You can’t put Cornelia Zicu in a corner—even if it is a corner office.
After five years of serving as Chief Creative Officer for Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, Cornelia, much like the woman behind the brand she is working on now, is arguably one of the most famous names in the spa industry. And this month brings Cornelia out of her office and into a treatment room to return to performing her most notable facial—a two-hour, two-person treatment—at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa’s newly-opened boutique spa at The Chatwal Hotel in Manhattan.
“The first love you never forget,” Cornelia said of returning to working hands-on with clients. The Romania-born spa guru became a household name when she opened her eponymous spa, Cornelia Day Resort, in 2005.
The spa has since been sold and closed—the deal was widely documented by the New York press as tragic not just for Cornelia (she ultimately lost the rights to brand her name on future spas and products) but also for the aestheticians who worked there as the new owners were new to the challenging spa industry. And last year, a Cornelia Spa at the Surrey Hotel opened, but alas it has nothing to do with Zicu.
But in 2008 Cornelia found a new home within the doors of the spa industry’s leading institution, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, where over the past five years she’s virtually transformed its vision. Among her accomplishments: creating an education department; re-crafting the services menu and protocols for each treatment, including face, nails and body. She also updated Red Door’s legendary wax formula, adding antioxidants and antibacterials, making it more reflective of 2013 ideals. And most recently, Cornelia has played an important role in the launch of Red Door Spa Professional, a spa-based skin and body care line with active botanicals, antioxidants and vitamins. Similar to Red Door Spa’s line-up of professional treatment offerings, Red Door Spa Professional skin care is divided into three specialized categories: Customized Daily Essentials, Targeted Intensive Skincare Solutions and Body Renewal.
To establish consistency for the Red Door brand and its services, Cornelia also spent a year performing one-on-one training with department leads and aestheticians from each of Red Door’s 30 locations.
“I showed them tricks on good techniques in facials and waxing, how to follow the music playing in the room, how to not touch the face before relaxing the body and mind. It was a very intense five years. I feel everything is stable and there’s a structure in place. Now I can afford to dedicate one day a week to doing my first love. And really, it had been requested.”
At the Chatwal, located on 130 West 44th Street, spa-goers can experience the Red Door Grand Debut Facial by Cornelia, a two-hour skin care renewal experience performed by Cornelia and supplemented with a top Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa technician who handles the deep cleansing, exfoliation, massage treatment and skin care therapy of the body. The personalized, tailored facial aims to dramatically boost collagen and circulation, and slow down the aging process with a prescribed flight of Red Door Spa Professional and Elizabeth Arden skin care products paired with Cornelia’s own secret beauty techniques.
“I realized that when I opened Cornelia, having two people do a facial was special. I went back to my belief that a facial should not be just applying product but it should change the texture and skin. Two hours is a good amount of time—and there is a market for that and that segment can’t find it anywhere else.”
The cost: $1,000.
Keeping her personal spa identity apart from her current corporate persona is something Cornelia has had to work on over the years. Daily reminders not to infuse her ideals as a former spa owner into the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa personality, which is distinct and stand alone, helped her to build on the 100+ year-old brand.
“Every single minute of the past five years I have been playing a different role. I think of what I need to do to perform the best at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and how to be Elizabeth Arden. I have to not push the Cornelia concept and personality. I play in my mind that I am [Arden], how to bring her to life in 2013, what she would like to have and offer people. Yes, we have some common things, like perfection. But we have differences, too.”