Shelly Maguire and Frankie Tedesco

Co-owners and founders, Ice Elements Skincare

Shelly Maguire and Frankie Tedesco owe a lot to serendipity. One day in Fort Lauderdale while Frankie was out jogging and Shelly was driving to her hotel to start her vacation, the two of them came to a red light at the same time. Frankie, who had stopped at that corner dozens of times in the past without talking to anyone, complimented Shelly through the open window, and the rest is history.

When Frankie, a massage therapist, and Shelly, who owned three salons in St. Louis before she moved to Florida with Frankie, decided to start a business together, skin care was at the top of their minds. “I noticed that people would come to my spas for services and then leave without the products that made them feel so good,” Shelly says. “Skin care seemed too complicated and time consuming – so we built our brand on keeping skin care simple.”

The hero product of the couple’s company, Ice Elements, is the 2 Minute Miracle Gel (www.2mmgel.com), a multitasker that cleanses, tones, and locks onto dead skin cells to exfoliate without any acids or abrasives. The star ingredient is a glycoprotein derived from a microorganism in the Antarctic Sea that locks in moisture in cold conditions.

Shelly, a lifelong fighter of Cystic Fibrosis, knows a thing or two about difficult conditions. After being given a life expectancy of 18 when she was just 9 years old, Shelly, now 62, balances living for today with excitement for the new experiences tomorrow holds for her and Frankie.

“We make each other better,” Shelly says. “Twenty-three years later, we’re still each other’s best friends for life. If you find one of us, you’ll find the other close by, always.”

“When I met Shelly at that red light, I was kind of a lost soul,” Frankie adds. “I needed direction, and Shelly helped set me on the right path. I truly believe that we saved each other.”