At skin-care company 4AM, Co-Founders (and college best friends!) Jade Beguelin and Sabrina Sade work hard to play hard. Although the Georgetown University alumnae’s post-grad lives took them in very different directions — Beguelin worked in finance, while Sade went to medical school — they both struggled to keep up with elaborate, multi-step skin-care routines. The green juice-drinking, Alo-wearing, Pilates princess aesthetic often accompanying these aspirational skin-care regimens simply didn’t fit with their demanding schedules (or late nights out), so the duo built a beauty brand that celebrates, rather than constricts, busy lives. “If you want to go out, if you want to take a tequila shot at 4 a.m., who are we as a skin-care brand to shame you for that?” Sade, now a physician and post-doctoral dermatology researcher, tells Fashionista. “We are actually going to do that with you and celebrate that with you.” Sabrina Sad...
At The Shade, a new nail studio concept from The Tox Founder Courtney Yeager, appointments start with clients laying face-down on a massage table. But that's not the only part of the experience that differs from your standard mani/pedi. The business, which opened its SoHo flagship in June, is on a mission to reimagine the modern nail salon experience. Its method involves a full-scale experience, engulfing visitors in a calming atmosphere featuring private suites and waterless nail treatments (read: no soaking in shared tubs). The Tox's signature lymphatic body sculpting techniques are also integrated into The Shade's manicures and pedicures — hence the initial face-down position — in pursuit of upgrading a traditional gel fill to a self-care reset. "I looked at every pain point in the traditional [nail salon] experience and used it as an opportunity to build something better," Yeager tells Fashionista over email. "The Shade is a place you can actually come...