Q&A with Essence Moore a.k.a. @TheeSkinBoss, Owner of Lineage Studio

Hi there! Welcome back to Thrivency’s weekly newsletter 👋🏽

When it comes to caring for your skin, the body’s largest organ, it’s not easy to know who to trust or what products to turn to. Thankfully, I crossed digital paths with a super talented licensed esthetician and entrepreneur many months ago.

Meet Essence! Ever since I followed her on social, she’s been serving up the perfect tips to help us all care for our skin and wellbeing with intention. I finally got the chance to meet this NYC-native in person for a content collaboration and be blessed by the best facial.

Through this Q&A, you’ll learn a little more about her philosophy on great skincare, her unexpected journey into product development, and how she keeps clients coming back appointment after appointment.

Let’s dive in ⤵️

Q&A with Essence Moore

What made you want to become an esthetician in the first place?

I was actually in college studying art history and museum studies to be a museum director, but that industry is very discriminatory. I’m someone who is like “if you don’t want me here, I’m out.” So then I became a flight attendant because I just wanted to see the world, but while traveling a lot I started having skin issues and acne concerns.

I had never really been into beauty and never did makeup, so I had to learn about this skin thing. And in learning, I realized I liked it so much more. I went back to school and started to really specialize in self-care and ingredient education because I was learning more about the level of toxins that were in certain products and the way those products were being marketed. That really made me passionate about connecting people with products that are safe, healthy and still give them the results that they want.

During your appointments, how are you educating your clients on how to take a holistic approach to their skincare?

To be honest, I bring them in and ask them to tell me everything that they have going on, and then I start working with that. So if you tell me that you smoke cigarettes everyday, then I’m going to put you on to products with antioxidants and show you what that can do for your skin. People like results, so when you see what that did for your skin, then I can say next start taking supplements with antioxidants and you’ll see even better results because it’s a journey.

For me, I build relationships with my clients. They start to trust me and trust my advice and then I show the results. I have clients I’ve been seeing for 10 years and they go through so many different phases of their lives… like if a client receives a cancer diagnosis, then we pivot and change their routine to target different concerns than before. Basically, being in relationship with people is the key and customizing my approach to their lifestyle.

You have your own skincare product line, Ara by Essence. What was the process like of creating your own formulations and launching a brand?

I was actually peer pressured by my clients to create products because I was giving out so much information about ingredients. This was back during a time where you weren’t able to walk into Sephora and find products that were affordable, by Black founders and designed for melanated skin.

So I ended up working with a cosmetic chemist based in Texas and we spent 8 months going through trial and error, seeing what worked and what didn’t work. I was a waxer, so it actually started out as products made for your bikini area to prevent in-grown hairs and address textural issues.

Then I found out my clients loved it and said they were using it on their faces! Then they were like can you give me a cleanser? Can you give me all these other products to go with it? So it’s 3 staple skincare products that you can use on your face and your body. It’s for all ages and it’s safe for everybody.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Do you still see yourself being a practicing esthetician?

Yes, I love having my hands on people. I think that the in-person experience is so important and I hope that in 10 years that I’m able to have a bigger space and be able to offer more education and mentorship to other professionals. I can only work with so many clients so I want to be able to impart that knowledge on to other estheticians. Hopefully I can make some kind of impact on the industry.

Why do you think it’s important to be visible as a Black woman esthetician?

l think that in being a Black woman that’s come from not knowing anything about the world of wellness and self-care, I always want to stay open to the possibilities of life. And I want to explore what it’s like to age gracefully. Most of the women in my family pass away at an early age, so there’s nobody to ask about menopause, skincare, emotional well-being… So being able to have open conversations with other Black women about what they’re experiencing, that has been the most life changing part of my job. The best wellness hack is just talking to people.

If you enjoyed this Q&A, here are all the ways you can support Essence and Lineage Studio:

If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, reach out to a loved one that you think should subscribe. We’ll meet back here next Thursday for the next edition of Wellness News You Can Use 🗞

Thrivency quick links: