Pared-down skincare brand Monastery blends natural ingredients with a luxury feel. Its founder, San Francisco aesthetician Athena Hewett, has been working in the industry for 20 years and started mixing botanicals for skincare after a bout with acne. “When I opened my first private skincare studio 10 years ago, I decided to use all of my own recipes in the treatment room,” she explains. Hewett felt like all skincare product lines contained the same chemicals and she wasn’t excited by what was on the market. “Sadly, skincare, especially professional skincare, felt like a marketing scam to me.”
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Her new serene, minimalist skin clinic in Noe Valley offers bespoke facials to her devoted fan base. “We do have a few different facials to help give our clients some direction, but, basically, we’ll make sure that we give you what you need, no matter what you book,” Hewett says. The clinic also offers dermaplaning, microcurrent, photofacial technology, brow laminations and lash lifts.
