continued from previous page

There are several women in the beauty business who have become cult figures, experts who are relied on and trusted: It is their highlights, bath oil, lip gloss, and bikini waxes that have become the new templates for how we should like these things to be. Tracie Martyn, like Marcia Kilgore and Sharon Dorram, Sally Hershberger and Jeanine Lobell, has become a beauty guru, which is presumably how Estee Lauder and Helena Rubinstein began. Only, if anything, Martyn's clientele is more obsessive than most. Her face and body treatments are unique and take an hour at a time. Her beautifully decorated space in Greenwich Village has only two treatment rooms.

If one of the pleasures of visiting Martyn is feeling that you are her only customer in the world, it's because at that moment, you are. Having an appointment with Martyn just as it must have been with Kilgore, Jo Malone, and Eve Lom when they first began giving facials is - akin to being part of an unofficial but very exclusive club. You smile when you pass one of Martyn's clients on your way in or out, and your smile is knowing: Ah, it says, you are privy to this, too; how clever, how inside it all we are (her clients, I rather fear, will not thank me for this article).

When I went to see Martyn for my body treatment, I smiled at Meg Ryan, who was just leaving. When I emerged from Martyn's private room, Blaine Trump was waiting to take my place. Martyn is the beauty expert's expert. How did Meg Ryan become a client? Sally Hershberger sent her. Who told Renee Zellweger? Her hair colorist, Sharon Dorram. "My clients are always asking for referrals," says Dorram. "And the one that I love to share most is Tracie Martyn. She is the easiest person to recommend because I know that people will come out transformed. I'm a total devotee, as are the clients I've sent her."

So who are among the devoted? Susan Sarandon ("Tracie's treatment is one of the few things I know that make you beautiful both inside and out"). Eva Herzigova is a longtime Martyn supporter: "the body treatments are amazing for tightening everything up before a show." Uma Thurman, Carey Lowell, Kelly Klein, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Lena Olin. Liv Tyier loves Martyn's treatments so much she's taken her dad there for a facial. Diane von Furstenberg, one of Martyn's earliest clients ("I really swear by Tracie"), wards off the idea of a face-lift, using regular Martyn facials instead.

Naomi Campbell is a fan, as are fellow models Natane Adcock, Anouck Lepere, Magali Amadei, and Waris Dirie. The modeling agency IMG makes bookings for its girls before the season's runway shows and swimwear shoots. Bridget Hall, who has been seeing Martyn for years, prefers to schedule a visit before a swimwear shoot. "The reason the models keep coming to have their faces and bodies done," Martyn explains, "is because they know they can rely on the treatment. It's a quick fix, and it works."

Martyn shows me before and after Polaroids of a noticeably toned-up behind. "Look. That happened in just one treatment," she says as I marvel at the difference. "The woman in the pictures took one look at herself and said, 'Oh, my God, you've taken ten years off my behind.' That," says Martyn, "is when I knew that it really worked. Because that was when I was developing my technique and the way I could use the machine most effectively. I was still finding out what it was capable of."

Next page