BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Fresh face in town

COSTA MESA — Sugar, soy, rice and cannabis — sounds like a recipe from a Cheech and Chong movie, but it’s far from it. Each ingredient is actually part of the skincare and fragrance lines at one of South Coast Plaza’s newest shops.

Fresh opened Oct. 27 and has already sprinted past its owners’ — Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg — initial projections by 50%, Glazman said.

“I think it’s a great demographic,” Glazman said about South Coast Plaza shoppers. “They are very much in line with what’s going on. They are very much familiar with all the ingredients out there on the market and they’re asking a lot of questions.”

Fresh’s South Coast Plaza store is its first in Orange County — the first store in Boston was opened in 1991 — but the products have been available through retailers like Sephora and Neiman Marcus. For the last six years, Glazman said, he and his wife have been working with South Coast Plaza representatives on finding an appropriate nook for the store, which they found in Fresh’s corner store next to the shopping center’s carousel.

Although people were able to get the products at local stores, having a free-standing store allows people to take in the whole collection, as well as the makeup line, which is only available at Fresh stores.

“It’s a very nice store,” said Kathy Jones, who bought a gift at the store Friday. “I am familiar with the product — I found it at Neiman’s. I’m glad the store is here now.”

Fresh creates its own skincare, body care, makeup and fragrance lines and harks back to traditions of old.

When he was a boy, Glazman’s grandmother used to put sugar in his wounds, he said. The antiseptic qualities of sugar help heal and moisturize skin, said Glazman and Ann Schade, the Costa Mesa store manager. Inspired by his childhood and sparked by sugar’s effect on the skin, the sugar line was born. It includes a body scrub and a sunscreen lip treatment.

There’s also a soy and rice line, including a sake bath, which is 53% sake, Schade said. Because of the concentration of alcohol, pregnant women should not use the product.

“In Japanese tradition, people used to wash themselves in sake,” Glazman said in a telephone interview from his New York office.

In Japan, people found that the person who washed the rice after it was collected from the fields had extremely soft hands, Glazman said.

Soft and supple skin is what Fresh wants for its customers. Schade, who worked at the Boston flagship store for three years, said she makes sure her employees are trained first in basic dermatology — basic skin types and how ingredients affect them. They then learn about each product. Glazman and Schade, whose skin can be likened to porcelain, said they both are loyal users of the Fresh product.

The store has a facial treatment chair where employees give mini-treatments to customers who want to test the product. The Costa Mesa store is only doing facial treatments now and may begin body treatments later. The treatments range from $65 to $225. Fresh’s six Costa Mesa employees all come from a makeup or a skincare background, Schade said.

The money spent on the treatment can be redeemed for product if customers are happy with it, Schade said.

Schade expects the mini-treatment room to garner enough business to require appointments during the weekends. The store also offers makeovers, Schade said.

Products at the store range from $11 soaps to $250 skincare and fragrance products. For more information call (714) 549-7086.