Linda Ross Beverly Hills at The El Encanto

After 30 years in the skin-care industry, Linda Ross Beverly Hills continues to hold court for her in-person treatments and skin care line, available by referral only. Her client list matches the red carpet, and she has appeared in Glamour, Who What Wear, New Beauty, Women’s Health, InStyle, and Lucky Magazine and on the Style Network. 

Of interest for local residents is her partnership with the Spa at the El Encanto a Belmond Hotel, Santa Barbara, which holds an exclusive license to sell her skin-care products and perform facials by spa aestheticians trained by her. During November, Ross is donating 5 percent of the product and treatment sales by El Encanto to the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network. 

I met with Ross at the El Encanto Spa on Nov. 5, while she was preparing her treatment schedule for their wellness week event. She explained that she cares about people and nature, and choosing the SB Wildlife Care Network was an important decision. Ross said, “They [SB Wildlife Care Network] rescued a baby hawk that fell from the nest in the eucalyptus tree on the hotel property, took care of it, and put it back in the nest with a crane!” 

I had asked, if one missed the wellness week, would Ross be back? She replied, “When an El Encanto guest or local resident books the Illustrious Escape Beauty Journey in advance, I will come and do the service. I also have my signature microcurrent facial using products that have food-grade nutrients, that I do with microcurrent gloves, which no other spa is doing. I work very closely with the El Encanto’s spa staff, making sure they are educated with my products and comfortable with the protocols for their custom-designed treatments.”

Ross shared her enthusiasm for her dedication to creating the skin-care products in 2006, a basic four-part routine, her celebrity clients bet their career on. The products are made in small batches and from ingredients she has researched and tested for more than 14 years. The products are a Cleanser, a MicroDerm Scrub, an Anti-Aging Cream, and the Propolis & Royal Jelly, which come with instructions and the ingredients list.

Q.How did you get into aesthetics?

A. I wanted to be my own boss, and I looked at the trends, which was that baby boomers were uncomfortable with aging. I noticed the woman I used to go to for facials who worked in the back of a hair salon was booked solid, and I thought, I can do this. It’s more about whether the customer is happy with what you do or not. It’s very simple from corporate work. 

When I started, I decided to move and set up in Beverly Hills, where facials are purchased by clients by whothey want to do it. The flip side of that is the clients are spa-savvy, and if you want to make it, you have to provide better and consistent results from wherever else they are going. 

Success in the business is [due to] two things: one is the technique used – and I studied a lot of different techniques, massage, and extractions – and the other is the products. You have to be strong in both areas. When I started my business, I was trying to find a skin-care line, and tried anything and everything. I found a line I liked and rep’ed it for 14 years. I started to study the ingredients and how they work, and created my own line. My philosophy is about the long-term effects, aging the best you can long term, not fast-tracking it, which may have negative side effects that are harder to fix. 

Talk about your products…

What’s unique is that we are opposite from most skin-care products sold in spas. What they do is use treatment products sold only to spas and sell different product lines for customers to use at home. My philosophy is that whatever we use in the treatment room is available for you to buy to use at home, and it’s just four steps. My products are designed for both genders, including the scent. These four steps are designed to give your skin everything it needs, to get the results, whereas other lines may take 10 to 12 steps. The products work synergistically with the skin, so it takes a little bit longer to see the results. We are not doing anything to make the skin photo-sensitive, which works faster for results but there are a lot of side effects from that. My products can work with acids if that is what you want; they make the acids work better. 

What is the age range for your product line?

Good question. My clients always ask me what age their kids should start doing skin care. The answer is when the oil glands get active, puberty, and they can use three products – cleanse, scrub and the propolis jelly. For the anti-aging cream, the age to start is based on when the person feels aging is important to them.

411: www.lindarossbeverlyhills.com
Spa at the El Encanto (805) 770-3345