Getting To Know Your Local Skin Care Specialist: Emily Ellinwood
How familiar are you with the term esthetician? Lucky for you, I was able to speak to a high school friend that has been in the skin care industry since 2016. Emily Ellinwood, a Cranston local and licensed skin esthetician, specializes in facials and has been running her own business as of 2018.
To put it in small words, an esthetician is a beautician that performs cosmetic skin treatments. Most of them specialize in certain services such as waxing, facials and/or body treatments. Thus, Emily’s line of work being facials.
Always being interested in the beauty industry, Ellinwood always loved doing her and her friends’ makeup and hair for high school formals and dances. Ellinwood said she thought she was doing it for fun, and didn’t know she’d wanna make a career of it. It wasn’t until she started getting acne that she started dedicating more time to care for her skin. Ellinwood used to suffer from severe cystic acne, and said she never received the proper guidance to take care of it.
“Nothing that I did really helped me,” said Ellinwood. “I went to dermatologists, and never got any help. They looked at me for two seconds, and I paid 50 bucks for them to look at me and give me products that weren't good and didn’t work.”
Prior to working as an esthetician, Ellinwood used to work at Sephora as a beauty adviser. Following high school, she got her associate’s degree in general studies at CCRI, but focused more on business classes. Not knowing what to make of her interests, she found aesthetics school. She said she came across the title “esthetician” and had never heard the term before. As she learned more about becoming an esthetician, she chose to start a 5 month program at Empire Beauty School in Providence. Meanwhile, she was juggling her job at Massage Envy in Providence too. Once completing her 5 month long program, Ellinwood decided to open up her own business, Skin Specialist RI.
“The reason I love my job so much is because it’s never the same,” said Ellinwood. “Every client is different, and needs something different. My clients know their significant facial is going to be different every month.”
Skin Specialist RI LLC is located in Cranston. Ellinwood rents a space inside of family owned salon, Dennis Marcel Salon, on Dyer Avenue. She is not partnered or affiliated with the salon, but simply works in the building. Recently, Ellinwood announced a 3k follower contest for free facials for year for anyone who followed the rules in the post description. In just days of posting the contest, Ellinwood received more than hundreds of followers. Currently with more than 4k to this day. Ellinwood advises people to follow your dreams and to do things at their own momentum. It is important to always keep going but to always know you work load and to not overwork yourself.
“Do things at your own pace, and don’t let anyone tell you what you should do or when you should do it. Do it when it feels right.” said Ellinwood. “I didn’t feel ready when I rented the space I have now, but you gotta do what you want to do.”
Skin Specialist RI’s services are open to both men and women. Before any facial appointment, Ellinwood has a consultation with you about your skin first to see what skin treatment suits your skin best. Ellinwood uses different products in her space such as Soulita’s beard oil and butter products for the men facials. Currently, she is offering various different facials such as a signature facial, a prenatal facial, a supermodel facial, a hydroluxe facial, a glow LED facial, etc. At the moment, due to the coronavirus and too many clients, Ellinwood is not accepting new clients until 2021. If you would like more info, follow her page @skinspecialistri to stay updated. She includes covid-19 rules for visits, must have skin products, service info, new client updates, etc. For anyone interested in the beauty industry, Ellinwood reminds them to continue hustling. Same goes for anyone following any other dreams.
“You have to love what you are doing to be successful in this industry,” said Ellinwood. “You can’t just be in it for the money.“
Have you prioritized your skin routine this year? If you haven't, take some tips from Emily or other local skin care specialist around you.
Check Out Emily's small biz on Instagram @skinspecialistri