Founder and CEO of the first company to bring seaweed-based skincare treatments and cosmetics to fruition in the U.S market, Lydia is an international industry leader. She is the developer of the world-renowned Repêchage® Four Layer Facial®, offered in over 40 countries, and today, she presides over a 50,000 square foot manufacturing, research and development and training facility in Secaucus, NJ. Lydia opened the first day spa in Manhattan in 1977, the Repêchage Spa de Beauté in 1986 on Third Ave and later in the Galleria building on 57th Street. She innovated spa services with the creation of the Facial Bar concept which allows salons and spas to incorporate express facial treatments with instant, visible results.
Lydia was one of the pioneers in the field of esthetics in the U.S. setting the professional and business standard for the industry. Her skincare method is practiced by top estheticians around the world and is taught in over 200 schools in the US and globally; the Lydia Sarfati Post-Graduate Skin Care Academy located in Secaucus, NJ offers master courses taught by Lydia twice per year in addition to the advanced education classes available at the Academy on a monthly basis.
She appears nationally and internationally at esthetic trade shows, and her overseas conferences include Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Central America, and South Africa. She has produced 17 step-by-step instructional videos as well as published The Repêchage Professional Skin Care Methods and Protocols and The Lydia Sarfati Book of Skin Science, comprehensive works of skin conditions, skincare and body treatments, and medical esthetics including pre and post operative care protocols. She is a prolific writer, a contributing editor for Les Nouvelles Esthetique and Skin Inc. Magazine and European publications, and author of “Success at Your Fingertips.” Written to help salon and spa professionals achieve professional success, it was published in the US in 2005, in Poland in 2014 and in Romania in the Fall, 2015.
Lydia was a founding President of the EMDA (Esthetics Manufacturer and Distributor Alliance), Vice President of American Beauty Association—now a part of Professional Beauty Association, a member of CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women), FGI (Fashion Group International), ICMAD and is the honorary chairman of EstheticsAmerica/CIDESCO USA.
Mrs. Sarfati was also the recipient of both LNE’s Crystal Award and Dermascope’s Legend Award. Lydia Sarfati was granted the ICMAD’s Cosmetic Entrepreneur Award for Leadership and the NCA Pillar Award for Education Leadership. She was the first honoree from a skincare company to be recognized at the 19th Annual American Beauty Ball and Charity Gala benefitting The Make A Wish Foundation®. Lydia was honored at 2009’s Seventh Annual “Top Women in Business” Networking Awards Dinner presented by the Queens Courier, Queens Business Today and American Airlines. In September 2009, Lydia was presented with the prestigious Chevalerie “Knight Award” by Intercoiffure Mondial as the first and only skin care professional to be recognized by the organization for outstanding contributions to the industry. Lydia continues to promote education to professionals through-out the globe.