The Question Every Medspa Review Should Start With
Who is holding the syringe? Most reviews of medspas in Queens skip it and go straight to the decor, the music and whether the receptionist was nice. Those things matter about as much as the paint color in an operating room. What matters is whether the person assessing your face and injecting it is licensed to do both, whether the practice has planned for the rare thing going wrong, and whether the consultation is a consultation or a sales pitch. This review of Evollon Medspa & Wellness at 105-09 Metropolitan Avenue, Suite 2, in Forest Hills is organized around those questions, and it says where the practice falls short as well as where it does not.
Who Holds the Syringe
Two board certified family nurse practitioners founded Evollon and perform its treatments: Nadegda Kandchorov, FNP-BC, whose focus is aesthetic medicine, hormone therapy and allergy care, and Vyacheslav Dabakarov, FNP-BC, whose focus is pain management, regenerative medicine and aesthetics. FNP-BC means a graduate nursing degree, national board certification and a New York State license to assess, diagnose, prescribe and treat independently, which in New York makes a nurse practitioner a licensed independent prescriber in their own right. Both licenses are public record and can be checked in a minute on the state’s verification site, and the practice tells patients to check.
That is the single biggest difference between Evollon and the salon model that dominates the injectable market in Queens. In a salon, Botox and filler are added to a menu of facials and lashes, the injector is whoever the studio employs, and the medical director whose license makes it legal may be a name on a form. At Evollon, the prescriber is the injector, and the injector is the owner. The about Evollon page has the founders’ background.
The Consultation
Complimentary, and real. A patient books, finds Suite 2 inside Bare Aesthetics at 105-09 Metropolitan Avenue, and sits with one of the nurse practitioners for a medical history and a conversation about what they want to change. For injectables the practitioner looks at the face at rest and in motion, proposes a product and an amount, explains what it will and will not do, quotes it in writing and sends the patient home to think if they want to. For IV drips the consultation is a screening that decides whether a drip is appropriate that day and which one. For the wellness programs it usually starts with lab work.
The thing regular patients mention most is the direction of the advice. The practitioners suggest less rather than more: half a syringe to a syringe for a first lip filler with a two-week follow up, a lighter first Botox dose, a wait rather than a second product. A practice that is paid per syringe and tells patients to have fewer of them is either badly run or run by people who intend to keep their patients for years. The evidence points to the second.
The Treatments
The menu is wide for a practice its size. Neurotoxins, including Botox. Lip fillers with Juvederm Ultra XC, Volbella XC and Restylane Kysse, all hyaluronic acid and all reversible. Dermal fillers for cheeks, jaw, chin and under eyes. Sculptra. SkinVive. PRP and PRFM for the face, under eyes and hair. Microneedling, BioRepeel, VI Peel, Rejuran. Hyperhidrosis treatment and skin tag removal. Ten named IV drips plus NAD+ therapy. Medical weight loss, testosterone replacement therapy, and pain management with joint and trigger point injections. The lip fillers in Forest Hills, Queens page is the best example of how the practice explains a treatment: products named, risks stated, reversal described.
What is not on the menu is worth noting too. No laser hair removal, no body contouring devices, no facials for their own sake. The practice is a medical practice that does aesthetics, not a spa that added medicine.
The IV Drip Side
A review of a medspa that offers IV therapy has to say whether the practice treats it as medicine or merchandise, and Evollon treats it as medicine. Every drip, all ten of them plus NAD+, follows a screening by a nurse practitioner that reviews history, medications, allergies and the reason for the visit, and the practice says in writing that certain heart, kidney and liver conditions, pregnancy and interacting medications require the practitioner’s judgment, and that a fever or uncontrolled vomiting gets a referral to a doctor, not a drip. The drip pages publish their ingredients. The session runs thirty to sixty minutes in a reclining chair. None of that is unusual for a medical practice; all of it is unusual for the IV lounges and mobile services the category is now full of.
The Wellness Side
Medical weight loss with prescription injections, testosterone replacement therapy, NAD+ as a series and pain management with joint and trigger point injections round out the menu, and they are the clearest sign that this is a medical practice rather than a cosmetic one. These are programs with lab work, a plan and follow up, prescribed by the same nurse practitioners who do the Botox, and for a patient who wants one chart for all of it, that is the argument. For a patient who wants only a cosmetic studio, it is irrelevant, and the practice does not push the wellness side on cosmetic patients.
