skin diagnostic sphere

For the beauty junkie, any development in skin care is cause for celebration, so imagine the thrill that ensues when a truly revolutionary new product bursts upon the scene. Fellow beauty buffs, trust me: ioma is just such a line.

Available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue, ioma combines radical new technology with holistic skin care to create a truly personal beauty regimen. ioma’s treatment follows three key steps: diagnose, customize, and measure and quantify. I recently visited ioma’s counter at Saks and let beauty adviser Ornella Marcone walk me through the steps.

After a brief chat about ioma and my own skin care concerns (acne and under eye circles), Ornella led me to a white orb that looked like a cross between the machine that blows air into your eye at the opthamologist and the space suit heads of your most feverish dreams. One side cunningly served as a computer screen, onto which I input my basic information (name, age, skin type, etc.). After I was done, Ornella turned the orb around, revealing a chin rest. I poked my head in and, quick as can be, a camera took five pictures.

Here’s the revolutionary genius of ioma – each picture revealed something different about my skin. The first was natural – my skin as it appears to people passing me by on the street. The next picture utilized a parallel polarized light to highlight my fine lines and wrinkles (this one was unpleasant to look at). The third picture used a cross-polarized light to feature my redness. The fourth involved a UV light and, astonishingly, showed the sun damage BELOW my skin! This is the same technology they use to investigate melanomas and it was an eye-opener – I’ll definitely be more religious about sunscreen in thefuture. The final picture used a blue light to show bacterial activity and clogged pores – gross.

Ornella then went through the results with me – turns out my skin is dehydrated and I have too many forehead wrinkles. On the plus side, my pores are largely unclogged, my UV damage is minimal, and I have no redness. So there’s that. At this juncture, it was hard not to feel a little shaken – forehead wrinkles and bacterial activity isn’t what anyone wants to think about in regards to their skin. Fortunately, ioma has all the solutions. Ornella went through each photo of my face and, without being at all pushy about sales, showed me exactly which of ioma’s many products would be best for my skin. As a final flourish, she printed out my photos, skin profile, and recommended products so I could think about which I’d like to buy and return later, and sent me off with several lovely samples.

I experienced the first two of ioma’s three steps. Had I purchased a product, I would have returned in a month to experience step three: measure and quantify. All customers get a one-month check-up to see how the products are working and make any necessary adjustments. ioma is currently available exclusively at the Manhattan Saks Fifth Avenue, though a Beverly Hills location will open next month. If you’re a beauty junkie and/or a tech geek, it’s an absolute must visit.

By Leila Cohan-Miccio