Rose Garden Resident
News
Sisters use nursing skills to open Medspa
By Mary Gottschalk
Sharing a shopping center with PetSmart, Office Depot and Sleep Train stores may seem an unlikely fit for a medical spa, but Christina Ignacio says it's proving to be a good one.
Ignacio and her sister Cecilia Cayabyab opened Blu Cocoon MedSpa in San Jose MarketCenter on Coleman Avenue at the end of January.
Business is already surpassing their expectations.
"When we opened, we thought we'd be happy with five to 10 clients, but the first week we had 44," Cayabyab says. "We didn't expect to be that busy."
Ignacio says people shopping at Target and other stores are noticing their sign and coming in for a look around.
As the sisters hoped, the location between downtown San Jose and the Rose Garden area is attracting clients from both areas.
Ignacio says it's important to recognize that Blu Cocoon is not a day spa, but a medical spa.
She says that the only crossover between a medspa and a day spa are the facials. But while facials in a day spa are therapeutic, feel-good papaya peels, the medspa uses a glycolic medical peel.
"We are looking to initiate change in the skin, we are more calculating and aggressive. We use medical grade products and a lot are prescription, which we can do because we have a medical director, Dr. Al Shen.
"We also have lasers, Botox injections and a lot of different techniques that can only be performed by medical professionals."
Ignacio describes a medspa as "a cross between your dermatologist and plastic surgeon with a spa atmosphere."
Among the services Blu Cocoon offers are laser treatments for facials, hair removal and vein therapy; Botox, Restylane and ReFirme treatments; body contouring with Lipolite; and eyebrow shaping.
Both Ignacio and Cayabyab were born in the Philippines, and after coming to San Jose with their parents in 1985, they both pursued nursing careers.
Ignacio recently left her position in coronary care at Stanford Hospital to work fulltime at Blu Cocoon.
"It was a very hard decision," Ignacio says. "I've been in coronary care my whole nursing career and at Stanford for seven years."
Cayabyab continues working at O'Connor Hospital as nurse manager for the oncology center, putting in from 9 to 12 hours a week at Blu Cocoon.
Both sisters say switching from working with ill people to concentrating on wellness is a positive change for them.
"It's two extremes," Cayabyab says. "Here I am in the hospital oncology department dealing with life and death every day, and the medspa is a different focus. It's making people feel good, look good and making them more health conscious."
Ignacio, who followed Cayabyab into nursing, says, "Every nurse has a second job. I became interested in the beauty and medicine industry three or four years ago.
"I started seeing a trend with more and more nurse friends going to work at a medspa or working with plastic surgeons."
Ignacio took a job at another medspa for six months before making the decision to open her own with her sister.
Cayabyab says in the past they have been involved in real estate investments.
"We thought there must be something else we can do that's more exciting and where we can use our nursing background," Cayabyab says.
"We have worked so hard for our vocation, and we don't want to let go of it. We're still using our nursing skills. I like helping people and caring for them."
According to Spa Finder Inc., medspas are a growing industry, with approximately 1,250 in operation in the United States now, double the number of a year ago, That number is expected to increase 33 percent in 2007.
In looking for a name for their medspa, Ignacio says, "We wanted a fresh name. Not a name like rejuvenate or renew, which sound too cliché. Cocoon is kind of nice because it talks about transformation without being blunt--you come in as a caterpillar and go out a butterfly.
"We didn't want to just call it cocoon, and someone mentioned that blue stands for technology, like the Blue Man Group. So we dropped the e to make it more trendy."
Attorney Grace Ybarra of Campbell says she visited Blu Cocoon on the recommendation of an acquaintance.
"I've never had to worry about my skin. Just wash your face with soap and use a bit of moisturizer," Ybarra says.
"Now I'm in my 60s, the skin is starting to sag a bit. I don't want to look like I'm 21, but there has to be a way to improve this."
After her first VibraDermabrasion facial and starting a collagen treatment series, Ybarra says she's been getting compliments from others.
She laughs recalling how an opposing attorney "kept looking at me, and then he said, 'You look really good today.' "
Unlike many, Ybarra is very open about what she's doing.
"It's been great fun," she says. "It's not invasive. You go and are pampered for a while. I'm the most unlikely person to have done this."
Cayabyab foresees Blu Cocoon expanding to additional locales in the future.
"We plan to do more than one when this one is successful," she says.
Ignacio sees success already.
"Even though we're new, people see we care about them. I'm not a salesperson or a businessperson. I'm a nurse at heart. I don't want to push a product that's a waste of time and money for them," she says.
"We want to get to know our clientele and see the difference they want to see, not the difference we want to see."
Blu Cocoon is in San Jose MarketCenter, 519 Coleman Ave., www.blucocoonmedspa.com, 408.295.2580.
