Step into Karli Cox’s Fresh Face Skin Studio, and you’ll encounter a world of potions, high-tech light therapy and a relaxing place to be pampered.
Want to take a nap during a treatment? She’s fine with that.
Want to pick her brain about what actually works for dry skin, wrinkles and hyperpigmentation? She’s cool with that, too.
The 55-year-old esthetician is willing to dispense stories and advice, as well as treatments for tired, parched skin. The skin studio is her latest entrepreneurial venture, born out of a passion for esthetics she’s had since she was little.
When she was growing up back East, between New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, she played with her grandmother’s makeup and a Farrah Fawcett doll. She loved the beauty counter at department stores. While she still appreciates makeup, she’s the kind of person who also likes living somewhere where she can wear sweatpants out of the house and drive on dirt roads.
She didn’t think too much about aging skin, until she was in her mid-20s and noticed friends with deep wrinkles and skin damage from tanning. Heck, she used to use tanning beds, herself.
Cox moved to the area in 2011, with four draft horses (another one of her passions). In 2014, she opened Heart and Sleeve boutique on Clinton Street, specializing in trendy clothes and unique home decor. She also had previous experience handling finances for mortgages for custom homes.
She married Michael Cox, Dalwhinnie Ranch’s general manager. She closed the boutique in 2017, and decided to be a homemaker for a while. And then, she started getting that entrepreneurial itch to start something again.
“I just felt like there was more to be than being the best wife and the best mother,” she said.
She decided to pursue more knowledge and training about skin care, and spent the past year getting her esthetician license from the Denver School of Botanical & Medical Esthetics.
She opened Fresh Face Skin on Nov. 1, in a space upstairs from the Lazy Dog Saloon in Ridgway.
Clients can expect skin treatments with a side of education – explanations about things like antioxidants, peptides, acids and serums. She’s also offering Korean skin care for clients, which is growing in popularity. Cox is all about the new technology, especially harnessing the power of light treatments.
“My forte has always been with LED,” she said.
She takes her red light everywhere, even on trips and vacation.
“Red light is like the fountain of youth,” she said.
These treatments have been shown in recent clinical trials to enhance cell growth, and are an increasingly popular therapy for treating skin problems, especially for reversing the signs of aging.
That’s why she’s investing in a red light photobiomodulation bed for full-body treatments at her studio. She’ll have it available for clients in the new year.
She also specializes in high-altitude skin care and problematic skin at any age. But most of all, she wants to serve her clients with knowledge and tools to better their skin – and give them results.
“I do like to help people feel good,” she said, and part of that is finding solutions that actually work. She knows clients may feel overwhelmed by all the options on the internet.
“We’re being bombarded by people on TikTok trying to get us to buy things and it wastes their money,” she said.
Her non-surgical facial treatments, designed to tighten and brighten the skin, are something she vouches for and has tried herself. She enjoys helping clients reduce the appearance of fine lines, scars, acne, stretch marks and more with red, infrared and blue light therapy. And she’s found the Cool Jet Plasma treatments are useful for everything from treating acne to calming other skin problems and helping to fight the signs of aging.
To make an appointment online, visit ffskinstudio.com, or call 970-773-4606. Fresh Face Skin Studio is located at 153 Highway 550, #201A, in Ridgway.