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This month’s Spa of the Month:
Urban Oasis
Elina Advanced Skin Care Spa, Chicago, IL
by Michele Sobota
“Beauty is more than skin deep” is a popular saying that is put into practice on a daily basis at Elina Advanced Skin Care Spa in Chicago, IL, which Elina Fedotova owns and works at as an esthetician. The urban oasis, located among the chic boutiques of East Oak Street, offers holistic and results-driven skin care treatments.
Clients enjoy the highly personalized protocols Fedotova has developed. She is trained as a cosmetic chemist and herbalist, and she knows how to effectively blend the intelligence of nature with modern science.
People want to feel and look better with the help of services that do not come with a warning label from the Food and Drug Administration. Most of Fedotova’s clients are highly educated people who are very health conscious and selective about what they put into their bodies. They are looking for solutions that are corrective but also natural and noninvasive. They read labels and care about “feeding” their skin from the inside out, and they know that skin is the largest organ they have. Fedotova’s clients are not just looking for oil or honey. Such simple ingredients are not corrective enough. They are looking for deep rejuvenation and collagen stimulation that does not require the injection of foreign substances under their skin.
When Fedotova opened Elina Advanced Skin Care, her goal was to create an urban getaway with a holistic approach to client skin care.
Fedotova has hand-crafted her exclusive line of organic transdermal products in her own laboratory for the past 12 years.
Her Chicago spa stands out for its personalized skin care formulations. Following a detailed skin care analysis, one of a kind products are created in the onsite lab to meet the specific needs of each client’s unique skin profile.
When Fedotova opened Elina Advanced Skin Care in 2006, her goal was to create an urban getaway with a holistic approach to client skin care. Given the prime retail rates of the spa’s world class location, she chose to create a cozy and harmonious space. The payoff? Her clients get more than just skin care; they experience a complete rejuvenation of body, mind and spirit without having to travel to a resort.
Fedotova wanted to have a place small enough to accomodate highly personalized services. Only three clients are attended to at one time. There is no plan to increase that number because she does not want her guests to feel like they are on a conveyor belt. Each client is treated with highly individualized protocols.
Elina Advanced Skin Care is not a medi-spa, although it is affiliated with a medical doctor who shares the spa’s holistic views. Fedotova does not believe in separating science and holistic wisdom, but rather integrating the best of both worlds in all of her work.
Visitors quickly see that the on-site lab is not only full of certified organic herbs, but also sophisticated high-tech equipment such as soft lasers, crystal-free microdermabrasion machines, computerized air pressure machines and ultrasonic and color therapy devices. Treatments that utilize the high-tech equipment are combined with holistic techniques like manual lymph drainage, aromatherapy, energy balancing and reflexology massage.
Following a skin analysis, each client receives treatments utilizing fresh, preservative free products, many of which are created right before application.
Elina Advanced Skin Care has three treatment rooms, including a wet room where signature holistic procedures like herbal body wraps, “foot facials” (deep, rejuvenating services for feet) and other body treatments are performed. Clients can also take home fresh herbal emulsions and products.
At Elina Advanced Skin Care, staff does not just treat the surface of the skin. By the nature of their work, they also address the internal psychological needs of clients by providing them with an experience that leaves them stress free, completely relaxed and confident about their appearance.
By the nature of their work, they also address the internal psychological needs of clients by providing them with an experience that leaves them stress free, completely relaxed and confident about their appearance.
Fedotova selects her employees based on their character and “soul qualities.“ She looks for loving and caring people who share her holistic philosophy and hunger to learn more. She personally educates them about her holistic protocols to make sure they can deliver the results and sense of well-being that clients expect.
In 2007, she founded the Association of Holistic Skin Care Practitioners, a nonprofit educational organization for professionals who believe that beautiful skin is healthy skin, and that healthy skin is achieved as a result of—and through—inner health.
The association is made up of professionals in the beauty industry who share the goal of moving beyond just the surface of the skin to consider deeper levels of healing.
So far, Fedotova has hosted two “Beauty is More Than Skin Deep” conferences. In 2009, professionals traveled from as far away as Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, Washington, California and Kentucky to attend the two-day event. She is passionate about empowering people, and she wants to share the success of her own business with other professionals.
If commercial profits are the only goal and a spa follows a holistic approach just because it is trendy right now, she does not believe it will succeed.
At the conference, participants take part in hands-on lab work sessions, exploring a variety of topics ranging from exposure to toxins in our everyday environment to custom-made aromatherapy oils. Previous speakers at the event have included estheticians, a medical doctor, a physicist, a Chinese doctor of medicine, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist and a massage therapist.
Fedotova lives by the belief that what goes around comes around, so it pays to give your best out to the world. If commercial profits are the only goal and a spa follows a holistic approach just because it is trendy right now, she does not believe it will succeed. Success starts from doing what you truly believe in.
To create a really good
skin care practice, one must have not only the proper education and be able to deliver results, they must also truly love people and adore what they do.
She warns aspiring spa owners of the challenges that such an undertaking entails. Spa ownership is a full-time job that requires patience and excellent listening skills. In order to create a really good skin care practice, one must have not only the proper education and the ability to deliver results, they must also truly love people and adore what they do.
Elina’s bonus tip
Increase demand for your spa’s most popular product even further by making a point of demonstrating its true value to your guests.
“Most people seek solutions for age-related issues like crow’s feet, lip wrinkles and sagging jaw lines,” Elina explains.“We offer to apply our most popular product to one side of their face. After 30 seconds we give the client a mirror and ask them to compare one side to the other; one smile line to the other, one under-eye area to the other, one side of their forehead to the other, one jaw line to the other. People notice the results immediately.”
Photography: by Dan Merlo of Dan Merlo Photography
Michele Sobota is a publicist for professionals and companies engaged in emerging trends. She has more than 15 years of experience in television and news, and has placed clients in The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Chicago Tribune, WCBS-TV and numerous other radio shows, magazines, e-newsletters and blogs. Sobota owns MediaConnexions and can be reached directly at michele@mediaconnexions.com.
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