Love looks good on you
By Manila Bulletin Newsroom
The story of Elyse Aesthetics is a story of love, from the relationship of Dr. Anne Caoile and Dr. Marj Salazar, all the way to the care that they extend to their clientele, and the self-love that they promote through their work. In an interview with the two, we were able to get a deeper understanding of the emotional core that drives Elyse Aesthetics.
Before Dr. Anne and Dr. Marj became the founders of Elyse Aesthetics, they were acquaintances who met once before drifting apart. Dr. Anne recalls that they crossed paths again years later, coincidentally practicing in the same field of medicine.
"Something sparked during that reunion that hadn't been there before. Or maybe it had always been there, and we finally had the space to recognize it. Everything just felt right. The more we talked, the more we realized how deeply aligned we were, in our values, our standards, and the way we thought about medicine and beauty," Dr. Anne reminisced.
Dr. Marj recounted, “And our skills were almost poetically complementary. Anne wanted to operate; I was drawn to skin and injectables. She would sculpt structure, I would refine and restore. Both of us were driven by the same thing: a desire to give our patients the very best of what we had, our training, our artistry, our genuine care.”
With that, they started Elyse Aesthetics together. As a young WLW (women-loving-women) couple in the beautician industry, they’ve faced many challenges just by simply existing, and the influence of that experience bleeds through to their motivations and what they do.
(L-R) Dr. Marj Salazar, CEO Co-Founder Elyse Aesthetics Medical Inc. and Dr. Anne Caoile COO, Co-Founder Elyse Aesthetics Medical Inc. (Photos: Elyse Aesthetics)
The two agreed, “When you’ve had to fight for the right to simply exist as you are, to love who you love without apology, beauty takes on a completely different meaning. “Beauty Set Free” isn’t a tagline, it’s what we lived. Every patient who walks through our doors deserves to feel that we see them, that we’re not here to reshape them into someone else’s idea of beauty. We’re here to help them feel more like themselves.”
Their philosophy is simple: aesthetic treatments should help people feel more at home in their own bodies rather than transform them into someone else. It is a shift they have increasingly noticed among their clients. Instead of arriving with photos of celebrities as references, many now bring old photos of themselves, hoping to rediscover the version of themselves they once recognized and loved.
“That shift is everything to us. Our entire approach is built around enhancement that honors the individual. We won’t chase a trend that doesn’t serve a patient’s unique anatomy and character. The best result is one where no one can tell you had anything done, they just think you look well-rested, confident, and alive.”
Their commitment to this philosophy is evident in the way they encourage clients, and anyone considering aesthetic enhancements, to pause for thoughtful self-reflection before pursuing any treatment.
“My advice: before you pursue any treatment, ask yourself, “Am I doing this because I genuinely want to feel more like myself, or am I trying to look like someone else?” One of those is self-care. The other is self-erasure. And no treatment in the world will fix the latter.”
When asked about what messages they would like to share with the LGBTQ+ youth regarding confidence and beauty enhancements, they had this to say: “We’ll be honest with you, for a long time, we were terrified of being seen. Not just as a doctor, not just as a business owner, but as a woman who loves women. And what we know now, having finally chosen to live openly and honestly, is that nothing, no treatment, no achievement, no amount of external polish, compares to the freedom of being truly known and truly yourself.”
It all comes down to the beauty that’s present within the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is you, looking in the mirror. “So when we say “Beauty Set Free” at Elyse, we mean it in the deepest possible way. We’re not just talking about your face. We’re talking about your whole self. To every LGBTQ+ young person who is still hiding, still waiting for permission to exist fully, I see you, because I was you. Whether you ever walk into a clinic or not, that liberation is available to you. Choose enhancements, or don’t, but whatever you do, do it from a place of love for yourself, never from fear of who you are. You are already more than enough. Everything else is optional.”
Beauty comes down to love and care. It is found in the relationships we nurture, in the kindness we show ourselves, and in the intention behind how we choose to present ourselves to the world. It may sound paradoxical, but both can be true: there is always room to grow, while recognizing that you have always been enough. (Nathan Marcos)
The author, Nathan Marcos, is a student at Ateneo de Manila University and is currently an intern at the Manila Bulletin.
