Vivacious Brooklyn native, Fraida A. Laquara opened Angel Face Esthetics today on Montague Street. Due to Brooklyn Heights historic building codes you won’t find signage for Angel Face at 160 Montague Street. Look for the main business, Yoga People, on the second floor. When you enter, Angel Face is to the left in a shared space with a masseuse.
A former death claims insurance agent, Fraida took her interest in skin care to the another level when junkfood eating lead to an acne breakout. Raised watching her mother use various creams and using beauty as an every day way of life, Fraida was shocked her normal regime didn’t work. She started working with a dermatologist who found the cause to be excessive consumption of peanuts, chocolate and raisins. Once she learned the relationship between eating and skin reactions, her interest in skin care skyrocketed. She voraciously read whatever she could get her hands on about skin care practices.
After the insurance company went out of business and gave her a nice severence package, Fradia enrolled in the Capri Cosmetology Esthetics Program in 2002. Three months after her graduation, the school sought her out as an instructor, and she taught there for six years. She has also taught at Atelier Esthétique and worked with renowned skin care expert Dr. Nicholas Perricone, as well as with Dr. Howard Sobule (DDF skin care), Aveda Salons, Jerlique Skin Care, Peter Thomas Roth, and many others. She is thirsty for knowledge about evolving products and procedures.
Q: Why did you choose Brooklyn Heights as the location for Angel Face Esthetics?
FL: Look at this area! Who wouldn’t want to be here? I’ve always enjoyed the shopping here. The commute is better, and my family lives in Sheepshead Bay, so they are only a train ride away. Professionally, I did my research. I offer clinical and organic skin care. In this area, there’s mostly organic skin care.
Q: What services do you offer that differentiate your facial treatments from those offered elsewhere?
FL: I offer algae masks and microdermabrasion, as well as clinical and organic facials. I have a wide spectrum of skin care to offer. I have gone for facials in the area as well as Manhattan because I need to know what my competition is and their price points. For what I specialize in, and for the price point I offer, I could not receive in any spa. Phew!
Q: Do you have any specials?
FL: I offer a $70 facial for anyone who takes yoga. If customers commit to six sessions, I will also give them that price. Otherwise the facials are $80 and $90 dollars, which I tailor for your skin type. I’m between $10-15 dollars less for facials then other spas in the area and $5-10 dollars less on waxing.
Q: What kind of wax do you use?
FL: I love this wax. It’s a stripless wax, ceripil from France. I first experienced it while I was an educator at Atelier Esthétique. Skin care expert Annette Hanson, the most fantastic woman in skin care, brought that in so I learned to use it there. It’s not goopy; it’s not sticky. It comes in a little bag. The beads look like blue chocolate chips. You give it two taps, let it cool down and then rip the wax off itself. There’s no extra bandage on top of that.
Q: What is your advice for people who haven’t had a facial or had adverse effects, such as severe acne breakouts afterwards?
FL: There’s an easy fix to that. You can get a sensitive skin facial, skip extractions which inflame the face because you are manipulating the pores. The pores are like a tube of toothpaste, the top of the face is the cap and it’s a tube inside. When you squeeze you squeeze outward to purge the congestion within the tube. I could give you a pumpkin and papaya enzyme mask and you’d be fine. Enzymes are designed for sensitive skin.
Q: If people wanted to come in on their lunch break, could you do something in a half an hour without them returning to work puffy or red?
FL: I can give them an express facial which includes cleanse, tone, brief exfoliation. I could do a microdermabrasion or a peel which is only four minutes. They are very potent. They only thing a client wouldn’t get in the express facial is the massage that I incorporate during the treatment, which is neck, shoulders, head, facial and arms at various points.
Fraida will tailor all facials for your specific needs. The holidays make a great time to purchase gift certificates for a relaxing and enjoyable facial.
Angel Face Esthetics
160 Montague Street, 2nd Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
(917) 608-3296
open Tuesday- Saturday by appointment
angelfaceesthetics@yahoo.com
