Kathryn Mazierski founded Pretty Personal Inc., which assists cancer patients, primarily women.

Helping to cope
Cancer patients get help battling cosmetic issues

Sometimes it's coping with the treatment that can be the most challenging part of having cancer.

The outward signs of chemotherapy - the ruddy skin, a puffy face, the thinning hair - can take a personal battle and make it public one with all the accompanying sideways glances and outright questions.

Kathryn Mazierski inserts herself at this point in the patient's experience. She founded Pretty Personal Inc., with cosmetic and wig divisions, with a special intent of helping cancer patients, particularly women, face the world as they fight the disease.

Mazierski's understanding of women's health-care issues began to deepen as she served as president of the New York state chapter of NOW, the National Organization for Women. As she traveled the state lobbying for insurance coverage, she came into contact with many women who were sick with cancer, and befriended one in particular, who helped her appreciate that cancer tends to take over, physically, emotionally and socially. Body image is a part of that.

"Either cancer will change you or you can change the cancer," Mazierski says.

It would be two years' worth of planning, learning and putting the money together for the privately financed operation. A hiring requirement, in addition to the esthetic and stylist training, is to have had a family member or close personal friend who has had cancer, to provide a level of support and understanding that perhaps comes only from experience. Since opening in June 2007, she has worked with about 45 women with skin issues related to cancer or other disorders, as well as other clients.

The company's cosmetic division, Seyant Esthetique and Cosmetic Boutique, operates from 736 Center St. along the quaint shops in the village of Lewiston. Mazierski says, after extensive research, she deals in cosmetics that are beneficial to women - not just brand names in a fancy bottle. So, anyone who wears make up or needs skin treatment can benefit from a stop in to the chic storefront.

Seyant uses a concentrated treatment that works with a person's biology to correct, balance and restore skin, and a mineral-based, vitamin-rich cleansers and makeup that outdo miracle creams and fad masks, Mazierski says.

Those with the outward signs of chemotherapy, rosacea or other skin conditions, are particularly catered to, however. She uses makeup that blocks the sun for those who have become highly sensitive to light because of their cancer treatment. There are gentle cleansers, and a vitamin C serum that camouflages redness while delivering vitamins and mineral to the compromised skin.

"We're making skin as healthy as you can get it," Mazierski says.

The company's wig division, Pretty Personal In-Home Wig Shoppe, comes directly to the patient, as the name suggests. It is comforting for the patient, Mazierski said, to be baring her head in familiar surroundings with close family or friends, rather than in a public place like a salon or a mall. She and a stylist, trained in wig making, mending and fitting, will go on each call, with sample wigs. Clients also can design their own, hand-tied with human or synthetic hair and length and color. Prices range from $120 into the thousands. Some insurance plans include wigs in coverage for prosthetics.

Cancer treatment, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and elsewhere, has evolved from a the site-specific focus to a whole-patient approach, and a business like Pretty Personal can be seen as part of that trend, said Dr. Michael Zevon, chair of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Roswell, the American Cancer Society and others have comprehensive programs that also address issues around changes in appearance. To step away from a clinical setting, can be especially appealing for patients, he says.

"The idea of doing what you can to soften the immediate physical changes in order to help the patient is a good idea," Zevon says. "If it's based more in the community, it normalizes it a little bit more for them."
 

Seyant's beauty skin deep
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, June 23, 2007

From left, first row: Skip Mazenauer, Lower Niagara River Region Chamber of Commerce board chairman, Lewiston Mayor Richard Soluri, and Cara Ventresca, director of marketing and events, celebrate Seyant's ribbon-cutting with (back row, from left) esthetician Stephanie Hidalgo, store owner Kathryn Mazierski and esthetician Mia Violante.

Seyant is not a spa. It's not a department store cosmetics counter or an acne infomercial.

The newly opened esthetique and boutique in the Opera Hall on Center Street is a skin dreamland. Owner Kathryn Mazierski says, "At Seyant, achieving beautiful and healthy skin for our clients is our passion," and she backs that statement up by offering patented products and services administered by highly trained professionals.

"For us, it's more than pampering the client," she says.

Instead of masking problem surface areas, Seyant estheticians use corrective treatments to retrain skin – for women and men. Deep penetration targets cells and eliminates breakdowns. The skin starts to work more efficiently, and "the results are almost instantaneous," Mazierski says.

Unlike miracle creams and fad masks that "literally just sit on top of the skin. … They don't get to the root of the problem," Mazierski says her product line is different.

Seyant uses Institut Esthederm, the world's most patented skin care line. It is a highly concentrated treatment that works with a person's biology to correct, balance and restore skin.

"It does everything it says it's going to," Mazierski says.

Her estheticians, Stephanie Hidalgo and Mia Violante, are state-licensed and regularly attend training sessions to keep up with the latest technology and trends.

With regard to makeup, Seyant is the only Niagara County business to offer Jane Iredale, a mineral-based makeup that is gentile to the skin. Dermatologists and plastic surgeons often use it.

Mazierski says she wanted to offer a cosmetics line that was beneficial to women – not just a brand name in a fancy bottle.

"It was important to me to bring something to Niagara County that was in the best interest of the clients," she says.

Mazierski says her favorite part of the business is watching women react to their new and improved skin – and seeing customers' husbands notice.

"To me, that's the greatest reward," she says.

Seyant, 736 Center St., Lewiston, offers a wide range of treatments, facials, peels, wraps and scrubs. For the rest of the summer, all services are $10 off their regular price. For more information, call 754-8285.