Joanna Czech Knows There’s More To Great Skin Than ‘Golden Sparkles’

Iconic beauty moments aren’t born without the visionary artists that create them. In Behind The Glam, TZR gives you an inside look into the careers and inspirations of the industry’s top artists.

Joanna Czech’s studio chair has seen more action than the front row at the Academy Awards. The skin care experts who work their magic on the most famous faces often fly under the radar, but Czech’s celebrity esthetician reputation proceeds her. She’s known for her best-of-the-best-clientele, world-class facial techniques, eponymous product line, and — as the stars themselves will tell you — her unmatched sense of humor. But one major element that really sets Polish-born Czech apart from even her most illustrious peers can only be described as an X-factor, a frankly otherworldly eye for the connection between the mind and body, and how it all manifests in one’s complexion. It’s no surprise that those more spiritual components of the job come naturally to her. She is the quintessential Aquarius, after all.

Czech’s client list never really loses an A-list name, but rather just acquires new ones as their star power grows. She works with Jennifer Aniston, Cate Blanchett, Anna Wintour, Kim Kardashian, Hailey Beiber (and her husband), Martha Stewart, and more, with her award show-week calendar looking more like a who’s-who rolodex than an office schedule. But how did Czech cultivate such a dedicated following and grow her influence far beyond the entertainment industry in-crowd?

Just ahead, get to know Czech, from her earliest days growing up as an athlete through her current reign as Hollywood’s skin care queen.

How She Got Started

You could call Czech a natural nurturer, the kind of kid who was always adorning her doll’s arms and legs with bandages, nursing them back to health from all sorts of imaginary ailments. She isn’t exactly sure where this intrinsic connection to the body came from, she says, but she thinks it has something to do with growing up under parents who lived through World War II. Either way, her household was the deeply caring sort, with lots of love and plenty of animals to look after. Considering her inclination toward bodily health, it’s not super surprising that Czech was a gifted athlete, pushing her own body to the limit with intense long-distance runs and basketball training sessions (she’s short, but can sink crazy three-pointers). In fact, it was sprinting through the snowy season that got her thinking about how her skin was reacting to the cold — it was critical to slather heavy product on her face versus a water-based cream to prevent broken capillaries. “I knew that a glass of water, when it's put into the refrigerator, changes into ice, expands, and breaks the glass,” she explains, bringing it back to a grade school science lesson. “That's exactly, literally, how that was explained to us without knowing anything or [immediately connecting it] to skin.”

As she neared adulthood, Czech considered medical school, but despite acing biology and chemistry, wasn’t quite up to snuff on the physics front. Instead, she decided to parlay her existing knowledge into another highly applicable field: beauty school. Cosmetology training in Poland, though, is pretty radically different from over in the U.S. It’s intense, rigorous, thoroughly science-based, and deeply holistic. “Based on a nail plate, I could decide if somebody had problems with their digestive system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system,” she lists as one example. “You can tell all of this also based on the skin.” She was required to log 13,000 hours in esthetician school training. In contrast, the U.S. requires around 1,000, depending on the state issuing the license.

Her Big Break

When Czech started working professionally in Poland, it wasn’t too long before she garnered a bit of an international reputation. Most of it was her singular dermatological ability, of course, but her clientele also admired her daring, downright glamorous style. Even as a teenager, “I was the bravest in Poland, wearing white boots in the winter,” she laughs, a stark comparison to her classmates dressed in demure browns. “I came to New York at 25,” Czech says, in 1989, amid the continent-wide fall of communism that spurred on major international changes. “Somebody was looking for someone with a little experience and communicated English,” she says of her first esthetician job in the city, where she did nails, facials, waxing, and more. At the time, the general public’s grasp of skin care was downright rudimentary, certainly not the dinner table conversation it is today. Czech found herself working at the spa at the Reebok Sports Club, and snagged her first magazine credit for a mani-pedi — in Vogue, no less — not long after. “That was [a major] moment for me,” she shares. “One of my clients said, ‘Joanna! I saw your name in Vogue!”

Things unfolded quickly thereafter, and her roster of big names expanded. Some of her all-time favorite beauty icons are also her clients, including supermodel Amber Valletta, whom Czech calls her “favorite face on Earth.”

That Signature Technique

She’s incredibly plugged in to current conversations, but if there’s one thing Czech can’t get behind, it’s a skin care trend. She’s a truly holistic, let’s-dig-into-this practitioner, taking a scientist’s eye to fine lines, dehydration, breakouts, and pigmentation problems. “If we could stop believing in golden sparkles, in snails and salmon, and all of those things, amazing,” she says laughing, but in total seriousness. Really, you don’t need much outside of a healthy lifestyle to achieve movie star skin. She lays out her time-tested prescription: cleanser, vitamin C, some sort of peptide combination, a hydrating cream, and SPF. “If someone has more than five steps, they will not work,” she says.

The Czech-signature facial, though, it about more than just what actually goes on the skin. “One of the most important treatment is a massage for your body and for the face,” she says, describing the practice as a workout. “Then we can support it with microcurrents for skin's health. And the side effect, you know, is little firmer muscle.” Critically, she emphasizes the importance of forgoing the promise of “quick fixes” and instead focusing on consistency with a robust lineup.

Building An Empire

These days, you’re just as likely to see a Joanna Czech-branded product perched on a celebrity vanity as you are to see her mentioned in magazines and on beauty blogs. She has salon outposts in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, and a celebrated skin care line that’s championed by the stars she’s seen for years.

Her latest launch, a collaboration with evolvetogether, might be one of her best-ever creations, too. It’s a refreshingly thorough enzyme-based cleanser, which simultaneously exfoliates, de-puffs, and soothes. “This gentle yet highly effective face wash is the next development in evolvetogether’s personal care line and there is no one else I would want to be on this journey with other than Joanna,” evolvetogether CEO Cynthia Sakai explains ins a press release.

Now at the point where her name alone is enough to lend serious credence to any skin care launch, Czech’s reached legitimate celebrity status herself. Ask her about it, though, and she’ll tell you this is only the beginning.