Media Mentions.

American Spa. June 2000.

Harnessing the healing power of the earth's inner heat-also known as geothermal energy-is upping the ante of skincare technology. An emanation of this therapeutic phenomenon is witnessed in the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor. When underwater volcanoes (prevalent in Italy, Iceland, New Zealand and in some parts of Central America) erupt, extraordinary chemical reactions result as water is pressure-cooked and imbued with minerals. Geothermal waters of Reykjavik, Iceland, have been touted as life- prolonging, and locals and international wellness seekers soak in the municipal hot-water springs. Douglas Hopkins, former M.I.T. volcanologist and CEO of Douglas Hopkins and Company, has captured geothermal energy in Botaenica, his luxurious line of mud for the skin. The power of the water lies in its ability to rehabilitate the skin. "Minerals from geothermal water pass through skin cell walls by osmosis and have a mildly irritating effect. The body goes on its defense and works to heal the skin, making it fresher," explains Hopkins.

The New York Times

21 November 1999

VOWS

Oksana Katsuro and Douglas Hopkins

By LOIS SMITH BRADY

MANHATTAN, NOV. 6 Last January, when Oksana Katsuro first encountered Douglas Hopkins, she was living and working in Obninsk, Russia, and dreaming of an escape. Ms. Katsuro, who is 26 and nearly six feet tall, with butterscotch-color hair, was earning the equivalent of $20 a month designing computer programs to track nuclear materials at a government institute. She occupied a tiny dormitory room there, and like most people she knew, she barely scraped by financially.

"I mostly ate potatoes from my mother and my sister's gardens," she said. "Sometimes, my mom went to the forest and picked mushrooms and marinated them." Eating in a restaurant severely stretched her budget.

Starting a family was out of the question. "Even my girlfriends who are married don't have children because they can't afford it," she said.

At the institute, Ms. Katsuro spent a lot of time exploring the Internet, sometimes conversing with Americans on One & Only, an international matchmaking Web site. Then she began corresponding regularly with Mr. Hopkins, who was fascinated to find highly educated Russian women on the site, including a laser physicist and a lawyer. "Tens of thousands of Russian women are on the Internet trying to leave and better their lives," observed Mr. Hopkins, who at 53 was eager to marry and settle down.

In person, he is reed thin, beautifully spoken, old World in his tastes and unorthodox. He switches careers often and gracefully, having worked as a fashion photographer in New York and as a volcanologist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, climbing and measuring erupting volcanoes.

Ten years ago, he started Douglas Hopkins & Company, a perfume maker based in his wood-panel duplex on the Upper East Side. Many of his products are inspired by remedies dating back centuries and are packaged like perfumes in a Parisian apothecary. (He describes his perfume Zazou as "the California scent with a hint of sanity.")

By e-mail, Ms. Katsuro and Mr. Hopkins discussed aromatherapy, computers, volcanoes and her former marriage, which ended in divorce three years ago. "Sometimes, I got six letters from Doug a day," Ms. Katsuro said. "I spent all my weekends reading and writing."

While he said her messages were funny and full of "the proverbial Russian soul," he imagined her as "in her 40's and rather drab-looking."

"Beautiful women generally have an ego, and there was nothing like that in her letters," he said. "Then, one day, she very modestly asked if I wanted to take a took at her home page. I was shocked! It was like opening a Ford model book. So I lost no time at all, I went to Russia quickly as I could.

Many people tried to talk him out of going. “My whole family thought I was nuts,” he said. “My father said, 'Mark my word, someone will do harm to you in the Moscow airport.'”

The couple spent four days together in Russia in April. On the second day he proposed marriage, and she accepted. On the third day, they kissed for the first time. In June, he went back with an engagement ring. "Russians have no hope," he said. "They really don't believe in tomorrow at all. But when I gave Oksana the ring, I could see in her eyes that she believed."

In August, she moved to New York, and on Nov. 6, they were married in a civil ceremony in a friend's antiques-filled Manhattan loft.

The bride, who wore a white dress as short as a tennis outfit, hopes to become a mother soon. "1'm proud of myself, that I managed to do this, that I had the energy and courage," she said. "My father, who died a year and a half ago, taught me that we are born in order to bring up our children and give them all the knowledge and education we can. So, for me, it's like I'm doing what I was supposed to do. I'm on the right road."