Angels of Beauty, Part 2
With my hair and scalp expertly treated, I can now happily start packing to go to my beloved Italy.
Lately one should be careful with the sun. Unfortunately, due to the thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer its rays can be stronger and more dangerous on some days causing irreplaceable damages to our skins. Having lived in Brazil for so many years I have become addicted to a great suntan but more the ever I am aware about skin aging and I know for a fact that I should be prepared before exposing it long hours under the Mediterranean sun—my favorite by the way.
I check my e-mail, as I do every morning, and I see that a Brazilian friend of mine living in New York sent the following message: “My dear friends, by all means, this is the experience one should not miss: Kuky Nobel will be in new York for two weeks check her out and book your appointments”.
As you know, a girlfriend’s endorsement holds more weight than a doctor’s or professional’s in any field. In our friends we trust; we need to share the experiences no matter what they are and moreover it’s for free. I also read that Kuky Nobel is recognized by the New York Times Style Magazine in 2006 as one of the leading aesthetics professionals in Brazil.
But what in heaven is this woman doing in New York and how is that my preferred magazine talks about her like that? Two endorsements and a desperate skin in need of detox—it’s a sign! Let me find out all about her and book my appointment.
She receives her clients in a spacious Pied-a-Terre. The Aka Residences, by the way a marvelous space for those who wish to spend longer times in New York at have the feeling of being in a luxury and artful home with a personalized service from an attentive staff, a spa and a fitness center rather than a hotel.
At the door of the spacious but cozy living room, Kuky Nobel’s guardian angel and assistant, Frida, welcomes me in Portuguese only spoken by those Brazilians living in Manhattan. “Thank you for coming, please sit down, help yourself with some tea or maybe you would like a Cafezinho (Brazilian espresso)? Kuky will be right with you, she’s in the other room.” (The “other room” she’s talking about is a bedroom).
“You must know that we have a different appointment system from the one you are normally accustomed to…”. I wonder what she knows about what I am accustomed to… “Here we share the space with other women, which are generally friends who need that special break during their hectic days…” I feel kind of strange, I have no idea of what she is talking about… A woman comes towards me from the “other room”. “Helena how are you?” I can’t believe it’s one of my very good friends who lives in Manhattan. I tell Frida, “We have been trying to get together since last month but has been impossible with our busy schedules! But what is this thing you have on your face?”
Frida does not let me hear Helena’s answer and tells me I should go quickly into “other room” to be with Kuky.
A red haired woman, very tanned and dressed in white with the largest blue eyes I have seen in a long time, asks me a question: “Where did you get those blue eyes from?” Attracted by this woman charisma, once in other lives an American Indian Shamman daughter I follow her instructions to lay down without answering her question. “I had to match yours”, the answer silently kept in my unconscious.
I find out through Kuky’s eye-scan that my skin is calling for help. As many other Manhattan women, apparently it has absorbed all the negative impurities of the city energy from the asphalt and it is crying out for cleanliness and purification. As a result of the diagnosis from Kuky, she is now gently applying an extract of carbohydrates from beehive honey with a smooth brush onto my face for some initial nourishment. I just love the way it feels—comforting and fresh.
While waiting for my face to to dry, I could not help my curiosity of being in a design bedroom in the heart of Manhattan with this Argentinian specialist of Rational Cosmetics and Chemical Cosmetology and asked my question: “How come you are in new York?”
Kuky laughs and tells me before visiting New York, she was in Buenos Aires where she was born, Sao Paulo, Rio, Porto Alegre, Salvador, Brasilia, Rome, Milan, Brussels, Geneva and Madrid. She’s been sought after globally by groups of women (one time a group of 700!) who are friends of friends. For more than 30 years she’s been applying to their faces the secrets of personal knowledge and obvious clairvoyance embedded in the mysterious, powerful, and refreshing masks that she applies one after the other depending on each and everyone’s skin response.
Helena comes in with Frida, they both sit on the bed with a small cake and a cup of tea in their hands, exactly like we would be at home in Brazil. Helena chit chats with me about her husband, profession- children-parents-Brazil-vacation-month and I feel it’s now ok — we don’t have to meet for lunch anymore, we updated our talks, she then is ordered to wash her face in circular movements in front of the mirror in the nearby bathroom without wasting too much water, after all she says, “the planet must be saved!”
Kuky’s blue eyes attentively examine my face, the feeling I have is that she and my skin are having a conversation in a language I am not suppose to hear. She then looks at the never ending line of bottles and small white pharmaceutical pots with colored creams (she does not want me to photograph them as she affirms that they are half empty). My skin must have said something bad because she picked an abrasive powder made of Silica to exfoliate through a natural peeling the accumulated dead superficial skin cells from my Manhattan lifestyle.
