What Kristen Lee Has Learned from 1000 Faces

Today, we're sharing with you someone who has spent more hours than most studying faces. Not through screens or in photographs, but actual faces—skin to skin. A thousand, maybe more. Each one tells a story: stress locked in the jaw, age softening the mouth, emotion gathering just beneath the cheekbone.

Her name is Kristen Lee. She's a top facialist in New York, though that word doesn't capture it. 'Facialist’ sounds like someone with tools, products, buzzing machines. Kristen's work is closer to deep listening. Shaped by over 20 years in conversation with skin, her hands are her instruments—attuned to subtle shifts most of us never feel. 

What she’s learned from all those faces might just change the way you care for your own.

Early Beginnings

She started young. At twelve years old she was already experimenting — shaping her brows from a tutorial torn from Teen Magazine, mixing questionable masks out of whatever was in the kitchen. “Even then,” she laughs, “I was religious about SPF. I never wanted time to race across my face too soon.” Skin, for Kristen, was never a t-shirt to scrub. It was alive. Responsive. Something that grows more beautiful with care and deep attention.

That belief still shapes her work today. There are no machines buzzing while she works. Just presence. Just hands. Empathy moving lymph, easing muscle, preparing skin to receive whatever nourishment it's been waiting for. Her clients describe it as slipping into another world—maybe because she's treating both the skin and what’s underneath.

"I attune to stagnant energies that may be limiting overall well-being," she says, "gently releasing them through intention and touch." She's a self-described empath who can't feel satisfied unless her clients leave elevated, radiant, deeply held.

At ONDA in Tribeca, NY, where she practices, everything is stripped to essentials: no parabens, no shortcuts, no noise. She uses oils like Biography's Golden Ray—small-batch, nutrient-rich, intentional. She believes in them because she sees what they do: fortify, replenish, restore the barrier so the face can do its job.

Her Morning Routine (Or What She Doesn't Do)

Kristen doesn’t wash her face in the morning.

That alone might spark panic in some circles. But when you’ve spent decades reading skin like Braille, you learn when not to interfere.

She splashes with water, pats dry, spritzes a couple of essences, applies serum, moisturizer, oil, and SPF. The whole thing takes under five minutes.

"I rotate products constantly," she says, "thanks to the abundance of top-tier lines I get to try." But the structure stays the same. No morning cleanse. No elaborate ritual. Just discipline and consistency.

What remains, after years of refinement, is simple: “Great skincare,” she says, “is a disciplined practice of conservative methods you commit to.”

The Myth About Dry Skin

Here's something most people get backwards: even dry skin can experience breakouts.

Not because it's dirty. Because when skin is stripped and depleted it overcompensates by producing excess oil. Or the barrier gets so compromised it can't defend against external pathogens and inflammation. The result? Dry patches and breakouts—which makes people reach for harsher cleansers, stripping the skin further, and making the cycle worse.

"Not all oils clog pores," Kristen says. "Certain carrier oils like jojoba closely mimic the skin's own sebum. They help create a harmonious environment that supports balance and cellular function."

The answer isn’t to take away—it’s to restore. Kristen supports the skin barrier with nutrient-dense oils that deliver essential lipids and antioxidants. Oils that teach the skin to behave like skin again.

She points to something dermatologists have long understood: skin that’s naturally oilier ages more slowly. Drier, depleted skin matures faster. "The latter can benefit profoundly from oils like Biography's Golden Ray," she says, "which fortify and replenish instead of stripping away what little protection is left."

What a Thousand Faces Teach

Kristen will be the first to tell you: there’s no universal recipe for good skin. Some people over-exfoliate. Some don’t sleep. Some are missing the discipline that makes a ritual into a practice. But after a thousand faces, she can tell you what does make a real difference: attention. The kind you give yourself and the kind you let others give to you.

Over time, she’s noticed a shift. More clients ask her to set the machines aside. They don’t want another device. They want hands. Touch. The presence of a human being on the other end.

So what has Kristen learned from a thousand faces? 

That the secret of good skin is the same as the secret of a good life:
Show up. Pay attention. Let yourself be seen.