Slow oil rituals that calm stressed skin, with Athena Hewett

Monastery lives in a contradiction that many shelves hold. Skincare promises speed while skin often asks for patience. Athena Hewett learned that gap through severe acne in San Francisco, then kept returning to the hush of Greek monasteries she once visited with her mother and grandmother. The result is oil care blended in small runs, meant to be felt first and understood later.

The work happens in San Francisco, where Monastery is mixed, poured and practiced. A compact team keeps the studio and lab in the city, alongside a treatment space where oils are worked in with hands. Amber glass, heated cloths and the scent of roses and herbs shape the room. The place functions as a workshop before it functions as an image.

Hewett arrived there by way of her own face. She trained as an esthetician at 19 and spent close to ten years at a medspa as lead esthetician and spa director, working with pharmaceutical lines. Then she developed stage three, near stage four acne, despite access to potent formulas and services.

That turn still guides each Monastery blend. She laid labels side by side and saw near identical formulas, built on surfactants and preservatives also found in home care goods. She paused every product and water on her face, and within around six weeks saw no active breakouts. From that pause she went back to her CIDESCO thesis on essential oils and started formulating anew.

What stayed concrete was the ritual itself. She started a skincare studio in San Francisco in 2011 to offer oil cleansing and water free moisture, tested hundreds of versions across five to six years, and kept six favorites selected through client response. The name recalls childhood summers in Greece with her mother and grandmother, spent visiting monasteries. It began quite literally inside a monastery in Greece.

Thank you Athena. Your way of saying it is that cleansing oil lifts away makeup by touch rather than by chemistry. For a reader new to oil cleansing, how does that feel between fingers and across skin.

Our cleansing oil lifts everything away by touch, rather than by chemistry. I want people to learn that contrast through touch. You work the oil over dry skin. It releases sunscreen, makeup and the day. There is no foam and no sting. Then you lift it off with a warm, damp cloth.

Skin never squeaks. It feels supple and whole, never taut. You have not shifted pH or scrubbed the surface to become clean. You have loosened and wiped. Then you can feed skin with a light layer of oil on damp or dry skin.

I love creating beautiful things. And I get to share that work with the loveliest people. That sense of beauty holds texture for me. Oil should fall slowly from the spout. It should carry roses, not perfume. The cloth should feel warm. The practice should last a minute, morning and evening, and leave you settled.

You spent nearly a decade as a lead esthetician and spa director using pharmaceutical brands, then developed stage three, borderline stage four acne yourself. What did that clash force you to notice about ingredients.

Those years humbled me. I held strong skincare in my hands and I knew protocols well. I followed everything I had been taught. Yet my face moved to stage three, near stage four acne. It hurt and it altered how I read a formula.

I began to place labels from separate lines next to each other. To me they read almost alike. I kept noticing surfactants and preservatives also present in household goods. I started to ask whether the base of the routine held the issue, rather than the active. We kept stripping and preserving and stripping again, while hoping skin would calm.

In about six weeks my face shifted from stage three, borderline stage four acne to no active acne. What I did was pause. I paused every product and water on my face. That rest opened room to think. It made me wish to cooperate with skin and its own healing system, rather than oppose it.

You have said your mother took you to Greece nearly every summer to see your Yiayia and Papou, and that the brand name grew from those monastery visits. What did those places show you about care that San Francisco would later need.

My mom and I would travel nearly every summer back to Greece to see my Yiayia and Papou. Those visits remain the source of so much for me. The monasteries we entered felt plain and still. Objects were shaped by hand. Beauty seemed to rise from attention, rather than from owning more.

I entered esthetics without really planning to become an esthetician, yet still drawn to that witchy world I grew up with. Plants lived in our home practice. My grandmother understood what to steep and what to press and what to keep. So when I later set up my studio in San Francisco, I sought that same mood. A compact room. An unhurried routine. Formulas that felt shaped, not factory made.

In the simplest sense, a monastery in Greece. That stays the reference. Monastery should feel like a breath. Quieter. Fewer motions. Fine materials treated with care.

You have said you would rather decide by taste than by data, and you have also said you cannot change much about your skin, so stop trying. How do those two beliefs shape a routine you would truly prescribe.

You cannot change much about your skin, so stop trying. I offer that as relief. So much skincare vows a new face. I prefer to help the face you hold look settled, supple and tended. That calls for fewer motions performed well.

I would rather trust taste than data when I decide. For me taste means selecting what feels true and lovely and staying with it for years. Data holds value, yet it can push labels toward chasing claims. I want a cleanser you enjoy touching, an oil matched to your skin, and rest.

A simple prescription is this. At night, massage Rose Cleansing Oil onto dry skin and lift it away with a warm cloth. Press a few drops of Gold or your chosen oil into skin. In the morning, rinse lightly or cleanse again if wanted, then smooth on a small amount of oil. That is enough. Let consistency do the work.

You paused all products and water, then returned to your CIDESCO thesis on essential oils. How did study turn back into touch on real faces.

My thesis had never left me. I had studied essential oils in detail, their chemistry and their traditional uses. When my skin settled from doing nothing, I had no wish to revisit what had injured it. I hoped to rebuild with plants and oils able to cleanse without stripping.

The first product I made came on a day when I specifically had to wear sunblock on my face. I required something able to clear it fully yet gently. So I crafted a large molecule cleansing oil. That grew into Rose Cleansing Oil. Then I crafted Gold for pigmentation and scarring, because those marks remained.

In 2011 I opened a skincare studio in San Francisco to care for patients with oil cleansing and water free moisturizing. For five to six years I perfected hundreds of variations in a spa setting. I observed how skin answered across weeks, not days. We kept six winners based on client feedback. That is how Monastery began, from the treatment room outward.

You have said you usually fall for a single ingredient and then build a product around that one ingredient. Which plant began Gold, and what did it ask of the rest of the formula.

I usually fall for a single ingredient and then build a product around that one ingredient. With Gold, that affection concerned repair in appearance. After acne I carried pigmentation and scarring, and I sought oils able to support a more even looking tone while keeping dry skin at ease.

I reach for rose and red raspberry seed oil among others because they feel exquisite and hold their own character. Red raspberry seed oil feels dry and soft to the touch and layers cleanly on skin. Rose lends aroma and a sense of care that slows people down. Around a lead ingredient, I compose quietly. A gentle lift for the look of firmness. A little support for softness. Nothing extra.

That less is truly more. But with less, let it be absolute top quality. With only a handful of oils in the bottle, every one must justify its place. Every one must arrive fresh, well sourced and well balanced.

I entered esthetics without planning to practice as an esthetician, yet still drawn to that witchy world I knew growing up.

Athena Hewett

Fashion weeks and hotel residencies now draw you to New York and Paris, including work with Khaite, Kallmeyer and Victoria Beckham and the Skin Sanctuary pop up with Semaine. How does a slow ritual survive backstage.

Backstage moves quickly, yet skin still favors slowness. I prepare with the same motions I practice in the studio. Clear with oil to lift what sits there. Press a sheer layer to support the look of smooth, rested skin. Allow it to settle ahead of makeup. Models often show dryness from travel and shows, and this lends a soft canvas without weight.

Serving as resident esthetician at The Hotel Chelsea in New York lets me work one to one, which I adore. Paris felt similar. The Skin Sanctuary pop up in partnership with Semaine offered a calm room during a hectic week. Warm cloth. Hands. Breath.

Creative clients believe what they can feel. They want a feel with no sting or film left behind. They wish for skin that reads as skin. Oil honors that. It lends glow in appearance without masking.

You avoid tea tree oil, fillers, chemical emulsifiers, surfactants and preservatives, and you work without water heavy, alcohol heavy and salt heavy routines. What does that refusal cost, and what does it shelter.

It asks for more, in money and in time. Natural skincare is way more expensive to create than synthetic and that is why so much synthetic lab skincare exists. Fine plant oils carry cost. They shift with harvest. They demand careful storage. They leave no room to conceal behind texture makers.

What it protects is simplicity. Oils rank among the most potent, healing, and exquisite forms of natural ingredients. Without fillers of any kind, the bottle holds only what meets skin. Without chemical emulsifiers or surfactants, you spare skin a daily meeting with a foaming system.

I also avoid tea tree oil because I find it too harsh for the faces I see. My clients often arrive acne prone while dry or sensitive together. They require even cleansing and even nourishment. Healing Botanical Skincare is our language because that remains the task, to heal, repair, and nourish itself with fewer, better steps.

You blend in house in San Francisco and you talk of products made by hand. Take us through a batch, from steep to bottle, and how you sense it is ready.

Every formula is blended by hand inside our San Francisco lab. We blend in small batches so each mixture can be smelled and felt. We heat oils softly when needed, we infuse, we allow the mixture to rest, then we assess scent, color and glide on skin. When it falls short, we adjust or we hold it back from bottling.

We hold notes from the treatment room. That space works as our testing ground for feel and routine. A formula may pass through many versions before it gains a name. Skin. Care. That is how I see it, with a pause. Wash with oil. Press in oil. Let skin rest.

Readiness is client response gathered over time. Does makeup release cleanly. Does skin appear calm in the morning. Does aroma linger without turning sharp. We launched with winners because clients kept requesting them again. That remains our measure.

Closing note from the desk

What lingers is touch held steady. Hewett felt her own severe acne ease once she ceased stripping, then gave years in the treatment room to testing oils on others before naming anything. The Greek monasteries supplied an image of restraint. San Francisco supplied the bench and the faces that taught her.

Monastery aims to cleanse and moisturize with oils that cooperate with skin and its own healing system. It turns from fillers, surfactants and harsh routines, and carries the cost of natural materials and small hand blended batches. Kept on display, used slowly, that is the point.

Product spotlight

Rose Cleansing Oil remains the first Monastery formula, a large molecule cleansing oil first mixed to clear sunscreen. It is massaged over dry skin by hand to lift makeup and sunscreen physically rather than chemically, then removed with a warm damp cloth. Keep nightly, followed by a few drops of oil to moisturize.

Gold Botanical Oil comes after cleansing as a water free moisture layer for dry, sensitive and acne prone skin showing marks and uneven tone. It leans on valued plant oils including rose and red raspberry seed oil for softness and the appearance of calm. Smooth two to four drops over skin morning and night.