Q&A | Vicki Morav

Vicki Morav is a renowned esthetician and celebrity skincare guru. In Manhattan's Upper East Side, Morav infuses technology, crystal energy healing, and customized skin practices based on each client's genetics, predisposition, existing behaviors, and conditions. Known as 'NYC's Best Kept Secret,' we asked Vicki to share her knowledge for your isolation skincare needs.

How are you guiding clients through at-home skincare?

People are at home now, and what I hear from my clients, they are taking excellent care, and they are not wearing makeup because they're not going into society. I Facetime with them, and by Facetiming, I see how much better their skin is. Wearing makeup is a treat. It's a certain finish, but it's essential to try and wear a little bit less. What I'm guiding them to do at home now is more cleansing, a little bit more exfoliating, definitely using products with Retin-A or certain hydroxy acids like glycolic acid, and then using a lot of replenishment. Replenishment really matters when we exfoliate and resurface the skin. Now we have more time to mask. When we resurface and replenish and take the time daily to do some kind of a mask, one or another, whether it's hydrating, purifying, plumping, oxygenating, we have a lot of different options. They bring the skin back to balance. Bringing the skin back to balance, maybe you want that plumpness and evenness, it doesn't come just from resurfacing, it also comes from proper nourishment. Therefore, it's very important to use certain ingredients, and of course for each individual, it's a little bit of a different product mix. They're able to do that, and they look much better, I must say. They even write me notes like, "I can't believe I'm finally doing everything you told me to do!"

Right, we finally have time to invest in self-care…

We don't make the time, we make this stuff like a marathon, especially in a large city like New York, one thing to the next. Now, slowing down, we understand how much fun it is to take the time for ourselves and not be continuously engaged. You know? I think self care and taking the time for self care, and it doesn't have to be hours, it could be minutes, it really matters because in self care, you find peace, you find calmness. It's a form of meditation of some sort. It's a form of caring for the body, caring for your skin. It's also something that you teach your kids, boys, and girls, by example. It doesn't have to be fancy but consistent.

Why are holistic and energy methods important in your practice?

There's absolute torture that happens in the room, but once I break your skin to where I need to, at the highest level of its capacity, then I start settling down, for the skin, for your body, and your mind. Everything is really connected. That's why I say the skin is a live organ; it covers all of us, all the meridians. The skin and the brain are directly linked, did you know that? When I touch somebody's face, the skin feels it all over the body, all the way down to your feet, to the little fingers, to the toes. When I touch your feet, your body feels it all the way up to your head and to your brain. All the senses, all the meridians, are connected. Whether it's spiritual, good intentions, crystal, Reiki, channeling energy, having positive thoughts for that individual, that is a must. When I work in the room, for me to clear energy for them and to hold that clear, beautiful space for them is the most important thing. All the chemical and physical stuff is just an amazing bonus.

We touch people and touching people is a responsibility. When we touch someone, that energy transmits, our conversations, the way we take care of that, all of that transmitted to every person they run into, and so on. We always want to spread and to give and clear energy to provide them with as much positive force as we can as human beings. We are responsible.

Why is it essential that we keep up with our skincare routine right now?

There are so many reasons. First of all maintenance, maintenance really matters. Consistency really matters for many reasons of course, but one of the most important things is to take care of our skin and to also have a barrier, because the skin is our protective layer to the outside world. At this time we have a tremendous amount of exposure to a lot of things. Imagine if we didn't have skin to protect our organs. Taking care of our skin really matters for health reasons because it's an organ, just like our heart, our kidneys, our stomachs, it's an organ. It's a vital organ. It covers our entire body and protects us all day, every day, every single day of our lives.

How can fear and uncertainty at this time affect our skin organ?

Fear in general, whether it's now or any other time, and especially now because fear exists daily. It's instilled in us through bad news, some devastation, losing loved ones, even people that we hear about. I cried for three days just hearing about the doctors and the nurses’ experience. Fear creates a tremendous chaos in our hormonal system. When we are afraid, our brain releases chemicals, our body releases chemicals. Those chemicals are not necessarily friendly chemicals. A tremendous amount of adrenaline is a burnout for women that are of various genetics, it will go to their upper level. People who have depression, it's going to be much harder for them. There's a lot to the brain, especially at this time. Fear creates anxiety. You know how some people have anxiety attacks? It comes from subconscious fear or conscious fear. It is a chemical process that happens in the body when the body releases certain chemicals and our brains react to it, and we become much less productive. We're not able to function or be loving, stable. At this time, especially, fear is something to really try to eliminate daily. Although I can't say, "Don't be afraid." We need to look at it in the face because we are looking at it every single day, but chemically it destroys the body.

