Sonya Dakar Skin Clinic

What I like about this skin clinic over others is the products used in her facials. Derived from natural ingredients, which are perfect for detoxing and clearing up any congestion in my skin, stopping any acne from surfacing! I used the check in offer to save money! Hopefully she will continue to have this special available for a long while.

I wanted to post a review specifically to say how wonderful Sonya is! I don’t know what some of the bad reviews are about, but I can assure you I was treated with the upmost care by Sonya when I got my facial done here. She made the experience really relaxing and my skin looked & felt amazing afterward! Seriously. Don’t hesitate to book an appointment here. Professional, clean, and most of all, worth it! I will be back.

A friend recommended this place to me and I was always hesitant to go get my skin treated even though I knew I had to but every time I did it I would go back home crying because the results were always disappointing and this time I made a decision to just give it another go. I went to this place prepared to be disappointed. I decided to do Total Lift since I had lost a lot of weight in the past year due to stress and other personal problems and I had a lot of baggy wrinkled skin even though I am not that old. They were very nice, informative and most importantly not judgmental. I was very pleased with their attitude and the level of knowledge. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much and after the first treatment I was able to see certain improvements. My skin was tighter, less cellulite and most definitely less saggy and soooo smooth. Afterwards it was only getting better and better. The procedure itself was relaxing I was expecting it to be painful or at very least uncomfortable. I’m still going thought the process but so far I am very pleased with the results. I’m sure I’ll be coming back to try other services as well. FYI try their Detox travel kit, I bought it for my New York trip and it worked wonders for my skin while on the go.

I’ve been coming to Sonya for a while now as I have always had problems with the skin on my face. Since I moved to LA, the whole thing just got worse, I guess it’s the sun. The first time I went there, I did a microdermoabrasion, and — yes, it sucks and hurts but once your skin gets better, you definitely see a huge change. I continued going for regular facial stuff and it’s just getting better all the time.
Wait times are sometimes somewhat long, but it’s totally worth the wait.

I wish I could give her 0 stars! Worst place ever. I wish I NEVER EVER found her on Gilt City. It started with one facial to try via Gilt City. She pushed me into buying the package. She pushes people to buy products otherwise she guilt trips you.
I bought a package, came home, thought about and decided, you know this is not going to go well, but I do NOT want the package anymore. uggh, I already made a «deposit» for half the package. When I called to speak to her, she never returned my call and intentionally made sure I went through hell asking for the deposit back.
At that point, I either forgo my deposit and don’t see her or see her, endure her unprofessionalism and shady business practices and just get through the package I purchased. I went with the latter unfortunately.
Sonya is cruel, manipulative and just plain evil. She’s constantly late to her appointments, she brags about the ONE celebrity she’s worked on (aka Gwnyneth Paltrow) and her facial/​micro-​dermabrasion techniques are abrasive and will do more damage than good for your skin.
Please save your money and face and go to someplace that won’t cheat you. She knows she has bad business practices, hence she pressures you to purchase her packages or skincare products. If she was truly confident in her services or products, she would not be the evil witch she is.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t give a review based on their services, as I never even got that far. I made an appointment for a facial, the lady I spoke with was actually really nice. I was told my facial would be around $ 125 as they had a deal for new patients. I called to change my appointment for the following day or whenever they had available, and the young lady who was assisting me on the phone was not only rude but said I was going to be charged $ 500 for canceling. I never intended to cancel, I purely just wanted to change the date. Not to mention I expressed that $ 500 was not even close to the cost of the facial I was planning on getting, I asked to speak with the manger and sure enough about 20 minutes later they charged my credit card $ 225 for a facial I never got and I’ve yet to hear from the manager. I’m disputing the charge with American Express but it’s unfortunate the way they choose to do business. Getting a facial or any other spa services is a luxury and for them to have some rude receptionist speaking condescendingly to customers, for the manager to not have the decency to reach out to a customer who’s requested to speak with a manager after they charged my credit card is absurd. I know they have been in business for years but nowadays they should consider the fact that having bad reviews can potentially hurt their business. I’m not only disputing the unauthorized charge on my credit card but I will be contacting a lawyer.

