25+ Years of Buzzworthy Beauty
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Beauty Buzz
For those high- (or, perhaps, low-) maintenance types who keep nothing in the fridge but a bottle of Cristal and a jar of Petrossian caviar, there’s now a suitably luxe spa treatment to match. And it isn’t just a gimmick: Actual Champagne activates yeast in an exfoliating enzyme peel; a mixture of mineral-rich Beluga, Sevruga, and Osetra caviar ampules delivers A, B, and C complex vitamins to moisture-starved skin.
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Vera Kantor
A must-have in every smart LA girl’s purse is an appointment card to Russian miracle worker Vera Kantor. She has been spinning her own form of healing for more than 25 years. Cheryl Tiegs, Madonna and Steve Martin are but a few of those beating a path to Kantor’s salon, where she uses natural products such as aloe, calendula, chamomile and camphor.
And there is my beloved Verabella on the West Coast. She is Russian and the real deal. She has many products I swear by. I won’t go into all of them because people will realize I have a cosmetics problem, and I don’t want to out myself just yet.
She has this calming rose cream called Bella Rosa that is wonderful. When you’re having your face touched all dang day long for work, it’s wonderful. I wonder what men’s skin would look like if they were getting their eyes poked for 30 years.
Verabella also has an amazing sunblock that has cucumber and aloe in it. → read at The New York Times
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Slavs to Beauty
“Beauty was a big priority to us, but with government rationing we had to be resourceful,” says Kantor, reminiscing about her childhood. “We used oatmeal and yogurt as face masks, honey and almond for exfoliants, arnica from the garden for healing, and chamomile tea for cleansing the pores.”
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You Want Fries with That?
Consumers are binging on the $5 billion spa industry’s newest thing: food baths and massages. To find out why, I went for the Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams treatment at Verabella in Beverly Hills. I admit I wasn’t too excited about wrapping my face in caviar and a freeze-dried collagen sheet. Ah, me of little faith. I floated out of the place glowing and exuberant, vowing to return once a month...
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Food for Thought—and Your Face
“My grandma’s motto was, ‘Everything that is good for you to eat is good for your skin.’”
Recently, she introduced two foodie facials. The first, Fall on Your Face, incorporates a Thanksgiving-ish cranberry-apple scrub and pumpkin-pie peel.
The second is a Champagne and Caviar facial... The champagne she employs is the real thing. Kantor lets it go flat, mixes it with a powder containing wheat germ and oatmeal, and applies it to the skin. The enzymes in champagne, Kantor explains, act as an exfoliant. The caviar is not eggs in a tin, but a “spongy sheet of paper, a frozen extract of collagen and caviar.”
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Best Facials in LA
We found ourselves suppressing the urge to sneak a taste of our mask—when we weren’t drifting off to sleep—during this treatment at VERABELLA, which involves aromatic cocoa infused with crushed rose petals. The result? Compliments on our radiant complexion, not the pimples we associate with chocolate.
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Peppers for a Rosy Glow
Madonna. Brooke Shields. Jada Pinkett Smith. Suzanne Somers. All celebrity clients of VERABELLA in Beverly Hills and all hot mamas! Now you can be one too… The Hot! Mama Facial is unique, because it incorporates sweet hot peppers with organic aloe vera gel to create a stimulating effect on the skin, creating a natural oxidation, lifting the contours of the skin and creating a natural glow.
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Behind the Seams
Stranded on The Matrix 2’s Northern California set, Carrie-Anne Moss was sorely in need of pore treatment. Fortunately for the actress, the film’s wardrobe girl invited skin care guru Vera Kantor of Beverly Hills’ Verabella Skin Therapy to come to Moss’s aid. The resourceful Kantor converted a wardrobe fitting room into an oasis of calm and gave Moss her signature caviar facial...
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Carrots
For a more posh take on the carrot craze, salon to the stars VERABELLA in Beverly Hills offers the 14 Carrot Facial. The luxurious treatment is touted... “Carrots are incredibly high in carotenes, precursors to vitamin A... they trigger exfoliation and stimulation of collagen production,” says Vera. Adds her daughter, spa director Victoria, “It’s a very nourishing facial, and it smells like carrot cake!”
