Facing aging
WHEN Korina Sanchez Roxas surprised everyone with her new look, a fresh visage through an application of the science of beauty known as Thermage by Vicki Belo, we had to ask Dr. MJ Torres to explain the A to Z of such a wondrous procedure.
MJ’s field is aesthetic and antiaging medicine, which says it all, and she has a client base of 5,000, most of them women. As a friendly “neighbor” at her Zen Institute Medical Spa which we pass by every week on our way to our Bulong Pulungan forum at Sofitel, she was the logical resource person to ask about the nitty-gritties of beautyenhancing treatments, especially since she wants it known that “our techniques are noninvasive, nonsurgical.”
A long afternoon it was, where her every answer triggered multiple questions, women being vain creatures who are, aha, afraid of pain. For starters, she explained that the Zen in her company’s name describes the calm and serenity of a spa, to assure clients that the experience that awaits them is a calming one, “not a quick fix” but a journey toward a healthy inner and outer self with the bonus of a younger appearance and fewer wrinkles.
If Korina’s billboards advertise Thermage, MJ has its equivalent, Resonax, which is only one of many procedures in the Zen repertoire of stem-cell rejuvenation, threading (threads are injected under the skin to lift the muscles), facial contouring, body sculpting, hair thickening, skin lightening, skin tightening, etc. If someone has a special need for any part of his or her body, the esthetic sciences have the solution – that’s how rapidly they’ve been advancing.
You can also ask Boots Anson Roa, Mr. and Mrs. Franco Laurel, Veronica Baluyut, who have been with MJ “for years” – no quick fixes, remember? – for their maintenance programs. It’s no secret that MJ’s older sister, Agnes Devanadera, chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission, is a faithful client, too. (If only she could give ERC a face-lift after four of its commissioners were decommissioned.)
When all is said and done, it would be tempting to spend an afternoon in MJ’s spa, if only to take a peek at her clientele’s “before” and “after” pictures.