Let me start off by saying if you’re looking for a fluffy relaxing spa facial, look elsewhere. It’s called a «skin clinic» and not a «day spa» for a reason: this is where you go if you’re serious about skin.
I never suffered from acne or any other major skin problems until I relocated to LA last year. Then, my skin went crazy. Just as I was in mid-​panic about how to deal with sudden adult-​onset-​acne mixed with crazy weird dry patches, a Gilt City deal appeared in my inbox for Sonya Dakar Skin Clinic and I thought I’d give it a go – and boy am I glad I did!
Not only did Sonya almost instantly clear up my skin, she made it perfect (like perfect-​perfect. I don’t need any makeup most days). If I had a dollar for every compliment I’ve gotten on my skin, I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash at her bills bc the cost would be covered three-​fold.
Which brings me to say: Yes, the woman doesn’t come cheaply – but, in this case, you really do get what you pay for. If you can’t afford her services, don’t get them. There are lots of things I wish I could afford that I can’t, but I don’t badmouth them just because they are outside my price bracket.
As far as luxury products go, her skin care products fall in line with (and in some instances lower than) many of the other big name brands out there, and they work better. Bonus: someone is always available to consult with you by phone or email on what products will suit your needs best. So if you want to get the benefits of her magic without the lofty price tag that comes attached to seeing her in person, I suggest you try the products. Tip: she always includes at least one free sample of something else in the package, so you don’t need to wait for any specials. Every day is a bonus offer with purchase

I wish i had gone on Unilocal to review her before I went in to use my gift certificate :(
Came out depleted of energy, frustrated, insulted and intimidated with over $ 1,100 in credit card charges for a microdermabrasion that lasted 10 min… refused to honor my gift certificate… saying it will be used next time!
She must have been on some drugs or pharmaceutical formula because a sane and normal person would not act and behave the way she did.
Arrogant, insulting, pushi and totaly unprofessional.
Any person that posted positive comments about their «fabulous» experience in that salon, is either on drugs themselves or they’re residing on another planet!
DISAPPOINTING DISAPPOINTING DISAPPOINTING

I signed up for Unilocal just to write about this horrific experience:
This was by far the worst customer experience I have ever had. I ordered product online and they shipped me the wrong product. When I called to report this, I was accused by Dana, the manager, of being a thief and a liar. It has been over two weeks since I have ordered this product and still don’t have my face wash. This company sent me nasty emails and left terrible voicemails (which I have saved), demanding me to send back the product I stole. If I had stolen the product, why did I call to report the shipping error and why has it been sitting on my desk unopened for a month? Meanwhile, no one ever thought to take care of me and the $ 110 overpriced face wash that I bought. She told me she was going to charge my credit card if I didn’t send the wrong order back. I told her it was fraud and that I considered that a threat. When I asked to speak to the manager, Dana said she was the manager. I asked to speak with her supervisor. She said she was in charge. I asked her to escalate and she said she didn’t report to anyone. I told her I would speak with her CEO then. She laughed, said the CEO didn’t care about my wash, and that I had to be kidding her. Clearly she missed the point (that she has a boss and I intended to escalate this). Thanks to Dana, I will no longer use Sonya Dakar products. If she and her CEO don’t care about my face wash, I can find many other places that are happy to charge me a high dollar for soap. I suggest you find those places as well.

Sonya Dakar is truly a monster. She cut my face open during microdermabrasion. I BLED. She dismissed it as it was part of the process as it would heal just fine. Well it did not. I was left with a rough dry scab on my face for a week. The scab has left a deep scar.
SHE SCARRED MY FACE.
And when I went to address it with her I was screamed at, called names, and ignored. The WORST customer service I have ever experienced in my entire life. She pushed her products and name dropped to no end and I’m out $ 400 and have a shiny new POCK MARK as a souvenir.
PLEASE, FUTURE YOU. DO NOT GO HERE. GO LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE. YOU WILL BE SO GLAD YOU DID.
By the way, I’m a waiter in the service industry. I understand that angry people abuse this site to hurt businesses. Please understand that I am not said person.

Simply shocking. Product and service-​pushing to the point of being nearly hilarious if it weren’t so appalling. Rude. Mean: Twilight-​zone-​level. During my way-​below-​average quality treatment, I was worked on (for a few minutes) by 3 different estheticians. And I waited for a long time in between them just lying there. Sonya came in to tell me how awful my skin was. She audibly gasped as she looked at my skin under her lamp. And I wanted to bust out laughing! Though my skin is far from perfect, it’s pretty darn good; I just had a few clogs I wanted extracted. I knew then she was a fake. And then the sales pitch… holy cow, intense beyond belief. And her general Meanness. It was truly the most astonishingly awful experience I’ve ever had getting a facial in 25 years.
Try her if you’re curious (or a masochist who likes to waste money). But I’m not going to further reward someone who’s in a business that’s not serving either her or her clients. For her own karma, peace, and happiness, I hope she soon finds a new profession where her soul can start to untarnish itself and maybe even start to shine a little.

