work in plastic surgery as a nurse whilst I was doing my prescribing degree. But then all throughout from when I started working in the hospital, I started slowly, slowly building my practice independently. So I think it's been three and a half years now

that I've been seeing patients on my own, which I've loved. And then a year ago, I stopped working in the hospital and I'm just doing this full time now. Is it scary to take the jump to do your own thing? Like, so scary. Because the income is not set. In aesthetics, it fluctuates so much. Like there are periods of time when people are really wanting to look really good. So before summer gets really busy for me. And then a around Christmas, New Year's really busy, but there are months of the year, like the summer months, are super quiet, which I'm not complaining about because... You can go on holiday.

Exactly. But because it's not certain you're not getting like a fixed income, that obviously is quite scary. But I think it's a move that you have to make before you're ready. And how come you decided to get into it? I actually remember having the conversation I had with my friend when I decided like, that's exactly what I want to do. And I think it's because in the UK, really ridiculously early on, you sort of have to have an idea of what you might want to do at university. And I was so torn

between going down a more creative route and doing art or going down the medical route. And my friend said, why don't you like be a plastic surgeon or something? Because that's, you know, the intersection of art and science. And you have to have a creative eye to do that. and it just clicked in my mind and I thought that's exactly what I want to do. And then obviously since then that evolved. I decided not to go down that route specifically. But yeah, at that moment I just decided 100% that's the sort of thing I want to do. I want to be able to like hone medical skills and have good clinical biological knowledge,

but also be able to use my creative eye. With Botox, there's a lot of like things that go on like how soon should you be getting it done if you should be waiting a long time in between. Because I actually started really early because I'm very expressive in my face, like in my eyebrows. I probably got my first Botox when I was like 19 on my forehead. Because I had like a line up here and I hated it. So like I was like, get rid of it.

There's like a lot of people say that you should wait at longer periods because you have to let it come back. Is that true? It's difficult to answer because there's no such correct age for someone to start having Botox. Like you said, if that was a line on your forehead that bothered you and you were in a position of thinking, I don't want to have wrinkles and lines on my forehead. Even though that's so young, that was probably the right time for you to do that.

I always say to people, if you have static lines, which are lines that are there when you're not moving, and you don't want those, that's when you start having Botox done. but someone who has static lines between their eyebrows but not on their forehead doesn't need to be having full upper face Botox every time they're going in. It's just not necessary. But also Botox can be used for lifting,

for symmetry, for other things that might bother you that are not just lines. And once you start getting it done, does it wear off faster? Technically, yes. Like the first time you have Botox on, it will probably last the longest time. But I think there's a lot of scaremongering about

Botox resistance. And there's actually studies that show it's less than 1% of the population who have true resistance to Botox when they start getting treated with it. I don't think it's so much about thinking I can't have Botox consistently. It's more so about timing it correctly. also when you think about what Botox is doing, it's working on muscles and you're weakening the muscle. If we train that muscle group to not be as active, you're going to be able to have more time in between treatments than if you're waiting a year to have it done. It's not going to be as effective in most cases. Because that was a question I had because if you start getting it in your armpits, obviously that's a lot more than you would have in your forehead. So then I was like, but your body probably doesn't realize.

So then since I've had it once my armpits, then am I going to have to get it loads and loads more in my face? Anytime you're using higher doses of Botox, that's a risk factor for resistance. However, like I said, people have so much Botox just about timing these things correctly and not overdoing it. And I have one more question about Botox in the now. I promise we'll move on from Botox. If you get it, for example, in your armpers, is it normal that you then? sweat on your face more. When people say that to me, I can make sense of it because, you know, you're sweating to detox. That's partly why we swear. So if you need to detox, it's going to come out

through something. So I don't, yeah, although they tell you no, a lot of people experience that, and that's the only way I can really make sense of it. I think it does make sense. What other treatments do in your clinic? All injectable and skin treatments. Dermal fillers. Botox, skin boosters, microneedling, skin peels. And then I will do people's skincare routines with prescription grade skincare. I think it's really important and I like how aesthetics is moving towards being more natural and holistic. I'd love to start, you know, doing people's blood work, sending that off for analysis and then tailoring a plan that works from the inside out. I'm super into. Isn't it called like biohacking or something now? Yeah. Regenerative medicine.

