Skin Care á la Kate

If you're among the skin-challenged, then Kate Somerville has something just for you. The skin-care specialist, whose facials and products are available at the Spa at Trump Las Vegas, focuses on skin concerns that go beyond an occasional breakout.

Acne, acne scarring, rosacea, eczema and sun damage are just a few of the issues she targets. Gender, ethnicity and age, she says, don't qualify as skin problems and lines that claim to be specifically formulated for these characteristics are just using marketing ploys.

"Skin is skin," she says from a suite at Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas. "Treatments need to be customized to the individual."

The five qualities she counts on to provide clients with stellar skin include protection (SPF and antioxidants), hydration, feeding (minerals and vitamins), stimulation (peptides and retinols), detoxification and most important, results.

Somerville credits her vast knowledge of skin and all its complexities to her time spent providing pre and post-operation care in a plastic surgeon's office. It put her at a crossroads between medicine and the esthetician field, catapulting her to pioneer the medi-spa concept.

Although Somerville works on the skin of clients like Jessica Alba, Debra Messing and Paris Hilton, she consistently finds herself offering what she refers to as "charity work."

"I'll be at Starbucks and see a girl behind the counter with really broken out skin and I have to give her my number for free service," she says.

Her generosity stems from personal experience with severe skin problems. Somerville experienced unbearable eczema during her pregnancy. After visiting 15 dermatologists, who prescribed temporary solutions, she finally came up with her own system of controlling the acute dryness and itching. It consisted of bathing instead of showering, eliminating spicy foods, caffeine and high sugar food sources, and applying Clebitsol cream and Curel lotion.

"I still haven't been able to figure out what it is that's in there," she says of the drugstore-sold lotion. "But it works."

Her clients have the same impression of Somerville's products.

Contact interim editor Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477.