Follow the Leaders: Face Reality

How did you get started in the industry?  

I’ve enjoyed a serendipitous career path, where I’ve been able to work across many companies in food, beverage, and skin care. I’ve also worked in many functions—sales, marketing, finance, operations—but never as an esthetician. Unlike many leaders in our industry, I didn’t grow up in professional skin care. I’ve been an intent learner to understand the unique dynamics in this industry. I believe that my broader experience is an advantage for Face Reality. By combining our purpose-driven vision to support our Acne Experts with an innovative internal culture, I believe great things will continue to happen.  

What sparked your interest in professional skin care?  

Laura Cooksey, our founder! The first time I met her, she talked about her “adaptive approach” to skin care. She explained that skin adapts to treatments and topical products. If you use this adaptation to provide stronger active ingredients as the skin can tolerate them, over time, you’ll achieve superior results. It’s one of the guiding principles of our protocols and one of the reasons the “Clear Skin Method” is so effective in treating acne. I was so inspired after that conversation, I could see Face Reality was doing something very different in the industry.  

What does the future hold for Face Reality? 

We’re working hard to invest in all parts of the company, with the vision and inspiration of helping our Acne Experts become more successful. In the last year, we introduced new packaging, made significant supply-chain upgrades, and launched three new products. We are continuing to identify gaps and invest in product offerings for acne clients and the estheticians treating them. We’ve expanded our education team to bring Acne Experts more robust continuous education, and we’ve substantially improved access to information through the Acne HQ, which houses our learning platform, business dashboard, digital tools, and more. We’ll continue to invest in building an incredible team—about a third of our employees are estheticians, many of whom have evolved their careers beyond the treatment room. The “voice of the esthetician” remains a very important part of our company culture. 

Moving forward, what do you see as the future for professional skin care?   

For all the conveniences of social media, it’s made professional skin care more important than ever. An increasing percentage of our Acne Experts’ new clients show up for their first appointment with a compromised barrier. Those clients often mention learning skin care from social media—self-diagnosing in skin care is becoming an increasing problem, making the job of skin care professionals even more critical. The expanded awareness of estheticians is a challenge that rests on the collective shoulders of industry leaders. As Face Reality grows, we’re investing more of our marketing budget in targeting end-consumers, teaching them about the importance of estheticians, and directing them to our Acne Experts. It’s a more complicated message, but a very important one.