Friday, December 13, 2024
If maintaining healthy, radiant skin has been an uphill battle for you – then you might be interested in a cozy skin clinic just a few streets away from Jiřího z Poděbrad, tucked away just off of Riegrovy Sady.
Established in 2022, Face Place is a subsidiary of the wildly popular Hollywood facial clinic which bears the same name.
Face Place was opened by Ladana Edwards, who’s been a Prague resident for over 20 years. Dealing with acne, both her own and her son’s, led her down a unique journey, specialising in skin health.
“My son battled acne from an early age, just like I did. We’d take him for a facial here in town and it didn’t help at all. They’d torture him with painful extractions resulting in infections and scarring and his acne would be even worse.”
Ladana got the idea to dip into her own past for a solution,
“When I had my own troubles with acne, as a young woman, the one treatment that really worked was a galvanic facial offered in my home town. It worked so well, in fact, that I’ve continued to use it for another 30 years, long after my acne had cleared up.”
This galvanic facial technique, now called the iDerm Facial, was originally introduced in the 1930s by a company called Dermaculture (now a constituent of Face Place). It uses a galvanic current to stimulate collagen, rehydrate the skin, and, most importantly, deliver healing vitamin C particles deep into the dermis.
“We decided to bring our son back to the US for an iDerm facial, and sure enough, it worked. His face began to improve after the first visit.”
This was a turning point for Ladana and the inception of Face Place. She got the idea to bring the treatment to Prague, with no intent to start a business. Rather, she wanted for her son to have an effective (and accessible) treatment in the Czech Republic. “I inquired to Face Place about buying one of their iDerm machines for personal use, and that’s when they proposed that we open a Face Place here in Prague”
As it turned out, Paul Rogers and Tony Silla, owners of Face Place in the US, had already been eyeing Prague as a potential expansion location. According to Paul,
“A lot of our clients are in the movie industry, and they travel abroad for various productions – very often to Prague.” When they come back, they’re always asking if we could open something up over there so they could continue getting the treatments.”
Ladana and her husband, Douglas, agreed that it seemed like a promising venture. Ladana was just finishing a job at Deloitte, as she was preparing the next phase of her career, getting her PhD and starting a leadership development practice. The skin clinic seemed like an interesting fit with the new direction in her career.
“As a coach, I see firsthand how people’s appearance and perception of themselves affects their engagement with others, so it’s nice to see the positive improvement on the outside translating to a better attitude and confidence from the inside.”
Face Place is not your typical luxury spa, with a never-ending list of treatments with exotic names and ingredients. They focus on what is most effective. The staff are skin coaches, offering ongoing treatment and after-care advice for clients, all the while using the highest grade and dermatologically-approved products. While the atmosphere in the little clinic is welcoming and friendly, it definitely sits somewhere between purely sensorial and purely clinical.
“When we first opened,” Ladana laughs, “we had women visiting us and complaining that they didn’t like the treatments because they were used to a more high-end, luxury experience. But sure enough, after a comment from their friends or husbands about how good their skin looked, they’d all sneak back in the following week.”
View this post on Instagram
And slowly but surely, the word is getting out. Ladana says the business has been steadily growing since their opening in 2022.
“At first, we had a lot of actors from international films shooting in Prague. Nowadays, we’re getting a lot more teens with acne issues.”
Face Place attracts both a younger, as well as older clientele, both of whom are looking for an alternative to botox or various invasive cosmetic procedures.
“It’s not that we’re against botox, or any other procedure you might want. In fact, many of our customers come here after those procedures to ease the healing process.” Ladana explains,
“But our philosophy is really about maintaining skin health and nourishment, so hopefully you won’t need those more drastic procedures unless they’re really necessary. Lots of people visit the gym regularly so they look great and don’t have health complications as they get older. We like to think of ourselves as the gym for your face.”
