From the Ashes – richmondmagazine.com

A year later Luna Aesthetics & Spa Owner Chelsea Martin lost his West End building in the fire. The lack of physical buildings has not stopped the master estheticians from meeting clients, but she has since planned a more permanent salon home.

In line with her return from maternity leave, Martin and her fellow aesthetician celebrated Luna’s reopening at 8921 Three Chop Road in January. “We have to see such a tragedy and find a silver lining and think, ‘Well, this should go in a different direction right now,'” Martin says.

Approximately six months before the fire at the former Patterson Avenue Studios, Martin partnered with Rachel Duke, a nurse practitioner who specializes in injections such as Botox and dermatological fillers. Together, they spent $175,000 on a build-out on the Patterson Avenue building, which is still standing in abandoned. “Chelsea and I had these goals and ideas that this would become our space until we probably grew out of it,” Duke says. “The physical building is not there, but there are still patients.”

To keep the business running, Martin and Duke have temporarily started working outside of the balance of RVA, Henrico’s wellness working space. Duke later moved her injection boutique to West Creek Medical Center with a short pump, and Luna is currently located near Regency Mall. “We are moving this new space to something that really focuses on education,” says Martin. Martin will host a series of workshops in a larger location, including teaching the public how to use the waiting room to do lymphatic drainage on their own.

Martin began working at Esthetics School’s fresh skincare 17 years ago. Swinging back and forth between northern Virginia and Richmond, she worked in a variety of businesses and gained experience looking at many aspects of her profession. She launched her own business in 2016, citing her desire to approach clients and learn about individual skincare needs. “We wanted people to feel like they’re entering the space, not just because of our knowledge, they know that they’re getting the right treatment, they know that they’re not going to have judgment,” says Martin.

The appointment starts with consultations and helps the aesthetician understand the client’s skin and how it is best to treat it. Based on their interests and goals, clients will help them build custom facial procedures to treat and educate and deal with. “Of course I love my clients and I hope they come back, [our job is] To be empowered to handle the skin on their own,” says Martin.

New spaces lead to new possibilities, but Martin is ready for Luna to return to friendlyness. “It’s really exciting for me to have the space for clients to get to it, that it’s close to what they originally felt with Luna,” she says.