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Vancouver beautician to the stars on celebrity skin problems, treating hyperpigmentation and eye bags and why sonic brushes are bad for you

  • Riverdale, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, A Series of Unfortunate Events and more, cast members know there’s only one beautician to see in BC, Joy Stewart
  • She won’t tell you the A-listers on her client list, but she’s happy to offer tips on the best serums and other skincare products to use on common problems

Reading Time:4 minutes
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Joy Stewart demonstrates a product on a client at her medi-spa Touch of Joy in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She started treating Hollywood stars when X-Men was filmed in the province 20 years ago. Photo: Jamie-Lee Fuoco

In an industry consumed by narcissism, Joy Stewart – beautician, face fixer, glow giver – is content playing support act to her famous clients. Mill about her reception area long enough and you're bound to see someone familiar, from British Columbia broadcast journalists to reality-TV celebrities to A-list TV and film stars. But she'll never tell you who her spa clients are.

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Stewart has a small, but efficient medi-spa, Touch of Joy, on the edge of Vancouver's Olympic Village that she affectionately calls her shop.

Her first encounter with Hollywood came when she was living in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, just as X-Men began shooting in nearby Hatley Castle in 1999. Her speciality was Brazilian waxing, new at the time and something which she had a talent for.

Stewart laughs as she recalls those early days. “It's so intimate! I would never say who I waxed.” Discretion is a cornerstone of her success. When cast and crew returned to the western Canadian province – this time to Vancouver, where Stewart had moved to – to shoot X-Men follow-up X2, the producers remembered her loyalty and secured her services for the sequel.

Cast members of Riverdale are among the clients of Joy Stewart’s Vancouver medi-spa Touch of Joy.
Cast members of Riverdale are among the clients of Joy Stewart’s Vancouver medi-spa Touch of Joy.
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These days she's busy with the stars of American television series Riverdale and A Series of Unfortunate Events, and another show with a name that's changed so many times during filming she just refers to it as “that show”. She's not fussed by names or celebrity. (When production companies book appointments, they rarely use a client's real name anyway.)

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