Over
the course of a lifetime, I have spent a fortune on my skin. From childhood
eczema to adolescent acne, I’ve been a dermatologist’s dream come true. If
there’s been a new treatment available, I’ve tried it. A new product? I’ve
bought it. To be honest, I’ve probably invested more in my face than my
wardrobe. So you can imagine my intrigue when I spotted an ad in this very
newspaper touting “the best facial you’ll ever have.”
“That’s a pretty bold statement,” I thought.
“I’d better check this out.” And that’s how I met Maria Sokolovskaya,
medical esthetician par excellence.
An elegant woman with a no-nonsense attitude and
a finely tuned sense of humor, Maria grew. up in Moscow where she owned Art
of Appearance, a nationally renowned school and image center where more than
750 women enrolled each year to study fashion, skin care, image development
and different handcrafts. In fact, Maria herself was a national
personality, authoring 10 books, hosting a major television show and
publishing her own magazine.
When she left Russia to settle in St. Louis,
determined to rebuild her professional career, Maria attended esthetics
schools throughout North America, earning certifications from specialized
programs worldwide. In 1994, she opened Maria’s Skin Care Studio in a back
room of a local hair salon. Today, that fledgling enterprise has grown to
become Art of Appearance Skin Care and Image Center, attracting loyal
followers throughout the Midwest. I’m one of them.
So what sets Maria apart from other
estheticians? First, there are her rules. Maria tells you what you have to
do —
and exactly how to do it. She also is a firm
believer in positive thinking and relaxation. According to Maria, the face,
especially around the eye and brow area, shows the first signs of an
over-stressed life. To remedy this, she has created an entire menu of
customized treatments to cleanse, invigorate and rejuvenate even the most
lack-luster skin. Maria’s credo is, “every woman is beautiful, if she knows
how.”
In addition to her do’s and don’ts, Maria
also has strong opinions about the skin care products she uses. I was amazed
at rise number of lines she carries. She explains that skin care is a
constant learning process due to ever-changing breakthroughs in the
industry. Since there is no one ideal company, she selects the very best
from all of them.
Then there are the procedures. At Art of
Appearance, there is no such thing as a “standard” facial. Depending on the
condition of your skin
— determined by
close scrutiny under a powerful magnifier
—
Maria designs a customized procedure. And that’s
only for starters. There are specialized treatments for acne, brown spots,
dilated capillaries, skits tags, clogged pores, under-eye bags and dark
circles, dry skin —
and more.
But that’s not all. Once Maria has whipped
your skin into shape, she moves on to more advanced treatments that involve
hi-tech machines such as the Renaissance non-surgical face-lift,
dermabrasion, cold laser and pulsed-light hair removal. Sometimes she even
combines procedures into one super-powerful treatment that is more effective
than anything you’ve ever had. It’s to die for
—
and the results are unbelievable.
So now that I’m hooked on Maria’s treatments,
do I look different? I think so. And I feel better, too. We can’t stop rime,
but we can make the most of the time we have left. |
