By: Naiia Lajoie Photos by: Ken Hugh Hair and Makeup by: Michelle Molina   For family nurse practitioner Mina Grasso, founding Allure Image Enhancement, Inc. – the first medical spa in California’s Inland Empire – was an unlikely outcome when she began her foray into the medical field. Having obtained a nursing degree from Loma Linda University in 1983, she then went on to the Nurse Practitioner Program at UCLA, graduating with her Masters in 1988. She spent 12 years in family practice and was the first nurse practitioner chosen to work in the emergency room at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Even having accomplished such accolades, her path was not apparent; she was filled with self-doubt. Mina had a Filipina auntie who sat her down, asking if this was truly the life she wanted. After all, she had voiced that she wanted a family, and with her then husband being in dentistry, pursuing nursing fully would not facilitate a life at home. While the well-meaning aunt figure was only warning Mina not to fall into the Filipino nurse stereotype, she interpreted it as her mentor having a lack of faith in her. Mina received a brochure in the mail advertising permanent makeup. Intrigued, she decided to take a course on it. Despite her second husband doubting her – not wanting her to resort to mere tattooing after years of education – she loved her new skillset, and took it on as a side hobby. While she never anticipated working in aesthetics, throughout her years spent nursing she was always drawn to assisting those with facial disfigurement. She wanted to help those with scars due to traumatic injuries, birth defects, or reconstruct post-cancer surgery survivors and burn victims. She began adding treatments to her repertoire,...... Read more on Full Issue!