I don’t know why anyone (including myself) would come here or continue going here. It’s been a while since my last and final visit here but I wanted to write this review as a cautionary tale and steer you away from perhaps one of the worst decisions I ever made as far as beauty and vanity go…
My first visit Sonya was almost a whole hour late to see me, and this was after I always already in the facial room. Her selling tactics involve shaming you and for me it worked because I’ve struggled with adult acne for years and would do ANYTHING to get rid of it so I believed her.
I honestly could not afford her ridiculously expensive (priced out of market) prices but for some reason thought ok… This will be the thing that works and the price will be with being acne free!
Boy… Was I wrong. I bought a package and returned 3 more times and Sonya only came in once for a total of 10 minutes.
Her employees loathe her. Because they told me so! I’ve also heard Sonya berate her employees and clients.
This woman is unbelievably selfish and money hungry. Steer clear.

This place would be great if Sonya was never there. The staff is great and the products are good, but Sonya ruins the relaxing spa environment. She comes in and lectures me about what’s wrong with my skin and tries to sell treatments in the middle of my relaxing treatment. She becomes defensive when she realizes she doesn’t know jack about the skin treatment I’m on from my dermatologist and bad mouth’s my doctor at Cedars Sinai. She uses her iphone which has bad quality resolution to take pictures of my skin to point out flaws that really aren’t there in reality because the camera on her phone sucks. She is a BULLY and no better than a USED CAR SALESMAN! She is AGGRESSIVE and MEAN to her staff. She’s also a LIAR. She tried to sell me products I don’t need and when I asked her for samples, she said she doesn’t have any. But when the lady right after me asked her for the same samples, she gave them to her! If you decide to go, make sure you go when she’s not there!

Dear Sonya,
I was very excited to visit your well-​known establishment– as found on Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP iPhone app, THE lifestyle mecca for men and women both!
Your space is lovely and calming even as it is located in the center of busy Beverly Hills.
*Parking was a bit tight; however, even for my Mini Cooper. Beep beep!
Your beautiful desk attendant was accomodating and…
I love that you offer before facial photos to be taken as well as consultation about my routine and areas that I wish to improve.
What I did not love was that you decided to do this consultation while I was laying on my back, with steam blowing in my face, using your outside voice, nonetheless.
Spa environment: Spa voice, no? I’m winking at you and hoping you will give it some thought! ;)
We spoke about how I’m a huge fan of Gwyneth Paltrow and her site, which has changed the way I «make, go, get, do, be, see,» whilst in LA, NYC and LONDON, and you encouraged me to get accupuncture– VERY good idea!
I appreciate that following your consultation (albeit a little awkward with me on my back, struggling to lift my neck to speak with you), you offered a detailed program for improving my skin– to put my best face forward…
It was a little shocking when you told me it would be $ 9,000.00; however, selecting to assist with my under eye circles, firmness of face, to lighten any freckles and giving my eyelids a healthy, non-​surgical lift. *All sounds amazing, by the way!
THEN, you told me you wanted to offer this to me at a package rate of $ 4,000.00 and that I would need to pay right then…
Love you for this «deal,» Sonya, but it seemed a little expensive to me, a beautiful, 30 year old woman who rarely sees the sun, washes her face two times a day and moisturizes– confession: I always forget the SPF step– but I do use all La Mer products and for the last 4 years.
I’m not exactly failing in the skin care or product department.
I respect your expertise and I do hope to improve the small imperfections that my face’s skin may have, but I will expect slightly different treatment if there be a next time.
1. Please reduce your voice to spa environment decibels– your tone is intimidating, even for me, a Texan
2. Do not bark at your staff, *especially in my presence or I might offer her a better opportunity elsewhere, on the spot
3. Attempt not to force your treatments on me– I’m educated and know what I want, and telling me what I want will only result in me spending less money at your spa, even if GP is your «BFF»
4. I know that I am not a celebrity– and your constant reminder that I am not really made me uncomfortable and seemed unnecessary; Fix that– or I will be forced to find your competition
5. Please change your nail polish or get a manicure, because I don’t care if you have touched my idol or not– you will not be touching my face again with a cheap set; Mars Salon is the best– Tell them Patricia sent you– and try to be nice Bc they DO know English!
Best,
Patricia
P. S. My $ 1,250.00 facial looks great– and my $ 458.00 in flora pills, omega oil and eye cream are so far so lovely.
***Note to the public: The fitness facial, which is all that I went for, is $ 250.00, so Sonya upsold me by $ 1,400.00.
She’s a witch, for sure, but a good one! :)

Terrible experience here. Terrible facial. I found thousands of dollars of unauthorized charges on my credit card I had to dispute. What a complete mess I had to deal with paperwork wise. Unfortunately I did buy the 30 bottles of «absolutely necessary» products she forced on me. That I couldn’t dispute although I did not need nor know how to use 20 of them.
I have been getting facials once a month since I was 21 years old and now I am 35 years old. I take good care of myself and don’t mind spending thousands of dollars on my skin. This place is just crooked. I feel bad for Sonya honestly. What would drive someone to rip off good people?
Go to Kate Somerville or Ava Shamban or anywhere else… There are hundreds of dermatologists and estheticians to choose from in la. Just never. Ever. Go to Sonya Dakar.

