Patch Passport: A Little Bit of Paradise Just Up the Street

Ah, the joys of driving through construction on Route 47 and its veins.

Stress, as if it was ordered to the area, begins gathering in your feet and then pushes itself upward, slowly and uniformly, like two lanes of traffic being squeezed into one.

You do not feel the stress as it passes through your calves and thighs, but as it creeps north, your back begins to tighten and it is not long before shoulders are taut and necks stiffen. Headache? Yeah, you will probably get one of those, too.

Stress is now as deep in your body as your car is in the construction zone, and while you tell yourself a reprieve is only blocks ahead, the truth is relief rests just yards away.

Located near Regency Parkway and 47, Studio C Salon and Spa is quite the paradox as it faces a heavily traveled street but far enough from it for patrons to enjoy some well-deserved pampering. I should know. On a recent visit to Studio C, no passing construction trucks rattled the foundation or shook me from a soothing visit. In fact so quiet were my surroundings, especially during the facial, that at one point I wondered if the employees and customers in the salon had ditched me.

My guides for the afternoon were Studio C’s owners and operators, Cyndie Pauza and Chrissy Wagner. It’s from their first names that the business, which celebrated its sixth anniversary last May, draws its name.

“We’re a big spa concept in less than 2,000 square feet,” said Pauza, who was Wagner’s teacher at the Illinois Nail Tech Academy. Both women are Huntley residents.

Pauza works on me first, inviting me to have a seat at her pedicure station and soaking my feet in warm, swirling water. Here, my back gets some attention too, with the chair gently vibrating and kneading. Soon Pauza is attending to my feet, I marvel at the ease, and precision at which she works. She is remarkably confident and unfazed that I will be writing my experience. I’m just another customer, if you will, and I appreciate that.

That Pauza operates a salon and spa is no surprise to her, she says. Pauza’s mother has been in the salon business for more than 40 years and served as her inspiration. 

“I was nine years old when I told her I wanted to own my own salon,” says Pauza who worked out of her basement for 10  years before opening Studio C. “I was 11 years old when I gave my first haircut.”

Pauza still does hair, but she prefers nails and all that comes with. She says she even selected the pedicure stations her clients sit in because the stations are pipeless and therefore more sanitary. As for repairing the stations, well, Pauza does that, too.

My cuticles and feet finished, Pauza now rubs an exfoliating salt scrub on my calves, sending mixed signals to the brain. On one hand it feels like beach sand is being rubbed onto my legs, but on the other hand it isn’t painful. A final judgment is suspended as I get a whiff of the salt’s faint scent, the first I’ve smelled since entering the building. Pauza says they’ve tripled the required airflow, which is why I don’t smell the nail polish being applied in the other room. She’s right about that, and I suspect it’s one of the reasons the spa sees as many as 40 male clients per week. Even so, the majority of the spa’s customers are women, with both men and women coming nearby Sun City.

I’m in Wagner’s hands next as we enter a partitioned area for my facial. This will be my first one so I’m not sure what to expect and I’m a little nervous. Like you, my feet get a workout daily so if they’re a little rough – which they weren’t – I’m not embarrassed. But facial skin, now that’s a different story. Nobody wants to hear how bad their skin looks under the light.

Wagner begins by cleansing my face, neck and neck line. Unlike my experience with Pauza, I can’t watch Wagner work, so I decide to rely on her touch instead, although I still wouldn’t know what or how she was doing if I’d been able to observe her. Naturally, she is cautious but also quick, and I’m impressed with how little my face moves under her care. At least I don’t think my head is supposed to move a lot, nor did I have preconceived notions about how many bobs or tilts there’d be.

Wagner then starts exfoliating my skin using steam, which leads to two personal observations. First, it appears I lose all sense of wind direction when my eyes are covered and I’m on my back because I spend much of the exfoliation stage trying to determine from which direction the warm steam is coming. I eventually ask Wagner. It isn’t long after that, however, that I notice just how peculiar the entire situation is. That is, even though cleaners and creams are being applied around my eyes, I know as much about them visually as I would had Wagner applied them to my back. I want to ask Wagner if this a normal response, but she’s started giving me a facial massage, so I relax.

Wagner, it turns out, moved back to Illinois from New York at Pauza’s request so that they could open Studio C.

“Our friendship has always been based on nails,” says Wagner, who grew up in Lake Zurich and has known for Pauza for 16 years. “We used to travel to nail competitions together. We went to beauty trade shows together. Nails are our passion. We just love it.”

Massage over, Wagner applies a mask to my face but not before making her own observation.

“You have good skin for someone who has never had a facial and doesn’t always moisturize,” she says.

Yes!

I allow the mask to do its job after which Wagner removes it and moisturizes my face. I tell Wagner my face feels rejuvenated, like a thin layer of cool mountain air has been slipped under my skin.

“We do very good skin treatments here,” she said. “Our goal is to take care of the skin and improve you personally.”

Later that day several acquaintances noticed that I looked different but couldn’t say how. Naturally I told them what I had done, and, of course, where to go.

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