beauty

Energy Stars Anti-aging innovators are using electricity to battle our body clocks, leading to sharper memory, firmer skin, easier surgical procedures and reduced fatigue

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t comes from the wind, the sun’s rays and rushing water. We use it to power ultra-efficient cars and jumpstart failing hearts. Electricity is a topic plenty familiar to Californians, but most people don’t know that it has also become the latest tool to fight aging. By using it to open neurological pathways in the brain, stimulate the musculature of the face, guide a cosmetic surgeon’s sutures in the operating room, and tap into the subtle currents that run throughout the body, the progressive longevity specialists in the state are keeping us looking and feeling younger, longer. “We all have our own electrical fingerprint,” says Montecitobased Melanie Simon, who started her business six years ago with a cellulite-busting endermologie machine—a device that massages and breaks the connective tissue that can lead to bumpy, orange-peel skin—and is now one of the country’s most in-demand aestheticians. “With my treatments, I’m trying to tune into that precise range.” A session with her is unique, to say the least: The arsenal of gadgets that she plugs in and uses to tighten the skin, including a customized ST-8 lymphatic drainage device,

looks straight out of NASA headquarters. The ST-8 machine converts oxygen to ozone, she explains, and pushes the latter’s frequency into the body. The Perfector, another one of her favorites, generates nano- and pico-electrical currents that mimic the natural electrical impulses of the body, and encourages cells to operate optimally, producing collagen and elastin at levels comparable to that of a younger person. Then add in the Arasys, created by the developers of the pacemaker, to charge up the tiny muscles of the face and set the clock back by a few years. Lost yet? You don’t need to understand how it works—just know that it does. The results are temporary but dramatic, creating a firmer jawline and overall perkier face. Even her new skincare line, Circ-Cell, uses pyzo- and piezo-electric minerals to create a very subtle charge, which Simon claims keeps skin cells healthy and happy for 30% longer than their average lifespans. Simon often refers her clients to Dr. Michael Galitzer, a Santa Monica-based anti-aging and bio-energetic medicine specialist. (The two are also collaborating on a new product, ER-3, that imitates the effect of hormone replacement on the skin.)

NATHANIEL GOLDBERG/ART + COMMERCE

BY CHRISTINE LENNON

C 118 SEPTEMBER 2011

09 Beauty_Electronic IC.indd 118

7/21/11 7:00 PM

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