Bal Harbour

C O U R T E S Y O F M E A D O W O O D N A PA VA L L E Y FROM TOP Pietro Simone at The Spa at Meadowood in Napa Valley, California; a selection of products used in the Lift Corrective facial, designed exclusively for Meadowood. was surrounded by his "big Italian family of women: I never understood why my mom, my grandma, my sister, my auntie… they were always so happy when they were coming out from the bathroom. I'm like, I don't get it over here!" So he watched and listened—especially to the stories of his nonna, Rosa, "who also became my guinea pig. She told me how, when there were salt shortages during World War II, she figured out how to employ coarse fiber scraps in place of the way you would use salts in a face scrub." The scarcity-turned-solution set Simone on a course of discovery, leading him to a practice of "threading," which he incorporates into many of his facials today. Simone's thread, 14-gauge organic cotton, is a far cry from the scraps his nonna developed for her makeshift skincare routine. "I took the idea of the fiber scrub and combined it with lymphatic drainage," he explains. "By applying a peel of azelaic acid and salicylic acid, followed by the threading technique, I'm able to accomplish precise exfoliation, lymphatic drainage, and a facial muscle massage." And now, with the addition of Regenesis to the Lift Corrective facial, the results of this noninvasive treatment are extraordinary. Still, Simone isn't ready to roll out the treatments en masse. Outside of the Spa at Meadowood, Regenesis is currently only available at Simone's clinics in New York, East Hampton, and London, and a small handful of spas in the US whose staffs have been personally trained by Simone. In South Florida, you can visit the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale and Flawless by Melissa Fox in Coral Gables. Pietro Simone's brand-new Regenesis collection might just be a miracle—not to mention the most expensive skincare line on the market. BY TALI JAFFE-MINOR pro-aging pioneer I t makes sense that a facial offered exclusively at a resort as revered as Meadowood, nestled into Napa Valley's picturesque town of St. Helena, would be extraordinary. But I hadn't accounted for the Northern California dose of woo woo. "It looks to me like you hold a lot of emotion in your muscles," says innovative skincare founder Pietro Simone, whose hands, at that moment, are sheathed in silver-thread conductive gloves that, as he moves across the planes of my face, deliver precise microcurrents, which cause my muscles to tense and release (notably more of the latter). "This is the best part of the Lift Corrective," he continues. "The combination of technology and skincare is like a full-on rebooting of the system." The Lift Corrective facial is the latest treatment to be developed by Simone, who is often referred to as a skincare-industry disruptor for his approach, which he calls pro-aging. "Anti-aging, as far as I'm concerned, is impossible," says the 40-year-old Northern Italian in his deadpan manner. "What I like to do—using technology to develop all of these products, and employing different modalities—is really manage and delay the aging process. And knowing who I'm working on—their lifestyle, their emotional state—is at the core of the success of my pro-aging approach." Simone has just applied a thin layer of soothing gel all over my face and neck, which, I soon learn, is a preview of his new line. "Regenesis is a collection of five products made from plant and MSC [Mesenchymal stem cell] exosomes," says Simone, explaining that the latter are derived from umbilical-cord stem cells. The most expensive in the line, Regenesis Infusion, is a $4,800, 50ml tube containing 100 billion living exosomes. "Exosomes are carriers and messengers, which means they're going to immediately enhance the communication between your cells. With Regenesis, you will progressively see your skin thicker, stronger, and resilient. Which also means less wrinkles, less fine lines, less inflammation." Simone, who cut his teeth at esteemed Swiss skincare companies La Prairie and Nescens, has created a niche, marrying truly cutting-edge technology with more manual modalities, like dry massage and lymphatic drainage. He first grasped skincare as self-care at home, where he "Anti-aging, as far as I'm concerned, is impossible. What I do is really manage and delay the aging process." BH S beauty BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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