Next Cohort Opens
September 8, 2026
Dermis Atelier · Est. 2019
Your Hands Will Know
Before Your Eyes Do.
A teaching atelier for career-changers, fresh graduates, and working mothers ready to learn skin the way pianists learn music — through repetition, pressure, and light.
87 graduates licensed · 94% placed within 60 days
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Fall Semester · Foundations
The Year Begins
in Theory.
Before your hands touch a client, they touch the page. Fall semester builds the vocabulary skin speaks — so you can listen.
The Career-Changer
You spent years in retail, nursing, or hospitality — hands always on, never quite right. You want the credential to match the calling.
Day & Evening cohorts available
The Graduate
You spent your teenage years perfecting routines on friends. Now you want the science behind the instinct and a license to practice.
Weekend Intensive cohorts available
The Working Mother
You book the evening cohort between bedtime and dawn. Dermis schedules around your life because your ambition doesn't pause.
Evening cohorts · Tue & Thu 6–10pm
Fall Curriculum Overview
- Weeks 1–3
Skin Histology & Fitzpatrick Typing
Reading the layers — epidermis, dermis, subcutis — as a map, not a diagram.
- Weeks 4–6
Ingredient Science
AHAs, BHAs, retinoids, peptides. What they do, what they undo, and why order matters.
- Weeks 7–9
Client Intake & Contraindications
The intake form is a conversation. Learn to hear what isn't written.
- Weeks 10–12
Anatomy of Touch
Pressure maps, lymphatic drainage, and the difference between a massage and a treatment.
Winter Semester · Practicum
The Lamp Angles.
The Work Begins.
Manual Extractions
3 weeksLancet technique, comedone pressure mapping, post-extraction barrier repair. No guesswork — only method.
Chemical Exfoliation
4 weeksMandelic, lactic, glycolic, TCA. pH titration, timing, and the exact moment to neutralize.
Enzyme Therapy
2 weeksPapain and bromelain applications, heat activation, and layering protocols for sensitive skin types.
LED & Device Work
3 weeksMicrocurrent, high-frequency, LED photobiomodulation. Each tool earns a protocol card you write yourself.
Every skill is assessed by a licensed esthetician before you advance.
Spring Semester · Clinic
Real Clients.
Real Skin.
Spring is when the theory earns its weight. You treat real clients under supervision — and they pay for the privilege of your growing hands.
Spring Clinic · Live Sessions
120+
Real client treatments per student
Minimum supervised hours before graduation
4.9
Average client rating
Across 1,200+ Spring Clinic reviews
$0
Client cost for clinic services
Clients pay a materials fee only — you learn free of commercial pressure
“I came from ten years in hospital nursing. The intake protocol at Dermis felt familiar — but the touch work opened something I didn't know I had. Six months after graduation I opened my own room.”
Priya Nair
Former RN · Now Licensed Esthetician, Oakland CA
“Evening cohort meant I was home by 10:30, kids never knew I was building something. Dermis doesn't ask you to choose between your family and your future.”
Tanisha Brooks
Working Mother · Evening Cohort Graduate, Chicago IL
“I enrolled three weeks after high school graduation. Everyone thought I was wasting time. My client waitlist is now six weeks long.”
Mei-Lin Chao
Recent Graduate · Weekend Intensive, San Francisco CA
Summer · Graduation
One Year Later,
Your Hands Remember Everything.
“The deposit was the easiest decision I ever made for myself.”
— Nia Okonkwo, Day Cohort 2024
94%
placed within 60 days of licensing
87
graduates licensed since 2019
3.2x
average salary increase vs. prior role
1 yr
to a full license, day cohort
Your cohort is forming now.
The deposit holds your seat. The rest — the anatomy, the pressure, the lamp angled just right — begins the morning you arrive.
Deposit is fully refundable up to 30 days before cohort start.