Brave lion penalty and self sustain?

Does the 1 hp damage only take affect if you have full HP? If so she could semi self sustain with aether.

Let’s use firesweep for an example
no cooldown reduction needed
+speed
Assuming you can double the opponent, you’ll quad them giving you 4 out of 5 charges. You take your 1 damage and loose your effect. Next turn you will activate aether on your follow up allowing you to heal and regain double lion for your following turn.

The idea is to intentionally not activate aether on your first turn, allowing you to use it on the next turn. Now if you tick 1 damage regardless, this idea doesn’t work.