An American Biologique Recherche?
Nick Axelrod-Welk aims to offer just that with Contrapposto — the cosmetic dermatology clinic in West Hollywood he opened with his husband and business partner, Casey Axelrod-Welk. He also plans to unveil a new beauty brand as part of the endeavor.
“What I’ve been most interested in recently is the surge of the luxury market — call it quiet luxury, call it stealth wealth, whatever it is,” Nick said. “But, especially in a place like L.A., there’s a lot of noise in the mid- and even premium range of both skin care products and in the Botox, filler, laser universe. Real luxury is about the product and the thought that goes into the product and the techniques that are used to achieve the product.”
Related Articles
A savvy entrepreneur, Nick knows a thing or two about launching a beauty venture, cofounding Into the Gloss with Emily Weiss, Nécessaire with Randi Christiansen and helping to lead Courteney Cox’s Homecourt before joining the venture capital arm of United Talent Agency.
This is his most personal project yet.
“This is Casey and my life’s work and our love’s work,” Nick went on. “He is the best, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t use every tool in my tool kit like he’s using every tool in his tool kit to treat patients.”
Casey’s technique is a personalized approach that’s slow and judicious. A nurse practitioner, he worked in internal medicine before switching to aesthetics.
“My philosophy has always been prioritizing regenerative biostimulator treatments,” Casey said. “So, if I can do that first, if I can harness the power of our own anatomy, we’re going to benefit the most from that.”
At Contrapposto, visitors receive a customized evaluation and diagnosis. Photographs are taken and analyzed, before receiving a personalized treatment plan.
“He figured out a new and subtle and modern way of getting all of the things you can get in L.A. and New York, Botox, fillers, lasers, injectables, etc. and so I felt in my gut that Casey had perfected the hard product, which was the expertise and the science and the medicine,” Nick continued. “And I’m forever a risk taker, and I was like, ‘Let’s just do it.’”
They looked for a space for a year before finding it: a bright and gorgeous 1937 John Elgin Woolf-designed building with 14-foot ceilings and original moldings. It’s tucked away behind a property on La Cienega Boulevard, alongside a courtyard and separate 300-square-foot bungalow. The main space, at 1,300 square feet, houses three treatment rooms and was furnished with the help of interior decorator Courtney Applebaum (known for her work with Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen designing the Row’s Melrose Place boutique). They remodeled, restored and made it their own with minimal decor and a great attention to detail.
“We don’t do any advertising,” Nick said of business, which soft opened around New Year’s. “We don’t do any influencer marketing. Any of the traditional sort of growth tactics, we haven’t participated in yet. And we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well word of mouth works still in 2024.”
What’s on the menu at Contrapposto?
“I have brought in the highest, cutting-edge technology,” Casey said, listing a red-light therapy panel, BBL laser, MOXI laser, Morpheus8 before Nick interjected.
“You could go to a million places in this town and find these lasers,” Nick chimed in. “The technique and the technology, it’s all in the practitioner….The technique is the technology.”
“If you want a quick solution, I’m not your guy,” Casey added. “I’m going to do it the right way. We’re going to work on your tissue integrity. We’re going to do lasers and make sure using quality products first, and then we circle around to other modalities that are going to address volume, which people want to get to right away.”
Products include Biologique Recherche, Environ Skin Care and iS Clinical. Among the team is an aesthetician on hand for facials.
A consultation is priced at $400, which goes directly toward treatments with “a large window of time to use it,” Casey said.
“A consultation is to give a patient all of the information they need in order to make the best decision for themselves, because, ultimately, it’s not up to me,” he added. “I want it to be up to my patients. I want them to own it and feel really good about their decision. I’ve done their research, and I give them all the information they need, and it just leads to happy, beautiful, bespoke outcomes. That’s all I care about. And I obsess about it all day, every day.”
It’s an artistry, said Nick, which is in the name: Contrapposto. “We thought that an art term would best describe Casey’s approach and how he works. And how this is an art and not a rigid science.”
When it comes to the Contrapposto beauty brand, it’s still in development.
“What’s great about a self-funded bootstrap business is — well, there’s a lot of things that aren’t great about it, but what is great is — that there’s no one breathing down your neck about timing, and we can really grow organically and slowly and in a way that feels natural and good to us,” said Nick, with a laugh. “That said, I’m still me, and so I’ve already started development on a few different products. But it’s going to be a long development timeline. If I’m going to sit here and tell you that we want to build the American Biologique Recherche, I’m not going release anything that’s anything less.”