“Your face is the only place you don’t put clothing on,” proclaims celebrated esthetician Greta Rubens. “If your skin is fresh, young, and healthy-looking, your self-esteem is built up. And your life changes!”

Renowned for keeping the faces of such entertainment luminaries as Leonardo DiCaprio, Gina Gershon, Patricia Clark and Jaleel White bright and beautiful, she says, “I have worked with many very wonderful people — famous and not. All of them provide me with a lot of excitement and personal satisfaction in my work.”

A skin-care specialist for 30 years, Rubens has built her reputation and a solid following by taking the holistic approach in helping some of Hollywood’s biggest names achieve a lasting, glowing complexion.

“In the end, natural beauty and health never go out of style,” says Rubens who counts Jane Fonda as her primary role model. She admires the Oscar-winner’s courage, insight and tenacity, qualities that she herself abundantly possesses.

“My major philosophy toward beauty is ‘love yourself.’ All the skin problems are emotional at the start, but when you’re the best you can be inside, the outside is the reflection of it!”
 
Born and raised in Belgium, Rubens recalls hanging out in the salon of her best friend’s beautician-mother every day after school, then taking what she learned there home to practice on her dolls.

“My mother gave me these expensive Madame Alexander dolls — the real big ones,” she says. “I’d be washing their faces, putting different makeup on them, cutting and changing their hair and clothing — they were the ‘extras’ in my imaginary world. I did not know my mother was giving them to me just to look at!”

Later, when she moved to Paris, she apprenticed with some of that city’s most prestigious salons. But it was in the United States that she completed her more formal esthetics and skin-care training, studying under a number of well-respected dermatologists in Hollywood.

By then firmly settled in Southern California — and understanding the importance of keeping her clients looking fresh, young and camera ready — she soon was putting her training to good use and incorporating her European beauty secrets. These treatments and their effects quickly came to the attention of several members of the entertainment industry.
 
At the request and encouragement of many among her regular clientele and with the help of a chemist friend, Rubens soon considered creating her own line of products, beginning with six natural, anti-aging, cream-based ointments and cleansers. After realizing this aspiration, she looked for a more efficient way to aid more consumers in their daily grooming, while avoiding unneeded mess or bother.

“I wanted to target more of the problems that so many of us have, but anything that inhibits a treatment’s regular use inhibits its effectiveness, too,” she notes.

Happily, says Rubens, “three years ago, I had the terrific fortune to meet up with two individuals whom I consider ‘genius men.’ They had the knowledge and same beliefs regarding the holistic, natural approach, as well as the same passion as me.”

Together, their solution was to prepare products in quick and easy spray-liquid form.

“I love sprays,” she says with a smile. “They’re simple to use, efficient, easy to travel with and not time-consuming,”

Thus, the existing Faces by Greta preparations were joined by Miracle Mist, Fit and Slim, and Liebe-Do.
 
“I’ve been a problem-solver for the face, so I wanted to keep on being a problem-solver,” she explains.

I found that the sprays helped. A few pumps of Fit and Slim taken orally before meals curbed the appetite and increased energy. Rubens says it promotes healthy thyroid and parathyroid functions, which will assist in natural weight loss over time. Miracle Mist cools and refreshes while toning and softening the complexion via natural mineral moisturizing without leaving any greasy residue. In fact, with only a few days of continued use, it healed acne blemishes and men’s razor burns, noticeably reversing signs of aging.

Perhaps most interestingly though, Rubens points out that the word “Liebe” in her “Liebe-Do” spray’s name means love in German. More than any massage oil, this product is designed to make pleasurable times more intense by significantly heightening the sensations around those intimate areas when sprayed directly on them.
 
To bring the products to the attention of those who could use and appreciate them, she turned to Ronnie Kroell, who appeared in the inaugural season of Make Me a Supermodel and the film Eating Out 4: Drama Camp.

“I had the grace of meeting Ronnie, who has beauty AND brains, and we sort of teamed up,” she says. “Now he’s the creative director of Faces by Greta.”

Rubens credits another close friend, Shawn Adeli, for making “such a beautiful website for us. Thanks to the Internet, we are international now!”
 
In promoting these sprays, Rubens is also calling upon her deep compassionate nature. In March, she held a gala launch party at the popular Eleven Nightclub in West Hollywood that also was a benefit for Living Beauty (Livingbeauty.org), a foundation that helps those recovering from cancer by rebuilding their self-esteem through make-overs. Shortly thereafter, on the opposite coast, the company sponsored Beneath the Sheets, an event benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which took place at New York City’s fashionable Players Club.

Thanks largely to Kroell’s encouragement, Rubens has made special efforts to reach out to a group that particularly appreciates looking and feeling their best: the LGBT community. Just recently, this included sponsoring a booth at this year’s Pride festival in Phoenix.
 
All this however, is just the beginning. Rubens says that plans are in the works for still more products, also to be packaged in vapor-dispenser form.

“In the near future, we will be adding an energy booster, and a great sleep aid. These, too, will be fast and easy to use and above all, natural!”

Now everyone can learn what a few movers, shakers and deal-makers have known for years: For awesome-looking skin, Greta Rubens is the woman to talk to!

For more information or to order online, check out:
www.facesbygreta.com or www.facebook.com/home.php#!/FACESBYGRETA.