The Safety Standard
Every filler injection carries a small risk of vascular occlusion, where filler blocks a blood vessel; the treatment is immediate hyaluronidase. A practice that does not stock it is either not equipped for the emergency or does not do enough filler to justify it. Evollon stocks Hylenex and uses it for both emergencies and aesthetic corrections, and a meaningful share of its filler patients are there to have work from elsewhere dissolved and redone. The practice also runs an adverse event protocol, which sounds like a formality until the day it is not, and tells every filler patient what unusual pain, blanching or a dusky color in the skin means and to call the same day.
The Setting
Here is where a reviewer has to be honest about the trade-offs. Evollon is not a stand-alone storefront with a glowing sign; it is a suite inside another business, Bare Aesthetics, and a first-time patient can walk past it. The rooms are clean, bright and clinical rather than plush. There is no lounge, no champagne, no spa music. By appointment only means no walk-ins, which suits the patient who wants the practitioner’s full hour and frustrates the one who wanted a same-day Botox on a whim. For a practice that sells medicine rather than atmosphere, all of this is consistent, but a patient who wants the spa experience should know they are not buying it here.
The Prices
Not published online, which this review counts against the practice; a posted price list would save everyone a phone call. What the practice does commit to is a free consultation, a written quote before anything is done, no charge if the patient decides not to proceed, and financing through its payment plans page for series treatments. The website advertises a new patient discount; the terms should be confirmed by phone before booking on the strength of it.
The Location
105-09 Metropolitan Avenue, Suite 2, Forest Hills, NY 11375, on the avenue that runs along Forest Hills Gardens toward Kew Gardens. The Q54 bus stops near the door; the 71st Avenue E, F, M and R station and the Forest Hills LIRR are the nearest rail; Metropolitan connects to Queens Boulevard, Union Turnpike, the Grand Central and the LIE by car. Patients come from Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills, Middle Village, Glendale, Ridgewood, Richmond Hill and Woodhaven, none of them more than fifteen or twenty minutes away. For central Queens, that is closer than the Manhattan practices many residents still travel to.
What the Practice Does Well
The credentials, which are the point. The consultation, which advises less. The reversal enzyme on the shelf. The written quote. The breadth of a menu that lets a patient have Botox, a drip and a weight loss program in one chart. And the honesty about what IV drips, fillers and wellness medicine can and cannot do, which is rarer in this market than it should be.
What Could Be Better
Published prices. A clearer storefront presence, or at least better signage for Suite 2. Weekend and evening availability stated on the site rather than left to the phone. And a public explanation of the new patient discount, since advertising one without terms invites the wrong expectations.
Who It Is For, and Who It Is Not
It is for the patient who wants a licensed prescriber to assess before injecting, the first-time filler patient who is afraid of looking overdone, the patient with filler from elsewhere who wants it fixed, and the central Queens resident who would rather not travel to Manhattan for any of it. It is not for the patient who wants a spa afternoon with a glass of something, the patient who wants laser or body contouring, or the patient who wants to walk in without an appointment. The practice is clear about which it is, and this review would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Verdict
For a patient in Queens who wants cosmetic injectables, an IV drip or a wellness program from a licensed prescriber who will assess before injecting and say no when no is the answer, Evollon Medspa & Wellness is the nurse practitioner led practice central Queens did not have before. It is not a spa, does not pretend to be one, and is better for it. Book the free consultation, check the licenses first, and go in knowing the practitioner may recommend less than you came in for. Phone (347) 740-9508.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Evollon a medspa or a medical practice?
Both. It is a medical practice founded and run by two board certified family nurse practitioners that offers cosmetic injectables, skin treatments, IV drips and wellness medicine in a medspa setting at 105-09 Metropolitan Avenue, Suite 2, Forest Hills, NY 11375.
Who performs the treatments at Evollon?
Nadegda Kandchorov, FNP-BC, and Vyacheslav Dabakarov, FNP-BC, board certified family nurse practitioners and the practice’s founders. Their licenses can be verified through the New York State Office of the Professions.
Is the consultation at Evollon really free?
Yes. Consultations are complimentary, a written quote is given before any treatment, and there is no charge if the patient decides not to proceed.
Does Evollon stock hyaluronidase for filler emergencies?
Yes. The practice stocks Hylenex and uses it for both the rare vascular emergency and for aesthetic corrections of filler done elsewhere.
What are the downsides of Evollon?
Prices are not published online, the practice is by appointment only with no walk-ins, it is located inside another business’s suite rather than a stand-alone storefront, and the setting is clinical rather than spa-like.