COVER STORY
AIVEE TEO, one of the Philippines’ top aestheticians, on why true beauty is total beauty that goes beyond appearances and encompasses life
An afternoon discussion with Aivee Teo about the concept of beauty tackles on important issues such as self-love, acceptance, and helping others find beauty within through timeless wisdom and decades’ worth of knowledge and trade secrets
If anything proves that the only constant thing in life is change—it is the definition of beauty. From the heftier and more rotund ideals of the Tang dynasty to the waif-like proportions of Versace—humanity’s ideal proportions for men and women remain as ephemeral as a store sale at Louis Vuitton.
And yet for at least one aesthetician, Aivee Teo, the pursuit of beauty itself, endures. The process of embracing one’s self, enhancing one’s image, and gaining confidence is at least as appealing and as important as any one season’s trend.
It is also, in her words, a lot more fun.
FACE VALUE
With all the confidence of a mother of three, Aivee Teo reveals that she wasn’t confident, growing up. An admirer of Phoebe Cates and Brooke Shields, she says she “wanted a higher nose, and I always thought my lips were too big!” She smiles. “Back then everyone wanted this one thing, this one ideal mestiza…”
And until now, Aivee and her partner, Z disclose that skin whitening, underarm bleaching, along with facial fillers, and breast augmentations, remain extremely popular traditional treatments.
Though she notes that times are changing.
She states that there is no one standard or definition of beauty. Every culture has its own standards. “In fact when I look for beauty in someone now, I’m looking for…,” her eyes close, and she seems to scan through the thousands of patients she’s seen through the years. They snap open. “Something ‘you-nique’— something that, you know, in the context of this person’s entire face, makes it look right, makes it look interesting.” She cites mixed races (particularly Eurasian ones) as some of the more interesting patients she’s seen so far.
This same perspective often has her perplexed.
She recounts patients who will go to her, complaining about something yet all the while in the back of her head Aivee is thinking—“My god, this girl is beautiful!” At which point the seasoned aesthetician calmly, assesses the patient and suggests a “tweak.”
“A little bit here, a little change there,” she indicates with gentle hand motions.
Doc Aivee’s eyes glaze for a moment, peering back through time, reminding her of her early years—ones she looks back on fondly.
“If I could go back and tell my 14-year-old self something it would be to ‘Just wait, you don’t have to worry. It’s really about embracing yourself, then enhancing what you have. Beauty also comes later on in life. It comes when you accept yourself, try to make the most out of what you have, and try to create something with your life. So don’t hurry, don’t rush.’”
It’s wise advice, and one she tries to intimate to every one of her clients.
PATIENT PHILOSOPHY
Aivee’s partner, Z Teo, says it best.
“It’s never just about the face. Most of the people who come to us, they have some issue they want to tackle.”
He cites his own story as an example, explaining that when he was younger, in Singapore, he was teased all the time at school. “They used to call me ‘pizza face,’ and of course I laughed with my friends. But deep down, I was distraught. I was hurt.” This compelled him to seek out the help of a dermatologist, who gave him “a ray of hope.”
And it’s what Aivee has been doing ever since. “Beauty, true beauty for me is internal. It’s just that when you look good on the outside, you also feel good about yourself on the inside.”