Dear Unilocal… you need a NO STAR option because Sonya Dakar is a thief! I have not been in sometime but BOY do I remember this evil lady. 1. She will take, take and take your money! She is such a smooth talker in making you feel that she has discovered the next fountain of youth. 2. She treats her employees like pond scum. 3. She is RUDE to her clients; therefore, you feel threaten and you end up buying a bunch of bull shit! Her bullshit product is simply private label goods that she slaps her own label. (You can go to Raya Spa and buy almost the same formula’s at a reasonable price not to mention that they are BETTER than this lady. Raya’s facial are so functional and there prices have not changed in years).
Long story short, save your money and don’t get influence by her «celebrity» cliental. I don’t understand why they would even support her and her business. Super sad.

Simply a notch above the rest! Better than a regular facial, she transforms your skin. Amazing and result oriented!

For the past 20 years my mother who is a licensed esthetician and very skilled has been my facialist. Moving to California I was concerned who would help keep my skin looking young. I was referred to Sonya and I am very thankful. Her location is beautiful and relaxing. The tequniques she uses is unique and effective … Thank you Sonja

this was a really stressful facial by the owner who made me feel horrible about myself and my skin then she pushed a bunch of products on me that were super expensive. Really? you know better than oil of olay– loreal– nutrogena? the behemoths of the industry that can afford the best scientists and research and raw material? I now go to an amazing dermatologist that is calm and brilliant and my skin looks amazing. horrible experience and while I was there she was yelling at everybody too.

If I could give this place ZERO stars I would. Let’s call it one star because the girl who did the facial, Lina, managed to complete the facial even with Sonya yelling at her that if she needs anything she has to COME AND GET IT OR TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED! Here’s the story…
I just left my appointment at Sonya Dakar, absolutely furious because the owner, Sonya, basically screamed at my as I was trying to check out. I made the mistake of purchasing a Living Social voucher for this place. I had an appointment scheduled for prior to the Living Social expiration date, but the day of the appointment I got a call that they wouldn’t be able to accommodate me because they had someone out sick and wouldn’t have the person or time to do a complete facial. I said ok and they suggested rescheduling to today– a Sunday at 12pm. I was ok with it and showed up for my appointment today.
I was under the impression that Living Socials do not differ from regularly offered options at businesses, they are just regular options discounted to give people an idea what the services are like so they can come back and frequent the business. Well apparently at Sonya Dakar Living Social vouchers are only good on weekdays and not weekends, so the receptionist was berated for giving me a Sunday appointment, even though it had been okayed by Sonya to begin with! After a while of going back and forth to determine whether or not they could do a facial today since they are so busy (with full price paying customers) someone named Lina came into the room at 12:38 (I had been there since 12). She started the facial at 12:40 and finished by 1:16. Nice one hour facial! In 36 min! I went out to settle the bill and show the voucher on my phone when the real fun began.
The voucher online now said expired and had no voucher # on it (since Sonya Dakar had RESCHEDULED ME TO A DATE AFTER IT EXPIRED!!). I had printed one out prior to my originally schedule appointment but forgotten to bring it with me today. WELL this did NOT sit well with Sonya Dakar. She started yelling at me and telling her receptionist this is YOUR fault and telling me THIS IS WHY WE DON’T WANT YOU PEOPLE HERE WITH THE SOCIAL LIVING COUPON THINGS! Excuse me? You people? She refused to let me leave until I gave a credit card # for the service in case I don’t email them a copy of the voucher # when I got home and coninuted to berate me ‘you people’ as I stood there. Credit card # which, by the way, they write on top of the customer file, including expiration date and CVV #. Awesome way to keep things private!
This was an absolutely disgusting display by a business owner with no knowledge of the words CUSTOMER SERVICE. There was no reason to treat me like dirt, like HOW DARE I BE THERE, from beginning to end. I am upset, insulted, and completely disturbed by her awful treatment my before, during, and post treatment. In short, AVOID SONYA DAKAR LIKE THE PLAGUE. There is a reason she has only ONE star on Unilocal.Because there’s no way to give someone ZERO stars!