It’s a little poignant and itchy, Kuky obviously knows it and distracts me by confiding in me that she can tell from the woman’s skin whether she sexually fulfilled, lonely or fatigued, if her organism is lacking sleep, or any hormonal unbalances that sometimes can be cause of skin disease. While Helena comes out of the bathroom virtually transformed with a smile, face and planet saving awareness, I realize I almost completely forgot about the exfoliation discomfort and get even more curious about this woman’s powers and healing techniques.
My hot face is re-freshened by a sudden splash of water from the Cordilheira of Andes, (the world largest range of mountains extending Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador), then a mask of Collagen crystal with Hyaluronic acid (believed to prevent premature aging) is applied to activate and ensure muscle elasticity without the need of injections of Botox or Restylene.
Kuky, who owned and operated a highly successful aesthetic clinic in Buenos Aires for 15 years before relocating to Brazil embarking globetrotting, is known for her non-aggressive methods of rejuvenation, moisturizing and skin reconstruction. She strongly believes in customized attention to treat both, the causes (mostly due to emotional problems and distress), as well as the conditions.
One hour has passed, Helena sends me a goodbye kiss wishing me a safe trip. The aroma of the splash Azaleas waters, a shrub originally from Korea stimulating a deep hydration precede a rejuvenating pearls of caviar serum applied by Kuky with another thin brush in firm strokes. An infra-dermal detox astringent based of Camphor an evergreen wood found in Asia, precisely Borneo and Taiwan is then distributed evenly up the the lobe of my ears.
When Kuky compares women’s skins from Rome, Sao Paulo, Geneva or New York the language is Portuguese. The skins are about husbands submissions, aiming perfection or career drive. South American women have the best skins, they have surgeons, drivers, nannies they go to the gym , they have great husbands, time for amazing lovers and of course sunny beaches. New York skins miss balance where women seek tranquility and struggle for financial and emotional stability.
Kuky has been hosted for periods of weeks depending on her elite clientele needs, in eighteen century palaces of Roman countryside, Rio de Janeiro colonial homes, corp -diplomatique mansions in Brussels, traditional duplex in Madrid, beach hideaways in Salvador. She has infiltrated herself globally but loyally in local women’s lives , households and interior psyches simply applying masks, small stroke massages enhancing with devotional professionalism and discretion these women inner shine to surface.
When she talks about her new line of products derived of botanical, root and marine life, she jumps into Spanish, it’s about the natural elements soja, micro-collagen, Lactic acid, olive oil extract, red caviar, Magnesium, Karite butter, free radicals, wheat gems, dermo scrubs, specific proteins, citric gels, green tea extracts, Lavander water, linen grains, Arnica carbohidrates, oats extracts, Silicia, Amazon rain-forest oils from Buriti-Urucum extracts. She, more than anyone else and through her line of creams and gels, her operating tools, understands about pre- and post plastic surgery ensuring greater elasticity, faster recovery and better healing working alongside the best plastic surgeons in Brazil and worldwide.
Because Kuky does not speak anymore to my face, I’m feeling that I am almost done. She applies the last lotion with Pine tree oil with a final touch of a terracotta base cream with Ceramides. She then seriously recommends I stop eating the way I do (how in heavens does she know?) being very curious and traveling around the world one day in Sao Paulo, healthy Granola on non fat Yogurt, the next day croissants, butter and orange jelly in Paris and a week later Truffle baked potato in New York City (by the way soaked in truffle butter, truffle oil, and truffle salt with truffle shavings on the top, delicious). Apparently my organism does not understand this. One more advise…she whispers in my ear for her assistant Frida not to hear I should not really show to men how clever I am!
With these two strong pieces of advice, a detoxed skin, one prescription pot of sun tan face creams and a at-home treatment to optimize the visible radiant and refreshed glow on my face, I am ready to face my vacation in Italy.
God bless you Kuky Nobel and good luck with your new cosmetic line. I am sure somewhere in Naples a friend of a friend is in need of your legendary touch!
Joell’s Picks:
For appointments with Kuky Nobel:
Sao Paulo - Buenos Aires : info@kukynobel.com - Tel: + (55-11) 99574521
New York City: fbaranek@hotmail.com-Frida Baranek Tel: +1 (917) 355-9511
kuky Nobel will be in New York city October 15/ 30, 2008
Individual personalized treatment price: US$160.00 please allow 2 hours
The restaurant: Totaly Baked
