| Lydia Sarfati | |
|---|---|
Lydia Sarfati in Repêchage laboratory, 1983 |
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| Born | Poland |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur/Cosmetics Company Founder |
| Known for | Cosmetics |
Lydia Sarfati is a Polish-born American esthetician, entrepreneur, consultant and author. She is credited with having introduced seaweed-based skin treatments in the United States,[1] and known as a pioneer in the field of modern cosmetics.[2] In 1980, she founded the Sarkli-Repêchage cosmetics company, together with her husband David.[3] Sarfati is a member of several professional associations, a consultant for the spa industry and author of several books on cosmetology and wellness.[4]
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Lydia Sarfati was born in Poland.[5][6] She is the daughter of Polish Jews Szloma and Sofia Mops, both of whom were survivors of the Holocaust. Her father's family was almost entirely killed by the Nazis, while her mother had been hold prisoner in a labor camp in Russia during World War II. Lydia grew up in Legnica;[2] during her time in Poland, she took her first professional training, a medically-oriented skin care course. Due to a growing anti-Semitic atmosphere in her native Poland, Lydia emigrated together with her parents to Italy, after a brief period spent in Vienna.[4] In 1970, the Mops family got the opportunity to leave for the United States, and settled in New York, where Lydia got her first job as a makeup artist in a salon on Madison Avenue.
In New York, Lydia met her future husband, David Sarfati, and the two married in 1972.[7] A year later, the couple had their first child Ires, and 6 years later they had their second child Shiri. To support them, Lydia worked as an esthetician in Queens and, in the evenings, she received private customers at the makeshift beauty salon she had improvised at her home.
In the late 1970s, Sarfati noticed that skin care was still largely neglected in the United States. Together with a friend, Shoshana Kliot, she opened a salon, the Klisar Skin Care Center, in September 1977, and in just a few months, some of New York's most glamorous figures came to receive the novel skin treatments created by Sarfati.[2] The popularity of the salon only grew when magazines such as Vogue, Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar, and the New York Times Magazine[8] wrote about Sarfati's advanced esthetic services.
The next step for Sarfati was to establish her own line of cosmetic products. In 1983, she gave up on her successful salon business, and sold her share to her partner. Her goal was to produce and market a facial product that could be easily applied even by beginners, and still provide excellent results. The result of her efforts was the four-layer facial produced by the Repêchage company, which she founded together with her husband.
In addition to facials, Repêchage manufactured basin cleaners, lotions, moisturizers and other skin care treatments. One of the most successful products was the full body treatment based on seaweed, the use of which Sarfati pioneered in the United States.[3] Besides seaweed, Repêchage and Lydia Sarfati also popularized other ingredients used in thalassotherapy, such as sea water and salts.[9]
Today, Repêchage has established an international presence, with treatments and cosmetic products marketed in 30 countries.[10] The company's headquarters are located in Secaucus, New Jersey, where Repêchage runs a 50,000 ft production facility, as wells as research laboratories and an esthetics school.[11]
Lydia Sarfati is the President of the Estethics Manufacturer and Distributor Alliance (EMDA) and the honorary chair of EstheticsAmerica/CIDESCO USA. She is a member of several other professional associations of the cosmetics and wellness industries.[12] For her contributions to the advancement of esthetics in the U.S., Sarfati has received several awards, including the DERMASCOPE Legend Award[13] and the National Cosmetics Association's Pillar Award for Education Leadership.[14]
Lydia Sarfati is a speaker[15] and consultant for the spa industry, being invited to attend conferences and other industry activities.[16] Sarfati is also an author; she published Success at your Fingertips, which covers all aspects involved in running a skin care business.[4]