24 September 2025 |
It’s time to embrace the power of change—for your skin, body, hair, even your lifespan. Here, we present the facialists (and follicle spas!) to book, the makeup to master, and the biohacks to believe in. Plus, inspirational perfume creators and their must-spray scents.
Meet the IYKYK facialists reshaping New Yorkers’ pre-event skincare game.
ELIZABETH GRACE HAND
Instagram: @stallestudios
stallestudios.com
Elizabeth Grace Hand promises that you will never leave her studio with skin that looks angry or inflamed. “We call our clients angels because of the almost otherworldly skin they get after our facials,” Hand says, adding that her brand signature has become a no-downtime, hydrated, lifted, dewy sculpt, even post extractions. This is achieved via an unusual combination of Thai, European, and Japanese massage techniques. “The massage focuses heavily on the décolleté, neck, and back, and just by touching those areas, without even touching the face, the face is snatched,” she continues.
Previously, Hand worked as a sales rep for Dr. Barbara Sturm, a gig that would eventually lead to her doing consultations and, after that, facials for the brand. Demand for her contouring treatments grew so much that Hand started seeing clients at her Midtown Manhattan home. “I’d say, ‘Just come to my apartment,’ but I was living in a one-bedroom with a view of the Holland Tunnel with my cat and husband,” she shares.
When she got so busy that her husband was banished from their place for days, opening her own studio went from pipe dream to necessity. And thus Ställe Studios, the city’s buzziest “secret” facial mecca, was born. Ställe, by the way, is short for Hand’s favorite Swedish word, smultronställe. “It means a secret special place discovered, treasured, and returned to often for comfort and relaxation, completely free from stress, worries, and sadness,” she says. Who wouldn’t sign up for that?
RAQUEL MEDINA-CLEGHORN
Instagram: @raquelmedinacleghorn
raquelnewyork.com
Sliding into the celebrity facialist Joanna Czech’s DMs was how Raquel Medina- Cleghorn got her first big skincare break: a gig working at Czech’s office while she was still studying to become an aesthetician. Medina-Cleghorn had spent her twenties working as a fashion stylist (something that’s clear when you clock her Simone Rocha and Maison Margiela ensembles) before dramatically changing course.
“My one hobby was researching skincare,” she says. “I got pulled in through K-beauty and went down this rabbit hole of what snail mucin and bee venom and salmon DNA do, and it just snowballed.”
Once models on set started having her evaluate their complexions and tailor their skincare regimens, Medina- Cleghorn decided to make her hobby a career. Now the models Paloma Elsesser and Emily Ratajkowski are regulars at her studio, Raquel New York, which has forged a reputation for treatments that are a mash-up of tech-driven science (think LED, microcurrent, and ultrasound) and ancient holistic modalities (like lymphatic drainage and cupping).
“I’m not super-woo-woo, so there’s no discussion of the mind-body connection, but it’s present,” says Medina-Cleghorn, who herself has a calming demeanor as she methodically chisels out your long- lost cheekbones. “My goal is always to sculpt, drain, soothe, and reduce inflammation and redness,” she says. “The flow goes back and forth between things that are very manual and ones that are a lot more spacey.”
CYNTHIA RIVAS
Instagram: @cynthiarivasskincare
cynthiarivas.nyc
When Cynthia Rivas started out as an aesthetician, she was doing everything she could to eke out a salary that would measure up to the cost of living in New York City while simultaneously treating skin at a med-spa and a dermatologist.
“For months I would work for the derm Monday through Friday, from nine to six, then go to the med-spa in the evenings and on the weekends,” Rivas explains. “It was an insane bootcamp in skin.” It was also one that helped Rivas, who is now a Chanel partner, perfect her approach to facials (think Western meets Eastern, plus lots of massage and luxe products).
In the years since launching her own studio, she has amassed a coterie of clients that she has tended to through a pandemic—“For some of my clients I was the only person they would see outside their home,” she says—as well as during their journeys of pregnancy and into menopause. In fact, dealing with the unpredictability of hormonal skin has become her specialty, even while her celeb client list (which includes Camila Morrone, Lily Aldridge, and Monica Barbaro) and Met Ball pop-ups get the clicks.
For Rivas, the power of a great facial is not just about the impact on someone’s appearance—though, to be clear, the glow-up abilities of her treatments are renowned—but the emotional piece too. “There is an energy that’s passed on through touch and care and connection,” she says. “That can be as transformative as simply feeling good in your skin.”
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 05 – TRANSFORMATION, BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE – on newsstands September 18. Order your copy here.
Text FIORELLY VALDESOLO