All of this is so interesting to me. And it all works hand in hand. So I think it's really important for people to look at everything that they're doing if they want to be looking their best. Not just like the topical kind of stuff. Exactly. Yeah. Doing everything from the inside out, which is amazing because obviously you are a reflection of it, aren't you? So with like skincare, I'm not going to lie, I'm so bad with everything. Like I do what I see maybe on TikTok. I might be like, okay, I should get that. So I get that. But what should the girls be doing?

I want to know, like, actually, what is maybe three products or three, like, ingredients that you should be using every day? You're not allowed to advertise the use of any prescription-grade skincare because it's against advertising standards. And those are the things, like when you ask, what three things should girls be using? those. Tritanoin is like the highest, it's like the higher of retinal, right? So when you're using Tratineau, you're just applying the active straight onto the skin. Okay, so it's a lot more like

potent. Okay, I was like, I was looking for the word. I got it. Yeah. But my like number one, number one thing, if you're not doing this already is SPF every single day. Yep. Do you do that? I try to. You do? I do. I do. I do try to. I do try to. But, Yeah, I do try to. I've got better over the last, like, year. Yeah. Sometimes I forget, but I know I shouldn't, but sometimes I do. I know because UV contributes, there are studies that show it contributes to up to 90% of your skin's aging. I want to go into the treatments and like, so say someone's like wanting to feel a bit better about themselves. What's something like a go-to treatment that you are like, this will help.

Maybe not straight away. Like it can have some downtime, but that might in a few weeks be like you'll feel glowy and good. There's so many different options and I think this needs to be tailored to each individual. So if a 22 year old girl came to me who had really bad acne scarring, if she said to me what one treatment should I have done, that would be a totally different answer to, let's say a 45 year old woman comes to me who's worried about volume loss and they'd have two different treatment plans and protocols. So what if it's like a 26 year old girl? Yeah.

who feels like their skin is not lump. If someone's very nervous, hasn't had treatment before and says that to me, and they feel like they have lax skin, something like Profilo, which is just injectable, non-cross-linked hylronic acid, that should bring hydration to the surface of the skin and give you tightness lifting. It's very minimal downtime. It's not very too invasive. That's great.

That's one option. Another thing would be energy-based devices. So some sort of radio frequency microneedling or ultrasound like hafoo or a soft wave under for the face. There's so many different options that people have. So I guess it just depends on budget, how quickly you want to see results and what's available to you wherever you are. I think it's so important that people are using mineral SBFs, not chemical SBFs.

I do do that. I love that. That's so good. My friend helped me that. Because especially as women, the chemical SBF filters have a lot of forever chemicals in. They can be found in your blood. They can be found in breast milk, even in like marine ecosystems. And I say women, obviously it's important for men too, but because our hormonal systems

are so delicate and they can really impact our hormones, which I think already so many things that we do in today's world are so disrupting for our hormonal cycles. So I'm really a big advocate for mineral SBF. Okay, mineral SPF, what is that? Like, what's the difference with the mineral that is more natural? So a chemical SBF is using chemicals to block UV penetration. And mineral is literally just a physical barrier to the UV penetration. So it's sitting on top of your skin. It's not being absorbed. And it's just making it so the UV is not penetrating. as much. With other products that somebody should do, if we keep it really simple, like, just to do on the day-to-day as like a normal skincare routine, what would you suggest? A cleanser,

if you can double cleanse, then yeah, an acid. So AHA, BHA toners, for example, on dry skin, I would say invest in a very good SBA and then there's two more, which would be to use a really good serum like vitamin C and a vitamin A of whatever kind. So that can be retinal, tritanoin, any of that branch of skincare, depending on how old you are and your concerns and how your skin is already. Because isn't it when you first start using those sorts of products, don't you have to build up to it if they're like a prescribed one? Because you can sometimes, I remember when the first, when I had bad acne, they prescribed

