beauty

Tiny salon Sil'Vie helps Wayzata clients learn to love their hair.

You don’t have to give up your beauty routine while you’re on the road.

New Wayzata salon focuses on honesty to guide clients to what they’re really looking for.

Kassandra Kuehl is no newbie when it comes to the beauty industry. She attended the Aveda Institute in 2000 and owns her own successful salon, Beauty Ecology, in Wayzata. After turning to a healthier lifestyle, she began to see how damaging some popular beauty products could be.

Lili Salon Spa is a popular spot for relaxation in the Sundial Center of Minnetonka, and now its sister spa, Liv Skin Medspa, offers even more relaxing, medical-grade procedures. Liv’s spa menu includes Botox, Juvederm, Voluma, Kybella, Restylane, Latisse, SkinMedica, VivierSkin and Revision procedures, plus standbys from facials and waxing to laser treatments and massages. Newly open in January, the team at Liv plans to add lash extension services and educational seminars for industry professionals and customers.

When Care Connelly worked in cosmetics at MAC, around 80 percent of her clients confided that their skin usually reacted adversely to beauty products. Connelly could relate.

“Even though I’m interested in beauty and skincare, I would spend a lot of money on a product and use it once. My skin would react…and I’d have to throw it away,” she says.

When husband and wife team Sam Koza and Jessica Mae created their own beauty business several years ago, they knew the name needed to be as fierce as the mission. WarPaint International was the result of their brainstorming efforts. “[The name is] powerful and meaningful,” Mae shares.

Donna Duffy recommends a mild to slightly deeper exfoliation during the fall, once a week for five or six weeks. Organic Pharmacy, a London-based organic cosmetics line, offers an enzyme peel mask facial treatment, available in a lower retail strength ($79). A professional strength version ($125-$200) can be applied by the pros at Fusion Lifespa. “The key is to have somebody you trust perform [skin services],” Duffy explains. “Have a good conversation about the after-care and a good sunscreen, and you are good to go.”

With 50 years of experience and 103 trophies at styling competitions, Rita Ambourn is still as passionate about hair as she was as a student at Oliver Thein Beauty School in Burnsville in the 1960s.

The friendship between CaJah Salon owners Jim Halvorson and Carrie Sartin began with a back handspring. Sartin had been working at her last salon for three years when Halvorson was hired, she says. “When I found out you were a gymnast and you had horses,” she says to Halvorson, “I knew I needed to be your friend.”