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Best of LA
The award-winning facials at VERABELLA have garnered two Best of LA titles, in addition to numerous editorial accolades for their innovation and effectiveness! VERABELLA offers a rare touch of warmth and personal attention and is as affordable and welcoming for every woman as it is for its celebrity clients.
“I’ve been going to Verabella for ages—their facials are incredible,” she says. “Her products are all handmade and absolutely amazing. Your skin totally changes after regularly using her products.”
No, Kelly Rutherford doesn’t receive a commission for every VERABELLA product sold—she’s just been going to the spa “forever” and is so enthused about the place that she wanted to spread the good word.
Kelly goes for “anything fruit-scented,” especially the Citrus Sorbet, an oil-free moisturizer with aloe vera, vitamins C and E, and sage, which disinfects skin.
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A Feast for Your Face
Pumpkins and cranberries in the supermarket signal the beginning of the holiday season. As it happens, these two festive foods also provide a feast for your skin. Savvy spas and beauty product manufacturers are capitalizing on the autumnal bounty to help customers develop a fetching glow. VERABELLA Skin Therapy (in Beverly Hills) is showcasing what it calls the “Fall on Your Face” facial with pumpkin.
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Spa Trek
Even treatments with a wacky concept, like the Fall on Your Face pumpkin-cranberry facial, are based on an ingenious use of ingredients. The cranberry-apple scrub serves as an exfoliant, and the orange pumpkin concoction is a mild peel. A customized mask follows—maybe spinach, maybe mud; like everything else, it smells delightful. There’s something comforting about being mummified and coddled....
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Sweet Therapy
“I learned about these natural facials from watching my mother and grandmother experiment using food straight out of the kitchen,” says Vera Kantor of Verabella in Bevery Hills. Her special Fall on Your Face facial begins with a cranberry apple scrub or milk cleanser, followed by a pumpkin pie peel, and ends with your choice of a garden mask depending on your skin type. “Think of it as a Thanksgiving feast for your face, without the turkey,” she adds.
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Food for Thought—and Your Face
Women have been incorporating food into their beauty regimens for thousands of years. “Cleopatra had milk baths in ancient times,” offers Vera Kantor, owner of the Verabella salon in Beverly Hills. Today, Kantor encourages her clients, especially those with dry skin, to wash their faces with milk. “It has to be Vitamin D fortified whole milk,” she says, “because the grease of the milk fatty acids is really what’s good for your skin. Inside you can take whatever.”
The four treatment rooms are small but exquisitely outfitted. The adjustable, body-contouring massage beds are upholstered in butter-soft leather and move as smoothly as the goo in a lava lamp.
Whether you choose to chat or zone out, there’s a sense here of belonging to an exclusive skin-and-soul-satisfying club. If being treated like part of the family—Vera’s daughter Victoria presides over the reception area—is your cup of herbal tea, VERABELLA is a prime find.
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Skin Savers
Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox come to this salon to see Vera Kantor. If you thought Steve Martin looked good hosting the Oscars, Kantor’s Champagne & Caviar facial is one reason why. Inspired by her Russian childhood (“When the caviar jar was empty, my mother would rub the oil on her face”)...
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“leaves skin luminous”
Leave it to a Beverly Hills spa to concoct a facial loaded with luxe ingredients... “Caviar extract is rich in vitamins A, D, B1, and B6,” says spa owner Vera Kantor, whose clients include Lisa Kudrow, Candice Bergen, and Michael J. Fox. “It makes your skin look smooth and fresh.” The perfect pre-Oscar splurge.
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Rubbing Elbows
When a TV star invites you to spend the day with her at her longtime favorite spa, you don’t say no... Kelly Rutherford doesn’t receive a sales commission for every Verabella product sold—she’s just been going to the spa “forever” and is so enthused about the place. Verabella’s client list also includes Madonna, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lisa Rinna, and Johnny Depp.
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Spa Trek
High-profile clients appreciate the incognito access. Owner Vera Kantor, who spent more than 20 years working with Aida Thibiant and Ole Henrikson, has been studying the cleansing and healing properties of herbs, minerals and spices since she was a girl in Russia soaking up her grandma’s advice.
Her facials are fresh and inventive, incorporating extracts and essences from around the world.
