Student
Student Nika Vadipour Appreciates New Course Fundamentals of Skincare & Wellness
Born in Laguna Hills, California, Nika Vadipour was two weeks old when her family moved to China. Two years later, they moved back to the U.S., to Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from Desert Vista High School before moving to Los Angeles to study Beauty Marketing & Product Development at FIDM. She recently took the new course, Fundamentals of Skincare & Wellness, authored and taught by FIDM Instructor Rebecca Mason, and truly valued and enjoyed everything she learned. Lessons on the Wellness Wheel and alternative modalities opened her eyes to a different facet of the beauty industry. On track to graduate in 2024 with her Bachelor of Science degree in Beauty Business Management, we caught up with her to learn more about her journey.
What was your path to FIDM like? FIDM first occurred to me as I was sitting in my senior year advanced business management class. An advisor from FIDM came to my class and gave a presentation about the school, and I seemed to be the only one among my peers that was utterly infatuated with the fact that there was a school that had an education concerning the beauty community. I remember waking up deathly ill the day the advisor came back to our school and feeling extremely defeated that I wasn’t able to attend the second FIDM presentation. After that, the pressures of attending a “traditional” four-year university began to weigh down and unfortunately pushed FIDM to the back of my mind. It wasn’t until quarantine, that I dedicated a night to watching every “How to Begin Working in the Beauty Industry” video on the internet. A majority of these videos referenced FIDM for students at the college age level, which is where FIDM was brought back to my full attention. I spent until 4:00 am that night looking through the entire school website and watching every FIDM student’s “A Day in the Life as a FIDM Student” YouTube videos. I became absolutely captivated and set up a call with an advisor the next day. However, since it was already July by that time, there was really no chance I could have transferred in that year.
I ended up attending the University of Arizona to pursue business and chemistry, ultimately wanting to end up in the beauty industry. I ended up hating UofA and moving to the ASU area halfway through the year while continuing an online education. However, during this time I was working closely with my lovely advisor, Jane Demourdant, to see what my transfer options were.
It was definitely a feat to convince my parents to let me leave my traditional 4-year university and full-tuition scholarship, but at the end of the day I knew that FIDM was an opportunity I had to see through. So, I left my friends and family behind to pursue my dreams of moving to LA and obtaining an education in beauty and business. Now ending my first quarter here at FIDM, I have met many amazing individuals, especially professors, and am on track to secure my 4.0 GPA. I can’t wait to see what the upcoming quarters have in store for me!
Tell us about the new “Fundamentals of Skincare & Wellness” course you took with Rebecca Mason: I truly enjoyed my Fundamentals of Skincare & Wellness course with Professor Mason. I went into the course knowing that it would be one of my favorites as I am super interested in skincare. One thing that I didn’t foresee, however, was how much I would fall in love with the wellness aspect of the course. This course was the first of my college classes that actually taught me how to prioritize my wellbeing and I now do not understand how this is not a required course everywhere.
My favorite thing in the class, specifically, was completing our Wellness Wheels. The Wellness Wheel project was an assignment where Professor Mason prompted us to set goals for ourselves within different aspects of our lives. These aspects included: spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical, social, environmental, and financial. We also set a time frame and a motto we wanted to follow. The reason this course assignment was my favorite was because of how much the assignment truly required us to think introspectively. Creating, setting, and writing down these goals made them so much more real for me. Instead of having a general goal of “being successful” or “being happier,” I set smaller, more specific goals that will lead me to those bigger goals. It allowed for them to be truly achievable.
Another unit in specific I enjoyed was the alternative modalities unit. By teaching this unit to us, Professor Mason showed us that there are NUMEROUS other ways to combat illnesses and general mental health that do not include modern medicine (pills, diagnoses). By teaching us this unit, she opened our eyes to other, maybe even better, ways to combat issues we face in our daily lives. Like for real, who knew horse therapy, V steaming, and sound healing are so widely used and regarded. It was so fun to learn and discuss whether or not we would try these forms of alternative medicine. All in all, in this course not only did Professor Mason truly show us she cares, she taught us how to care for ourselves. It was a truly awesome class and I would totally argue it should be taught to every college student!
What topics did this particular class open your eyes to in the industry that maybe you weren’t aware of before? This class taught me many things I did not know about the industry beforehand. For one, there are NUMEROUS claims we see on our everyday products. These can include organic, all natural, certified organic, HydroActive, hypoallergenic, etc. that many of us read and do not truly know what they mean. I mean in all honesty, I am a beauty junkie and before this course I would’ve argued that I knew everything there was to know about products. This course truly humbled me as it made me realize I actually didn’t know the difference between all of these claims that are on products I use daily. I now can say I have a better understanding of how to categorize products and whether or not they will work for my skin and my routine!
What are your career goals and how is FIDM helping you get there? My career goals are to land an awesome job opportunity for a company I truly admire. For now, I would love to gain industry experience within product development or social media. However, a dream of mine would be to work for the Allure “Best of Beauty” department as it is something I have always looked up to. Transferring into FIDM, I feel a little behind my classmates who already have greatly impressive internships in place. However, going to FIDM this year has given me the tools and knowledge to succeed in a future internship!
Keep up with Nika Vadipour on LinkedIn and Instagram @nikavadipour.
Attend our Online Lecture Series event: The Changing Landscape for Launching Beauty Products, on Thursday, September 23, 2021, from 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM PDT. Register for the free event here.
Categories: Beauty Business Management Beauty Marketing & Product Development Student