Throughout this time, we've learned that we either wash our hands wrong or not long enough. What do most people get wrong when washing their face?

Sometimes they don't take enough time, and for some kinds of skin, we really want to take more than one wash. Let's say somebody has challenges with congestion. I would want them to use something to emulsify the impurities first, so they will be very milky. After, they can do a double wash, which can consist of either something a little bit more foamy, or something like an enzyme powder, which is slightly exfoliating but still acts like a cleanser. A lot of people don't take the time to wash properly, but I find they're taking more time now than they did before. A lot of people think that washing is not important because we have a night regime and apply all these products, but I think the morning cleansing ritual is very important because the skin is a live organ. It really acts upon us touching it. It needs to feel our touch. It needs to feel the circulation. It needs to feel movement, just like the body, right? We wake up, we stretch out, whatever it is is we do, we start moving. It's the same thing for the skin. So we need to really cleanse the skin, morning and night. It's crucial to have the ritual of cleansing, morning and night, even though it looks clean. We need to create movement because movement is oxygenation and light.

Why do we need the right products for our skin type?

It's imperative for the reason of pH balance. Everything in the body, in the mind, in the skin, in the organs, internally, externally, is all about balance. Every friction that we create, we must bring to balance. Anytime we strip the skin, or we do anything invasive, it's crucial to develop a balance to always bring it up to normal. The pH of the skin determines if we are too inflamed. The skin will age faster if the skin cells are not adequately exercised. So the balance really matters. The ph balance moves the entire aging process and the health process as well.

What are the best treatments to take care of our skin from home, and why?

For exfoliating, for people to be as gentle and using Algae Diatom from Valmont. The Enzyme Booster from MBR, lotion P50, of course, they would need to choose the right one from Biologique Recherche. Beta Enzyme, which is an enzyme serum that is applied for just a few minutes every morning. And of course, like Retin-A or retinol, those are all exfoliating agents, including hydroxy acids. And for masks, I love a variety of masks depending on what the skin feels. I think it's essential for people to be in tune with how they feel, how their skin feels, how it looks. If it's a little bit dryer, we'll use a hydrating mask. If we're genetically drier, we'll use a hydrating mask, but we always need to purify. So sometimes we'll purify with, let's say Masque Vivant, which we mix with baking soda for optimal results, and it really pulls the impurities out. We can also use an oxygenating mask by Biologique that's called Masque VIP O2. I love the collagen mask by Valmont, which is the best collagen in the world. It literally doesn't get any better for collagen. The renewing pack is my Holy Grail that I go to every single day. As I wake up, I just apply it, and my day begins with the renewing pack. It could be for 10 minutes, or it could be for half an hour.

Assuming life returns to normal this summer, what do you suggest for returning to a humid and congested city life like NYC?

First of all, they're going to have to continue with a good, hygienic regimen. Good sleep will be essential and they would need to start going back to their surfaces. I mean the cells die every three to four weeks they come up to the surface. That's the reason for us to see clients. Everything starts from fresh and clean so that you can imagine skin when it's clean, it has much more capacity for absorption. Therefore, the first thing I would do coming back to the city would be to get a facial, a deep cleansing, a proper, hearty, deep cleansing facial. From then on, it depends on what someone needs- some people need more lifting, some people need more resurfacing, and things like Clear + Brilliant, and others need radio frequency, which is more tightening, or lymphatic drainage and detoxification because they had a lot of hormonal issues too. When the stress is elevated, the body releases a tremendous amount of hormones. The body doesn't methylate fast enough. People accumulate impurities, and they break down more. So how you clean skin is the number one priority, and after we have clean skin, everything else is possible because clean is what matters to start.

What other advice would you give right now, skincare or not?

People typically don't look at the skin as an organ, and I just would want them to be more protective of it and not be superficial, not cover it up so much. Also, be in tune with what they're doing and not really being scattered, because we do have a lot of information from everywhere., the media and the social media, absolutely everywhere. We get a tremendous amount of information and I just want them to check their resources and to really understand what their skin means to them. Also, what their skin is behaving like and to not be robotic about it. That's my advice for all humans and not to be robotic, to be tuned to understand, to seek the right answers. And of course, we're always here to answer. We answer questions all day, every day whether we're in quarantine or not.

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