a reticineineine. And I feel like it made my skin like peel peel. So that's a good and bad thing. Definitely you need to work your way up. I would never suggest someone starts using any sort of retinoid straight away every single day. That's going to destroy your skin barrier. But I think a lot of people stop using something like tritone because they purge and their skin is peeling a lot. And really that just means, unless it's really compromising your skin barrier, that it's working

because we're trying to increase cellular turnover in your skin to get new skin cells to the surface faster. So really that's just showing it is doing that. And if you're purging, it just means that in most cases, whatever was sitting deep underneath your skin, like a breakout that was going to come, it's just coming faster because you're increasing cellular turnover. So I think a mistake a lot of people make with skincare is on average for someone in our age range, your cell cycle of your skin cells is 28 days. You should be using a product for at least two skin cycles to actually be able to judge if that is working or not. That's actually interesting to know that you have to use it for six weeks. Yeah.

Yeah. And as you get older, that slows down. So you'd have to use it for even longer. You know, like when you were young and you'd get like a break. out and you'd never scar it would heal super quickly and then as you get older you I don't know for me at least I can see I'll always have like a scar for at least a few weeks yeah I've never thought about that but I literally have that right now on the side here and I was like I didn't know what that was it's just because our cellular turnover is decreasing as we get older another one that's a massive

hype that I want to ask you about red light like the mask do they actually work because I've done it in like a clinic in Australia. It felt so much stronger. But then when I do them here, I don't, I just don't feel like they work when I have my at-home one. There's so much evidence building on how red light is really super effective. I love it. But like you said, you're right.

So when you use it in clinic, it's really strong. Probably see immediately you're feeling glowing. It helps with redness, inflammation in your skin quite quickly. with the at-home masks. I'm a big advocate. I love them. But they're only really going to work if you're using them consistently.

If you're using it once in a while. There's no point almost. Yeah, almost. I hate to say that, but it's true. Yeah. With something like that, so maybe like microneedling, how many sessions you normally have to do

for actually to see results? I've done microneedling a few times, but I never see the difference that much. That's why I'm like, does it work? Micrneedling. I'm like my favorite thing. Microneedling really, really, really works. Quite a big study done on microneedling

that shows that having four sessions of microneedling spaced four to six weeks apart increases collagen production by 400%. Micronedling is like the bread and butter one of the most researched and evidence-based practices that you can do. But like you said, it's consistency. And with something like microneedling,

you're not leaving and seeing the results from that straight away. You probably will feel tight, but the actual results of collagen production you're not going to see it for about a month. And then, yeah, you need to probably do about four when you start having it done to really see results. And then is that something that you'd have to do like yearly, though, to keep it up?

After we turn 25, our collagen production starts tanking and anything you can do like micrneedling, you're just banking more and more, more collagen. And yeah, the old you get, the more you're going to have to do to be able to see results. But it really is so, so, so effective. Okay, so shit, I need to be doing my hair needling. I'm 26. You look amazing.

I want to ask you about treatment stacking. So treatment stacking is the approach that I use with all my patients. And it's when you are using multiple treatments, working at all the different layers of your face. to get results which are more cohesive and target all concerns. Because obviously the deepest layer is our bone. So we're targeting bone with thicker fillers to create structure, balance, harmony, symmetry in the face. Then we have deep fat compartments. They can also be treated with filler.

