The hardest phase of my professional journey began the moment I decided to step out on my own with almost no savings. There was no guarantee of success, no roadmap, no safety net only a knowing that staying where I was no longer aligned with the person I was becoming. Finding a landlord willing to take a chance on me felt nothing short of miraculous: a one-year lease, then month-to-month. It was an open door I wasn’t going to waste.
I opened my practice in 2008 in the middle of a recession. Businesses were shuttering, the beauty industry was shrinking, and clients were cutting back on everything that wasn’t essential. Groupon had just launched, offering exposure the world hadn’t seen before social media, but the tradeoff was steep: deep discounting, razor-thin margins, and providing full-value services at a fraction of the price just to get people through the door. Every month was a tightrope walk between passion and practicality.
But that period refined me. It taught me grit, resourcefulness, and how to build something from pure intention. It shaped the foundation of what would eventually become Skin Worship.
The Birth of a Philosophy: Skin as a Reflection of the Inner World
Skin Worship was built on a belief that skin is far more than appearance it reflects our inner world. Our stress, joy, healing, fears, and emotional landscape all find expression through the skin. I wanted to create a space where clients didn’t just feel treated, but held. A space where touch became restorative, where beauty was not a performance, but a remembering of one’s worth.
At its core, the Skin Worship philosophy is rooted in devotion to the skin, to the spirit, and to the quiet rituals that reconnect us with ourselves. We honor the skin as an intelligent, living organ that responds to compassion just as much as it responds to science. Every treatment is designed as an offering: grounded, intentional, and deeply personal.
Creating a Sanctuary For Clients and For Estheticians
One of my proudest moments wasn’t a single milestone, but a realization: the space I had built had become a sanctuary not only for clients, but for other estheticians as well. There came a day when I looked around and felt the energy of people who weren’t there for a quick treatment they were seeking grounding, connection, presence, and a moment to return to themselves.
Skin Worship had become bigger than my fears and bigger than the struggle it was born from.
A profound chapter unfolded as Skin Worship evolved into a platform that nurtured estheticians’ talent and gave them the confidence to discover their own voice. We supported countless women in shaping their identity within the industry not just inside the treatment room, but across social media, within their businesses, and in how they presented themselves to the world.
Nobody else was doing that. In many ways, Skin Worship became the very space I once prayed for when I was starting out: a place that offered mentorship, visibility, community, and the freedom to grow into one’s own genius.
Challenging the Biggest Misconception in Skincare
The misconception I wish more people understood is the idea that skin is an accessory something to perfect, filter, or force into a glass-like ideal. Today, people chase edited versions of reality, and in doing so, disconnect from the true purpose and wisdom of their skin.
Your skin is not décor.
It is not a trend.
It is your largest organ a living, breathing, protective system that mirrors your internal world.
This obsession with artificial perfection creates cycles of overdoing: too many remedies, too many actives, too much manipulation. It overwhelms the skin barrier, disrupts the microbiome, and creates d…