GOOD skin care includes visiting an esthetician once in a few weeks for a regular facial or knowing a few go-to skin clinics near your area in case acne develops. To add to this list of skin care areas is Piel Acne and Anti-Aging Skin Center which finally opened in Cebu two months ago. After years of success in New York and Manila, Sylvia Cancio, a New York-based Filipino esthetician and founder of La Manille School of Esthetics, has finally brought her skin center and expertise to Cebu. Piel is made up of staff who are all licensed estheticians and the branch is operated and supervised by Dr. Nonoy Zuñiga as the head doctor.
“I’m from Cebu. This is my hometown. I opened in New York and I’ve been successful there. I also opened in Manila and so I had to move in to Cebu because this is where we want to make it. We feel very at home and very comfortable here,” said Sylvia.
The Cebu branch offers a few skin care services that have been proven and tested in New York. To name a few, the clinic offers microcurrent and microdermabrasion, which is said to be one of the treatments that are very well received by patients. “The microcurrent is done by passing a very low current that our brain tells our muscles what to do. So when it passes through, it heals the cell. This is cellular level and it reeducates the muscle. So when the muscle gets reeducated—if it is already sagged—it goes up again. It remembers what it used to do. It’s only in the face where the muscle and the skin are very close together so when the muscle goes up, the skin goes up,” said Sylvia.
However, before going through any of these treatments, Piel makes it a point to first analyze the patient’s skin to be able to better assist him in his skin care routine.
“When we do skincare, we don’t ask them what they want us to do, rather, we do a skin analysis and we tell them what they should do,” said Sylvia.
Sylvia has entrusted her Cebu branch in the hands of her trusted friend, Dr. Nonoy Zuñiga. For Dr. Zuñiga, pursuing his passion as a Doctor of Medicine does not necessarily mean leaving his trade as a singer and a songwriter. For despite coming to Cebu more often now, he is also starting a few new projects with Cebuano singer-songwriters. “Since I’m one of her very good friends, anywhere she goes I will be there. I like Cebu, although nobody has been really teaching me how to speak properly. We are in the process of recording a Cebuano song—a duet,” said Dr. Zuniga.
As the head doctor of Piel, Dr. Zuniga is very hands-on with his trade and will be doing treatments on patients himself but only by appointment basis as he is quite busy. A few of the services that Piel offers which Dr. Zuniga does by himself are the eyebrow microblading service and the scalp micro-pigmentation which he has trained for in Los Angeles, California, accumulating 110 hours.
“It’s an eyebrow tattoo but we use two kinds of blades; very thin blades. And while you cut through the skin, the pigment goes in. I will cut and create strands giving an illusion that it’s your real hair but I will draw first with exact measurements and you have to approve it. The customer has to like it first,” said Dr. Zuniga.
Piel Acne and Anti-Aging Skin Center is located at Vibo Place, Escario St., Cebu City and is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday until Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.