Success runs more than skin deep for Robinstown native
A ROBINSTOWN nurse who moved to Australia and later founded her own nurse-led skin and cosmetic clinic there has won an international skincare award.
Aisling Kane, a registered nurse from Robinstown has had her Western Australian clinic, The Skin Nurse Australia, named an iS Clinical Blue Diamond Global Innovator, chosen from 9,000 iS Clinical partner clinics worldwide.
Aisling founded The Skin Nurse Australia, based in Perth in 2017. It’s a small, independent, nurse led skin and cosmetic clinic, and she built it while still working shifts as an emergency nurse.
The Blue Diamond Global Innovator recognition is given by iS Clinical, a professional skincare brand used in skin and dermatology clinics worldwide, to clinics it considers leaders in innovation and skin health. The Skin Nurse was chosen from more than 9,000 iS Clinical partner clinics around the world.
“Honestly, it still feels a bit strange to say it out loud,” Aisling said. “We’re a small clinic. There’s no big company behind us. It’s me, my team and a lot of years of hard work. So to be recognised alongside clinics from all over the world means a lot.”
Aisling went to primary school in Robinstown and secondary school at Scoil Mhuire in Trim, then completed a BSc in General Nursing at UCD, qualifying in 2007. A year later, aged 22, she moved to Australia, where she worked across a range of nursing roles, including emergency nursing.
In 2014 she completed a postgraduate qualification in Cosmetic Nursing and Dermal Science with the Australasian Academy of Cosmetic Dermal Science (AACDS), which gave her the grounding to open her own skin and cosmetic clinic three years later.
“I never set out to run a business. I set out to be a nurse,” she said. “That’s still how I see myself. The clinic has grown and the treatments have changed, but what matters most is the same as it was on the wards: people want to be listened to and to understand what’s being done for them.”
Alongside running the clinic, Aisling now trains and mentors other Nurses and Doctors who are starting out in Aesthetics.
Aisling and her husband, who is from Kildalkey, both still have their parents living in Meath. She has kept her Irish nursing registration throughout her years in Australia, and from 2027 she plans to spend more time in Ireland and offer a limited number of appointments while she’s home.
A large share of The Skin Nurse’s clients in Perth are Irish, and she says their families at home often ask when she’ll be back.
“I get asked it all the time. Someone’s mam or sister has been following us online and wants to know if I’ll ever do appointments in Ireland,” she said. “So that’s the plan. It would be lovely to bring a bit of what we’ve built over there back home.”