Then on top of that we have our muscles, which we target with Botox. then we have our superficial fat and our skin on top, which are targeted with skin boosters and topical skincare things like microneedling. So if you're targeting all of these layers, you're really going to have a result that stands out. Okay. And for treatments now, like, is there anything that you think shouldn't be a hype? I do not like skincare trends. Obviously there's a place, you know, when there's an amazing product that comes out, people are naturally going to gravitate that talk about it a lot, but jumping on skincare trends, like Korean skincare and treatments, which are phenomenal. And then there's people using that and brands using, like jumping on

the trend of that to promote their products. I don't like that. When it comes to skincare, the best thing you can do is to have a personalized skincare routine built for you, not to follow trends. Everyone's skin's completely different, all trying to achieve different. Different things and yeah sometimes just like basic skincare is going to get you the furthest doing stuff where you're constantly chopping and changing what you're using in your skincare routine is just not useful yeah because that's actually something that I think a few years ago was like a bit of a thing too whether you should be using different active products on different days to like get a little bit of a like cocktail like on your skin but you think it's better to almost be consistent with a few

say and then do it that way instead. Yeah, like I use three actives and I cycle between them and I'm not using them every day. I probably use tritanone now three times a week. I'll use azaleic acid if I see that my skin needs it and then I'll use an acid-based toner again, probably three days a week and that's it. Then the rest is gentle, calming, nourishing, hydrating, skincare and all of that stuff has been around for so long. I heard the salmon sperm. Apparently, the molecules are too big when you microneedle and then put them in that way. And you're only,

they only get absorbed properly if you like inject it. Is that true or false? There are so many brands that make polynucleotides, which is the salmon sperm DNA. I tend to not actually microneedle them into the skin. I do use a product when I microneedle that specifically made for microneedling. So the particle size would be small enough that it would be able to deliver because it's intended for that purpose. But for sure, there are products that that wouldn't be appropriate for. So it's all about product selection. Okay, fair. Again, for somebody that is wanting to have a bit of a glow up and like maybe they're feeling a bit like dull would you so your top tip would be to go to somebody like yourself or go to you know what I mean like how what would you do you had no idea what to

do yeah so you need to go to someone who you know you can trust someone who will be able to make a treatment plan for you based on your concerns something which I love to start with when someone comes to me and has never done anything before and they just want an instant glow is something like a chemical peel because that's just going to remove the dullness, texture on the surface of your skin and reveal your glowing baby fresh skin underneath like you've been the healthiest, best version of yourself. And I think that's such a nice thing to start with when you haven't had a treatment done. Also, so you can understand the aftercare and process of having treatments done. It's good to get someone to do something like that and then see a chemical

I'm glowing, then I'm peeling, and then I'm glowing again. And it's very minimal, it's not invasive, it's not too painful, and is beneficial for everyone. For example, if I did one tomorrow, do I have to wait like a long time to then be able to do another peel most of the time. Yeah, I would say, like a general rule of thumb is probably a month between them. It just depends obviously on different ones that going to be stronger than others, I guess. Exactly. Is it true that fillers move around your face?

because why do you also see sometimes people with like pillow face? So the reason why we see people having pillow face is because they're having too much filler and they're having the wrong products, they're injecting at the wrong plane, and just nothing is done right. No one needs to have a pillow face at all. Now when it comes to filler moving, the answer is yes and no. if you're choosing a filler which is correct for the injection depth that it's being injected on, technically it shouldn't be moving. And if you're doing the correct amount of filler in that area,

it shouldn't move. But I think we see that happen a lot in areas like the mouth because it's so mobile. And also under the eyes, that's quite common and can be either because of incorrect injection, technique or product choice or placement or also just because our skin under the eyes is so delicate that it's not very forgiving. But no, short answer, no, it shouldn't be moving around. It's possible even if someone does everything right for it to happen more so under the eyes and in the lips

but other than that, not really. Does your body like absorb filler then? Because how come people have to keep, I haven't had filler but how come people have to keep getting for example, lips redone? Because it's metabolized. Okay, so it's kind of like Botoxin, like you wears off. Your body's, it's not wearing off, it's being slowly, slowly broken down.

Broken down by your body and just metabolize through your system. So people don't need to be coming back to have filler done all the time. You know, obviously in lips, for example, we're in most cases using quite thin fillers, which are metabolized more quickly than let's say if we're trying to give someone sheetbone definition and we're injecting a thicker product onto a bone. But when you've had it done once, it will last the shortest amount of time. It's kind of the opposite of Votox. Exactly.

