There’s a new spot for beauty in Wilton, and the owner is backing up the store’s focus on style with substance. Melissa Caruso Calafell—a registered nurse with 25 years of medical experience and a background in non-surgical facial rejuvenation—has opened Renaissance Beauty, at 134 Old Ridgefield Road.
Calafell chose the name Renaissance Beauty as a nod to her own multi-faceted professional background: as a nurse, she’s board certified nationally in critical care, surgery, esthetics and pediatrics. “I have been working as a medical consultant and nurse for years, and also segued into creating medical spas. I’ve always done lasers, and botox, and fillers. And I’m an educator, teaching my clients about good skin care and the basics.”
She hopes that her store—the first she’s owned herself—will be a place where clients will find beauty, skin and personal care items as well as more knowledge about how to make their own choices in personal care. Calafell said she’s going to emphasize personal service and consultation, calling what she does “Concierge Beauty.”
“In the last eight years I haven’t had facial myself—I realized how untruthful I’ve been by working in a place and promoting facials, but I didn’t have the time nor the money.” Now at the helm of her own store, she carefully researched products that she felt she could recommend for her clients to use themselves at home.
“Everything here was handpicked by me, for you to take home and do it yourself, for a fraction of the cost, and with much more self-satisfaction. I love everything in here—there’s nothing in here that I wouldn’t put on my 7-year-old daughter, that’s how pure it is.”
One exclusive product line in particular will likely cause some buzz: Heaven UK Skincare, which was created by Deborah Mitchell, the esthetician to the British royal family—including Kate Middleton. “I’m Mitchell’s first Connecticut retailer. She makes an amazing bee venom mask. The only other place close you can find the line is one store on Madison Avenue,” Calafell said, adding that Mitchell will be visiting her store in Wilton for an event on Nov. 13.
The store boasts a range of products, including three makeup lines; varied skin and hair care products, and sun protection items; homeopathic medicines; and personal care products for men and babies as well. In addition, she stocks fashion accessories and items for the home, like candles, soaps and diffusers.
The quality of the items she carries and her focus on natural, homeopathic, organic and pure is what Calafell said excites her. “I only got what I know works. And I guarantee everything.” As an example she mentions that Zoya, the sole line of nail polish she carries, is “big five free”: no formaldehyde, phthalates, toluene, camphor, or formaldehyde resin.
Renaissance Beauty will also offer clients some medical and cosmetic services. Twice a month, Dr. John Schmidt—a board certified head and neck reconstructive plastic surgeon—will be at the store to perform all of the medical procedures offered by appointment, including botox, facial fillers, medical chemical peels and surgical consultations. Calafell also offers spray tanning.
With a name like Renaissance, the store is an appropriate place for its owner—opening it was also a rebirth of sorts, both for Calafell and for the space. The shop—on the second floor of the building—is now a light and airy oasis, with gauzy curtains wafting on the breeze of an open window and soothing colors on the walls, but only because she and her husband transformed the space themselves, in just 17 days.
“Before, it was wall to wall carpeting, partitions. We knocked down walls. I came in here and I had a vision. Now, I love it here,” she said.
Calafell felt it was important to find a location in town, where she has lived for 11 years with her husband, (who grew up here) and their daughter. “I wanted this to be in Wilton because I think I’m relevant. This building alone, between Hello Yoga, route: {:controller=>"listings", :action=>"show", :id=>"hello-yoga"} -->—for mind and body; —that’s home and mind, because when you like the way something looks, you feel better; so I’m here in the middle. And I am in love with
