Classic
Esthetics.
Back to Our Roots.
Back to our roots. A Skin Category celebrating foundational esthetic skill, ingredient intelligence, and visible transformation without devices or tools. In an era where devices, machines, and advanced technology often dominate the treatment room, this category brings esthetics back to its purest and most respected form. Classic Esthetics is designed to showcase the esthetician’s most advanced tools: clinical thinking, ingredient intelligence, touch, technique, consistency, skin science, and transformational protocol design.
Pure Skill.
Proven Results.
For eight weeks, licensed estheticians and skin therapists will develop and implement a fully customized corrective treatment protocol using only their hand skills and professional skincare products.
No devices. No machines. No treatment tools. No shortcuts.
Only the esthetician’s ability to assess the skin, understand the condition, choose the correct ingredients, pivot intelligently week to week, and create visible change through protocol precision.
This is the category that declares to the industry: True mastery is defined by the professional behind the protocol.
What This Category
Rewards.
Classic Esthetics exists to honor the roots of the beauty profession by celebrating the knowledge, discipline, and artistry that no machine can replicate.
Advanced Skin Analysis
The ability to assess, read, and understand the skin at a clinical level, identifying conditions, contraindications, and treatment priorities without the aid of technology.
Ingredient Mastery
Selecting the right active ingredients for the right skin condition, in the right order, at the right concentration, and being able to justify every choice.
Skin Science Knowledge
Deep understanding of how the skin functions, how it responds to treatment, and how to apply evidence-based science to real client outcomes.
Customized Protocol Design
Building a bespoke 8-week treatment plan from scratch, not following a template, but authoring a protocol that responds to a specific client’s skin condition.
Weekly Adjustment
Adapting the protocol week by week based on real skin response, demonstrating the clinical flexibility and decision-making that separates great estheticians from average ones.
Documentation
Recording the entire journey with precision; photos, written notes, video diaries, and homecare strategy so the transformation is fully visible and verifiable.
Homecare Strategy
Prescribing an evidence-based homecare routine that complements the in-clinic protocol entirely product-based, hands-only, with no devices or tools at home either.
Visible Transformation
Delivering measurable, visible skin improvement over 8 weeks, achieved entirely through the esthetician’s hands, products, and protocol. The results speak for themselves.
True Esthetic Touch
The tactile skill, muscle memory, and technique that only comes with practice . The intangible quality that makes a treatment feel exceptional and produce exceptional results.
What Players
May & May Not Use.
This category has a precise and non-negotiable definition of what constitutes a classic esthetic treatment. Read carefully.
Players May Use
- Their hands
- Professional skincare products
- Cotton, gauze, cotton buds, or 4×4s for product application and removal
- A magnifying lamp for skin analysis and extractions only
- Disposable gloves when appropriate or required
- Warm towels and compresses
Players May Not Use
- LED devices or panels
- Microcurrent
- Radiofrequency
- Ultrasound
- High frequency
- Nanochanneling or microneedling/channeling devices
- Any technology-assisted treatment
- Extraction tools or lancets
- Brushes, including mask brushes
- Sponges
- Silicone, wood, gemstone, or metal applicators
- Rollers or wands
- Gua sha tools or massage tools
- Dermaplaning blades
- Homecare must also be hands-only and product-based
- No devices, rollers, gua sha tools, LED masks, or cleansing brushes at home
How Your Work
Gets Judged.
Classic Esthetics uses a dedicated scoring rubric designed specifically for this category. The highest scores reward clinical logic, advanced hand skills, ingredient precision, and the ability to adapt based on real skin response.
Before & After Photos
Written Case Study
Videos
Panel Presentation
The Skin Games 2026-27 Category Winners
Michael Razzano
1stPlace
Tyler Card
2nd Place
