McKenzie Cruz and Lauran Michael want their clients feeling beautiful from the inside out.
“We believe feeling your best starts from within,” said Michael, clinic director and head of nutrition of sAge Aesthetics & Well Being med spa, opening this weekend in Ooltewah. “You have to have inner beauty to have outer beauty and confidence.”
The med spa concept is two-fold: Cruz is the lead physician’s assistant, overseeing aesthetic procedures like broadband light therapy, injectables, laser hair removal and two types of facials. Michael manages the wellness side, which offers personalized nutrition counseling, nutritional supplements, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, advanced biometric measurement and red light therapy.
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Both women have watched loved ones struggle with health complications, and both have battled complications of their own. That suffering is a primary catalyst behind their founding principle of self-care.
Contributed Photo /McKenzie Cruz with a patient. The new sAge Aesthetics & Well Being med spa in Ooltewah offers broadband light therapy, injectables, laser hair removal, two types of facials, personalized nutrition counseling, nutritional supplements, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, advanced biometric measurement and red light therapy.“Food is medicine,” Michael said in a phone interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “And that is the basis of what we do with personalized nutrition. … We want to really teach people how to eat properly and take care of their bodies properly.”
Cruz said in a phone interview that good health helps build confidence.
“We can do injections all day long,” she said. “But if you don’t feel good inside, you aren’t going to exude that feeling of confidence … that goodness.”
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Cruz and Michael met while working in California and have been close friends for about 10 years. Combining their interests just seemed to make sense, they said.
While in California, Cruz trained under dermatologist Dr. Patrick Bitter Jr., sAge’s chief medical officer, who she said is regarded as the world’s top expert on light-based technologies used to treat skin.
“I trained with him, learned from him and we worked together to create a menu of custom treatments for sAge patients to deliver optimal results and natural looking, rejuvenating patient outcomes,” she said in a news release. “Treatment protocols and techniques are so important and truly need to be personalized. My training surrounding our sAge signature protocols enable me to treat every patient uniquely to meet their individual desired goals and results.”
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The grand opening for sAge takes place Friday and Saturday at its first location: 8202 Apison Pike, Suite 104 in Ooltewah. Office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. sAge is closed on Sundays. To RSVP, visit sagebetterwithus.com.
Contact Jennifer McNally at jmcnally@timesfreepress.com.