ANGELA CAGLIA
The aesthetician who bet big on stem-cell science.
Written by Laura Regensdorf
Angela Caglia understands the alchemy of a carefully orchestrated facial. After one of her treatments—with, say, Helena Christensen, Alexandra Daddario, or Barbra Streisand—there is the quiet reveal. “I like to see them look in the mirror,” the Los Angeles–based aesthetician says, sounding like a fairy godmother known for bestowing incandescent skin. “That’s my favorite part.”
Caglia traces her interest in beauty transformations to her childhood in California’s agricultural belt. “My grandfather was a big farmer, and I would make masks with all of his apricots and peaches,” she recalls of her homemade experiments. Meanwhile, the era’s prevailing aesthetic had the volume turned way up. “I grew up in the ’80s, when my mom was caking on her Lancôme foundation and pink lips and Aqua Net hairspray,” she adds. “Women were just packing on everything—like a costume, almost.” When Caglia decamped to Paris in her early 20s to study at La Sorbonne, she got a memorable lesson in the French school of beauté: clean red lip, a flutter of mascara, and de rigueur facials. Upon returning to California, she landed a job with the skin care institute Yon-Ka Paris, the first stop on the road to becoming a sought-after aesthetician.
After building her name, Caglia built her namesake brand. The line’s runaway success—Cell Forté Serum with BIOMSC™ which debuted last fall as a VIOLET GREY exclusive—rather audaciously draws its power from human mesenchymal stem cells; through a patented biotech process, her lab formulates with the surrounding supercharged liquid, rich in growth factors, peptides, and exosomes. “It’s legit,” says Caglia, unabashedly likening it to the Fountain of Youth for its noticeable effects on pigmentation and barrier strength and bounce. Now, that same innovation fuels the new Cell Forté Eye Crème—a potent, multitasking treatment for the most delicate part of the face. Find it and more top-tier indulgences in her well-edited BAG.
