Trellis Beauty Expands Its Bustling SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar Concept

This summer should be pretty steamy.

Trellis Beauty is taking its SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar on the road through its hometown of Raleigh over the next few months in an All Around The World series of weekly pop-ups at local businesses incorporating facial steam recipes with ingredients from various countries. The series follows the success the clean beauty retailer has experienced since debuting the service concept at its location in October last year and marks the first of what could be several expansion strategies for it.

“The whole idea is to get the Beauty Steam Bar out there to different parts of the city and different demographics,” says Tracy Gori, founder of Trellis Beauty. “Quite frankly, business dips in Raleigh in June, so we had to get out of the box and outside of our doors, and we can bring a bit of the world to people here who aren’t traveling in the summer.”

Spain, India, Argentina, Japan and Antarctica inspired the recipes SkinOwl developed for the All Around The World pop-ups. The Japanese facial steam blend has genmaicha and organic brown rice; the Argentinian blend has yerba mata and chai; the Indian blend has amla, peppermint leaf and shatavari root; and the Spanish blend has red rose, roasted cacao nibs, nettle and sweet orange peel. For the Antarctic offering, SkinOwl mixed it up and whipped up seaweed cubes with kombu or dulse flakes to cool the face.

“As the business grows, you rarely get the opportunity to go back to the drawing board and create custom products for people, but Tracy likes to have a point of difference that sets her apart from other retailers, and we like to have a point of difference as a skincare brand,” says Annie Tevelin, founder of SkinOwl. “It’s made to order. When Tracy needs a new product, we create it. We get the herbs as raw ingredients, make the blends in-house and send them to Tracy to offer to her clients.”

Instagram Stories posts Tevelin put up showing her facial-steaming process with SkinOwl’s Marigold Glow gave Gori the idea to try facial steams at Trellis Beauty. Tevelin explains she typically steams twice week, and steaming provides exfoliation in a gentler manner than traditional physical exfoliators, a particular benefit for people with acne-prone skin like Tevelin has. “We were trained to rip our skin off if we had acne. I found that, from steaming, your skin naturally exfoliates from the process,” she says. “The bigger part of it for me is that skincare had been a rushed process of getting out the door, and I kind of forgot that it could be a moment where I could give back to myself and check in. The beauty steam process brings people back to a centered place.”

Gori thought facial steams would complement Trellis Beauty’s Skin 101 consultations that guide customers to the skincare products right for them. “We had this one steamer set up and, before we got into any skincare, I would say, ‘Let’s do a 10-minute steam so the products work better for you,’” details Gori. Later, pondering what to do what to do with 150 square feet that was a fitting room in the store’s previous incarnation as a clothing shop, she decided a SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar could be a traffic and sales generator.

“The margins were good, but not amazing in the retail shop. I started learning that, and I always envisioned a service piece, but I didn’t want to open another spa or facial treatment room. We just don’t need another one in North Carolina,” says Gori. “We are not taking away from spa visits. This is something affordable you can do in between spa visits. As a business model, the experience is different. There is nothing like this that exists anywhere.”

“As a business model, the experience is different. There is nothing like this that exists anywhere.”

Today, the SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar holds four steamers, the same quantity that will be going on tour with the All Around The World pop-up series. Facial steams are priced at $10, and Trellis Beauty has four facial steam options on the menu to suit customers’ needs. Currently, a seasonal option called Sunday Morning is available. It contains anti-inflammatory turmeric powder and elderberry, an ingredient Gori praises for its allergy-busting abilities. On top of the $10 steam fee, a custom herbal blend costs $4, a face mask $6 and makeup removal $3. Members can receive unlimited beauty steams for $39 per month.

“We have now quadrupled our numbers in sales [of facial steams]. I pay our rent with the amount of steams we do on a monthly basis,” says Gori. Tevelin chimes in, “It’s becoming a social thing now as opposed to only this private solitude-driven sanctuary moment. People are steam sisters together.”

Trellis Beauty will soon be releasing branded steamers to encourage customers to steam at home with SkinOwl’s facial steam products. Already, SkinOwl is among the store’s top four brands, and its Beauty Whip is Trellis Beauty’s bestseller in the mask category. Gori says, “The partnership with SkinOwl on the SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar opens up the conversation about SkinOwl. We talk to people about why the herbs are blended the way they are, and they can take them home to drink as teas, too.”

In July, Trellis Beauty will launch a facial treatment bar that builds out the store’s repertoire of quick, affordable services. Customers will be able to treat themselves to a facial steam at the SkinOwl Steam Bar and then move on to a facial treatment. Trellis Beauty is also planning to introduce a second location. In the second location, it’s expected the SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar will house 10 steamers in double the size of its current space. In addition, after the All Around The World pop-up series, Gori anticipates the SkinOwl Beauty Steam Bar will continue to execute activations at businesses.

“I see more Steam Bars, especially in the state of North Carolina, and expanding it through partnerships that are like satellites in a sense. I think the Beauty Steam Bar would be a great opportunity inside someone else’s business, and we can monitor it for kinks,” she says. “The idea has potential to grow. I always say slow, but steady, but, with this concept, I want to get it out there more.”