The origin of asa ☁️

My journey into skincare was never really straightforward. It’s something that I had been moving toward for a long time, even before I fully understood what it was.

I grew up in Hunterdon County, New Jersey right across the bridge from New Hope. I come from a lineage of beauticians, and my grandmother owned her own salon. I originally went to the University of Alabama to pursue my dreams of cheerleading at an SEC school and to study journalism, but pretty quickly I realized that path didn’t feel right for me. I ended up transferring to LIM College in Manhattan for fashion, and even then, I still felt like something was missing.

It wasn’t until I stepped into a spa for the first time in 2015 that everything kind of clicked for me. There was just something about the environment, the energy, the feeling, that I immediately connected to. I remember thinking, this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

Not long after that, I decided to go to esthetics school.

At the time, I was also dealing with really difficult acne that kind of came out of nowhere, and I couldn’t understand why it was happening. I was going to dermatologists, trying different things, doing my own research. I kept feeling like I wasn’t getting to the root of it, and no one could give me answers. I remember leaving a dermatology office in tears, because the doctor said, “there’s nothing you can do- it just has to work its way out.” Obviously, I did not believe him. That experience honestly played a huge role in pushing me further into skincare, because I didn’t just want to treat skin or perform facials, I wanted to understand it, and understand how to actually heal it.

I’ve always been someone who cared about beauty, doing my friends’ brows, being into skin, fashion, hair, makeup, but this was different. It became something deeper.

I started my first job at a salon/spa in Lambertville in 2015, where the environment was very rooted in overall wellness. We were doing facials, but things like massage, bodywork, and energy-based treatments were also offered. This is where I first started working with Biologique Recherche, a French skincare brand that truly shaped my approach as an esthetician to this day. Around that same time in my personal life, I was also being exposed to a more holistic way of thinking about health in general, and I became really drawn to eastern medicine, energy, and the connection between what’s going on internally and what shows up on the skin.

I was constantly reading, learning, and trying to figure out not just my own skin, but how everything in the body is connected. That’s really where my interest in deeper skin health and the mind-body connection started to develop, even before I had the language for it.

In 2020, I moved to Philadelphia and started working for a cosmetic surgeon in Bala Cynwyd who also practiced functional medicine. That experience expanded everything for me. I was learning about treatments like Botox, filler, and lasers, but also about internal health, hormones, and how the body functions as a whole.

This really helped me getting a better understanding of facial anatomy, how the facial muscles show aging, how the skin loses volume and structure, and most importantly - what can be corrected with skincare alone vs. what actually needs medical treatment. I was also able to assist and observe in the operating room, which was one of my favorite parts. She specialized in liposuction, and I was able to see firsthand how important the lymphatic system is, especially in healing and recovery.

At that point, everything started to come together, holistic, clinical, and intuitive. I even thought about going back to school for medicine, but remembered half of the magic of the craft is through touch.

After a few years in Philly, I was approached by someone I worked with early in my career about joining a new skin studio in Yardley. I was excited because it felt aligned at the time, I would be back with the brands I had first fallen in love with and back in the treatment room. I spent four years there really refining my craft. I became lead esthetician, educated other providers, and helped shape the treatment approach and culture of the space.

But more than anything, that’s where I really started developing my own way of working.

I started to realize that the way I approached skin through clinical eyes and holistic intuition, was something that felt very natural and individualized to me as a practioner. I didn’t really have to think about it, the skin and body would just feel like it was talking to me. It wasn’t something I learned in one place, it was something that had been building over time through touching thousands of faces, and everything I had experienced and studied.

At a certain point, going out on my own ultimately became inevitable. I realized I was doing my customized own treatments, I had my own rhythm, and my own methodology that clients were seeking me out for. I wasn’t just doing facials. I was guiding my clients in the right directions to help improve their overall wellness, which I knew in turn would help their skin. The skin is a mirror. I don’t give medical advice, and I don’t practice medicine. I like to think of myself as a translator. I educate what I am seeing and feeling to my clients, so we can work together to achieve better skin, and so they can connect with the right people and tools they need to heal- if needed. It’s not just simply about vanity, it’s about long term health.

That’s what led me to create ASA.

As I’m growing into my 30s, I can see how all of these experiences have shaped the way I work today. My approach is not about quick fixes or surface-level results. It’s about working with the skin, supporting the body, and understanding that real change comes from consistency, intention, and connection.

This has never just been a job for me. It’s something that’s always been part of who I am.

And ASA is the foundation of that.