Joanna Vargas’ salon is tucked away in an intimate space in a non-descript office building near Bryant Park.  With only two treatment rooms, Vargas gives her celebrity and fashionista clientele the personal attention they crave.  The 39-year-old Latina has had her own spa, Joanna Vargas Skin Care, for three years and has been an aesthetician for 12 years.
 
 
“I thought I would do [fashion] makeup, but I didn’t care for the amount of pressure and yelling on a photo shoot,” the University of Chicago graduate says.  “So I went to aesthetics school and fell in love with skincare instead.
I recently visited …read more

During the winter, my skin tends to get dry and dehydrated. That’s the time for extra strength exfoliation, which is essentially what microdermabrasion is.  So I made an appointment at Finesse Day Spa, one of my favorite day spas in New York City.  I get the standard crystal microdermabrasion (watch the You Tube video below to see how the process works), where tiny crystals are blasted onto the skin to exfoliate layers of dead skin cells, scar tissue, fine lines and acne marks.  
A newer technique is diamond microdermabrasion, which uses a diamond tipped instrument instead of crystals, but I …read more