In the UK, like, there are a lot of people that aren't actual, like, nurses or, you know, have the, like, background of doing that. They've just done a course. What's something somebody can look out for when they're picking a professional like yourself? There are people who don't have medical qualifications who have been doing it for decades, and they obviously are qualified. So I'm not slating people doing that. But as a general rule of thumb, someone who has a medical background, number one, takes out such a big chunk of risk.

And how do you check that? Just like on their website it would say 100%. If you are a medical professional, you're going to preface that. If it's not obvious that that's what they are, it's because they're not. So yeah, that they have medical qualifications that they have before and after pictures, because a lot of people don't, which to me is a red flag. Someone that when you meet them will say no to you. I have patients come to me all. the time saying, I want this and I am turning people down because people will benefit from saying yes to everything a patient says. Obviously, it's sales. But at the end of the day, not everything someone thinks that they want is appropriate for them. Something that looks great on this person might look terrible on this person or they just might not be in a place where their skin or face is ready for that.

It might actually do more harm than good. At the end of the day, also, like at the very start we said, It's kind of like an art form. Your work after on people that people are going to see is that represents you. So you obviously are turning away people because you don't want, number one, if you don't think that they need it, but also that is a showcase of your work. Another obviously massive red flag, but I think for some reason people don't necessarily clock it is people who do injectable treatments that look extremely overdone. If you don't think your aesthetics practitioner is a representative,

of how you might want to look, and I don't mean to look like them, but you know, you like the style of way in which they look. That's a good thing. If you're like, I would never want to look anything like that, that's not the right fit for you. What would you do for somebody if they were very, like, not confident and, like, didn't have that much? Would you turn them down? I can think about myself. When I was younger, like, even younger than 19, but like probably 16. If I went in somewhere, I would have been bad. Have you ever been in a situation where you've had to say, like, I don't think we should do this? Oh, gosh. And where that stems from, I think is, do you remember a few years ago when there was, when filler really became a thing in the era of, like,

Kylie Jenner and her lip filler, which I loved that era because that's really what got me, like, excited about all this stuff. So no shade. But there was a thing. where then clinics were running with that and making like the Kylie Jenner 7 Mills filler package. I think that's where this problem stems from, not from the Queen Kylie Jenner, but from the clinics that, you know, use that,

which is just so wrong. Like there shouldn't be a cookie cutter approach to someone's face. Everyone is unique. That's what makes us all beautiful. But I think unfortunately social media has made it so that young girls who are particularly impressionable, think that they need high cheekbones,

sharp jawline, big lips, small nose, be beautiful and that's so not the case. Like if you look at some of the most beautiful people in the world, they all look different, and they all have unique beauty, which is what makes them stand out. And I love that people are now noticing that, and wanting to look like themselves,

and wanting to look naturally beautiful, which is something that I do notice when you treat people, and they do start to feel better about themselves, that develops then. So it is sad when people come in and do that, but I also think there's a way to turn it around for them. That is great. And what's been your proudest moment?

One that I can think of is there's a company who I trained with called Amila and they produce polynucleotides and exosomes. I love Amila products. And they create coffee table books, which show before and afters of a lot of practitioners that they like. and I was included in it once, the year that I did the training with them, amongst like a lot of people who I trained with, not on the training day, but people who taught me, people who were my mentors and things, which I thought was so cool. And then last year, they asked me to be in it again,

which made me feel good because I hadn't trained with them for a while. So I was like, okay, this is not because I just trained with you and so I'm fresh in your mind. It's because you remembered me and I felt so honored to be like amongst a lot of the surgeons that I worked with a lot of the doctors that trained me who I paid and went on training courses with or you know doctor Marwa who I worked with for many years like to be included amongst that even though it's so minor to me just made me feel like oh like I can I aspire to be like these people and I can be that's so amazing well done you and keep killing it thank you so much thank you thank you