Roxana Deleanu is a master aesthetician whose career has focused exclusively on skincare and makeup artistry for more than four decades. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Ms. Deleanu immigrated to the United States with her mother, Adriana, in 1978. The family settled in New York, where Adriana began working at Bergdorf Goodman as a facialist before opening her own luxury skincare salon. Watching her mother at work and hearing her talk about her clients and the industry sparked the young Ms. Deleanu’s own passion for aesthetics and skincare, and she knew that she would eventually follow her mother’s path into the beauty industry. Ms. Deleanu recalled feeling as if she didn’t even have to think about it; it just came naturally.
Ms. Deleanu left New York in 1980, settling in the Los Angeles area. She trained at Fine Skincare Salon in Beverly Hills and attended the Dermaceutical Academy of G.M. Collin for additional advanced training, earning the brand’s highly selective master aesthetician certification. In 1981, she became the lead facialist at the Beverly Hills Yves Rocher Skincare Clinique, where she continued to refine her skills and build her clientele until 1988. She left Yves Rocher the following year to work independently, starting her own salon in the area, Roxana’s Exclusive Skin Treats.
Since 1989, Ms. Deleanu has continued to run Roxana’s Exclusive Skin Treats with a focus on traditional European facials and natural products. Despite the salon’s success, with a loyal following of word-of-mouth clients from all parts of California and fans throughout the country who make trips to Los Angeles to see Ms. Deleanu, she remains the only employee, preferring to work on each client herself. Treating each client’s face, neck, and hands using high-frequency steamers, infrared light, and products designed to soothe irritation and stimulate healing, Ms. Deleanu emphasizes taking her time with each individual client and never rushing a service. Although medical aesthetics have boomed in recent years, her interest and passion remains in traditional skin care, and she emphasizes that her work is designed to heal and enhance each client’s natural skin long-term, rather than promoting invasive treatments.
In addition to her business as a facialist, Ms. Deleanu is a talented makeup artist whose work has been featured in Shape, Allure, and other national publications. She has been recognized for more than 21 years of exclusive partnership with skincare line G.M. Collin by the president of the company, and her business success has led her to be featured as an Honored Professional in the 2000 National Register Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals. She attributes her success to her enduring love for her work, noting that even after 42 years in the beauty industry, she still feels her best when she is working, and has no plans to slow down.
Ms. Deleanu sees her consistent care and attention to each client’s skin as a hallmark of her professional style and a major reason why clients seek her out over a dermatologist or medical aesthetics clinic, explaining that her goal is to make each client look and feel their best in their own skin. She counsels other beauty professionals and entrepreneurs to stay in for the long haul even when you feel you’re at a dead end, no matter what it takes. In addition to working with G.M. Collin products, Ms. Deleanu has formulated Roxana’s Exclusive Skin Treats, an in-house line of skincare products designed by her and her mother. In the coming years, she hopes to expand to online sales of her skincare line while continuing to work on clients on a full-time basis.
