ABOUT US

The Indie Esthetician Redefining Niche Beauty In a beauty landscape crowded with sameness, Mercedes stands apart. The Chicago-based esthetician and makeup artist has spent 17 years refining her craft ultimately building a signature approach centered on lymphatic sculpting, hormonal skin recovery, and sensory, results-driven facials that feel as intentional as they are transformative. “My work is about structure and sensation,” she says. “I wanted facials that actually change how you look but also how you feel in your face.” Her treatments are rooted in advanced lymphatic drainage, manual sculpting massage, detoxifying brush work, and oxygen nano infusion therapy with collagen or hyaluronic acid. Each protocol is layered with peptide technology, enzyme renewal, and barrier-supportive botanicals designed to de-puff, lift, and restore skin function especially for women navigating hormonal shifts, inflammation, and collagen loss. A defining focus of her work is the eye area often treated as an afterthought in traditional facials. Her targeted eye rituals combine manual drainage, cooling rollers, lymphatic brushing, and peptide therapy that visibly reduce puffiness, dark circles, and fatigue while restoring brightness and definition. “It’s not just skincare it’s drainage, structure, and recovery for the face,” she explains. “Especially around the eyes, where stress and hormones show first.” Her approach is informed by years of travel across Europe, and New York City where she studied apothecary style skincare, botanical formulation, and slow beauty rituals rooted in touch and craftsmanship. “I became obsessed with treatments that felt alive hands on, intentional, and not overproduced.” Back in Chicago, she translated that philosophy into a modern studio experience: facial treatments that merge European sensibility with clinical skin science, designed for real-life skin concerns especially hormonal, tired, or depleted skin. Each service is her edit: a modern sculpting ritual that replaces routine facials with something more precise, more personal, and unmistakably lived-in.