IT ISN’T fair that physical beauty should be a given only to those that can afford the time and treatments needed to obtain it. KimRey Face and Body Contouring Lounge in Bagumbayan, Quezon City, (right outside Eastwood) makes an effort to change all that.

“We love going to salons and we know it’s not affordable for regular working people, so why don’t we come up with an aesthetic center we can market to the working class?,” says Anna Reyes, co-founder and COO of KimRey.

Ms. Reyes co-founded KimRey with her sisters, Claire Kimble (who sits as CEO) and Vanessa Lee (who sits as President). The women grew up in the US, and they worked in the BPO industry prior to setting up KimRey (the name comes from bits and pieces of their last names). “We tried to look around for a business we would enjoy and has regular working hours since working nights in our call center took a toll on our health. One day, we tried going to a slimming/contouring place, and the moment we had our services done, we knew that was our next business venture,” said Ms. Reyes.

The menu of services offered by the clinic ranges from laser treatments and botox mesotehrapy, to IV nutrition therapy, dermal fillers, chemical peels, facials, and even an interesting treatment called the KimRey 360° Glass Skin (presumably making you look like a translucent-faced Korean pop star).

As for treatments for the body, they have body sculpting, minimally invasive lifts using ultrasound, and various non-surgical treatments designed to make one lose weight and gain definition for the body.

Speaking about the minimally invasive nature of the treatments, Ms. Reyes said, “The term ‘minimally invasive’ generally applies to surgical procedures using techniques that limit the operative site or decrease incision size thereby shortening wound healing time. By definition, surgery is invasive and requires incision. At KimRey, we don’t perform surgery, so we can consider all our procedures non-invasive. However, there are schools of thought that consider puncturing the skin minimally invasive. We offer treatments that require puncturing of the skin, like Botox, Fillers, Mesotherapy and PRP. Hence, going by that way of thinking, we can say that at KimRey, there are minimally invasive treatments.”

She also emphasized the safety of their treatments. “All treatments and procedures at KimRey are doctor-recommended and are performed under a doctor’s supervision,” she said, adding that they currently have two dermatologists in the clinic. She also adds that their staff consists of registered nurses and licensed physical therapists.

As for the equipment and the medicines used in the clinic, “All our machines and devices for facial and body contouring and all our lasers are considered the latest, most powerful and the best in medical and aesthetic dermatology. All the medicines we use in clinic procedures and treatments, as well as those being dispensed to our patients for maintenance or home use, are FDA-approved,” she said. “Certainly, our clients/patients are guaranteed of treatment safety and effectivity.”

As Ms. Reyes mentioned above, the clinic plans to cater to what they call “the working class.” Ms. Reyes discussed what they did to keep costs down for the customer: “Our doctors provide free consultations on a case-to-case basis, and it is clinic policy that professional fees are waived if a patient avails of any treatment or procedure. To bring down the cost of our services, we searched the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industry for FDA-approved medicines and products that are affordable but with high quality, efficacy, and effectivity. At the clinic, we have medicines, products, and consumables that are either locally manufactured or imported from the USA, Europe, and Korea. Even though we use the same high-end lasers, machines, and devices for all our treatments (as other places), we are able to adjust the cost of the treatments without them suffering in quality. We believe there is no service more affordable than one that is given for free.”

Speaking of things given for free, Ms. Reyes and her family began a charity late last year, visiting orphanages and reaching out to disadvantaged families. “The KimRey Foundation started as a charity event among our sisters and our children,” says Anna Reyes. “We began to visit orphanages to give back, while showing our kids how blessed we are.”

The definition of who the working classes are can be really spotty, depending on whom you’re asking: a Marxist will tell you that it’s anyone who does not own the means of production, but then someone will tell you that only those involved in manual and industrial labor are the working class, separating those who find their occupation in the office. We define it here as anyone earning minimum wage and below, and of course we asked Ms. Reyes if those in that income bracket (say a sales assistant) can afford their treatments (a menu we obtained didn’t include the price ranges of their servcies). “KimRey aims to provide services to people from all walks of life, from the minimum wage-earner to the well-heeled folks. Dermatological treatments and facial and body contouring procedures are associated with a hefty price tag. We aim to make these treatments accessible to all,” said Ms. Reyes.

Ms. Reyes said, “We want to reach out and make more people feel healthy, beautiful, pampered and special. We want to somehow boost the confidence of many, because we believe that one important key to success is self-confidence. If we can contribute to the success of our clients while earning enough to provide livelihood and a little more to our family and the families of our employees, then we can consider KimRey successful, too.”

KimRey Face & Body Contouring Lounge can be reached through 0917-119-5816. The clinic is located at Richmond Centre, 8001 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave. Bagumbayan, Quezon City. — Joseph L. Garcia

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