D’Marie Skincare

With glowing skin and an understated elegance about her, Denise Witt is the ideal walking advertisement for her business.

A certified aesthetician, Witt owns located inside Guy Matthew Salon and Day Spa, which she launched in May 2010.

"Feel good" business

The long-time Conejo Valley resident had a late start in the skincare business. Witt dabbled in real estate and personal training in the 1990s, working weekends and whenever her three young children were in school.

"As they got older, I decided that I wanted to try something else," she said. With her personal training background, Witt knew she wanted to be in a related field of "making people feel good about themselves."

So she signed up at the Euphoria Institute of Beauty in Las Vegas where she got her certification in aesthetics after six months of study.

After earning her aesthetician license in Nevada, she stayed for a few years before deciding to move back to California. A mentor from Solano Beach taught her the ropes and advised her to start small and rent space from an established salon like Guy Matthew's to keep her operating expenses down.

Where technology meets beauty

Witt's approach to skincare is conservative. "There's no need to do drastic things to the skin now," she said.

Even with her choice of products, she favors the more natural, gentle and organic lines, such as Epicuren and Sanitas. For facial treatments, she tries to match the individual's needs to her vast offerings, which include deep cleansing, stress relief and European.

Witt also offers a classic 60-minute facial at $65, specially formulated for men and includes exfoliation, moisturizing, a massage and a mask. "You'd be surprised at how many men have come here and it's their first facial ever," said an amused Witt, whose clientele is 20 percent male.

All facial treatments are in the $60 to $95 range. Las Vegas resident Pat Socha was not a big fan of facials before she met Witt. "I used to feel uptight during facials, but with Denise, I felt really calm and relaxed. And my skin has been glowing," said Socha.

Recently, after meticulous research, Witt invested in an advanced skin exfoliation and revitalizing system called DermaSweep Pro. The sophisticated machine is her most expensive investment to date.

"I wanted to get something that no one else has around here," she explained. The equipment promises to deliver a safe, pain-free way of doing microdermabrasion, an increasingly popular and non-surgical way of rejuvenating skin. "It takes dead layers of skin off," Witt said.

Topical solutions containing vitamin C, for example, can be infused in the skin, to treat various skin conditions, such as acne, sun damage, enlarged pores and surgical scars.

It comes at a price - $175.00 for an individual treatment or $150.00 if one buys a package of four to six treatments. Jody Levitan of Camarillo has tried it. "It's really gentle on my skin and I'm seeing good results," she said.

Getting their money's worth

Excluding the DermaSweep Pro, Witt claims that the skincare business is not capital-intensive. "You can start with $5,000 to $10,000," she said.

She also pays rent to Guy Matthew, the salon owner, to use the approximately 400-square foot room for her business. Matthew also lent her a steamer and a bed to start with. Her other start-up expenses included additional décor and skincare products.

Witt puts in about 40 hours, six days a week. but is quite pleased with how business is slowly picking up. "I can make more and would probably break even within a year," she said.  The word is spreading.

Witt talks about her marketing strategy. "In this economy, people are always looking for deals," she said. Recently, she tried ConejoDeals.com and offered a $49 package, which included a facial, a hand/shoulder massage and lip/brow waxing.

Reaching far and wide

Resourceful and not afraid to experiment, Witt has also tried direct mail, networking with various chambers of commerce and even social networking to reach her clients more effectively. "My clients are a wide range of ages, from 20 to 70 years old, so I knew I needed to get on Facebook to hit that middle ground," she chuckled.

When the economy stabilizes, Witt will try to blaze new trails. "I don't need to be huge. I just want to be known for that personalized, intimate approach to skincare," she said.