Kimara Ahnert's clients summer in the Hamptons and come in once a week for their treatments. So when you step into her Madison Avenue studio, you experience, along with your facial or waxing, the kind of pampering that's usual in chic Upper East Side establishments.

It begins with a pleasant greeting, the invitation to relax in the beautifully furnished reception area, to sip a coffee or a premium water served in a crystal tumbler, and to browse the selection of current magazines and coffee table books as you wait for your esthetician to escort you to a treatment room.

Adjoining the reception area is Kimara's makeup studio, where she or one of her trained artists perform the kind of transformations that has bridal parties booking appointments week, sometimes months, in advance. A trial application by Kimara in the studio is $200; location services (three person minimum) cost $500 for the initial application and $250 for each additional application (the fee for one of her artists is less).

For a simple special occasion makeup application in the studio, the fee (for Kimara) is $125.

However, I was there for a facial and soon after I arrived, I was escorted upstairs to a quiet treatment room by Liana, whose Romanian heritage in skincare soon became evident as she gave me the most thorough cleansing I had ever experienced. Next came the steam to open my pores for a similarly thorough set of extractions. (“This is not the most pleasant part of the facial,” she had warned—and while I agreed, I did appreciate the concept of clean, unblemished skin.)

Liana performed a classic European facial, kicked up with a tingly application of paprika, which got the blood rushing to my skin, along with state-of-the-art products like bio-peptides and soy-based placenta serums that stimulate cellular turnover and increase elasticity. Facials like this, if done regularly, could well postpone or avoid the various invasive solutions for aging skin.

When Liana had finished, the mirror told me that my skin was brighter, firmer and soft and smooth to the touch. And though my beach days are spent at the Jersey Shore, I felt at that moment like one of Liana's thoroughly pampered Hamptons ladies.

There is a full menu of facials here, starting at $165 for one hour. Also available: eye treatments, acne treatments, back facials, waxing, glycolic peels and parafango wraps (to combat cellulite). In addition to top skincare lines such as Eminence and Epicuren, the studio features products and makeup by Kimara herself; all are hypoallergenic.

Kimara Ahnert, 1113 Madison Avenue (at 83rd Street); 212-452-4252; 800-452-9802; www.kimara.com