Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anna Edsall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Anna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

Social media is not my strength. I don’t see it as the best use of my time and for me it is very taxing energetically. I respect the importance of it to visually communicate and give people a peak inside our world, but it is just not something that comes easily to me. I have help from a friend who is great at it and it is easy for her. She understands my voice and aesthetic. What I do is personal and unique to me so portraying that through the screen is important.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Oil Studio came to be in my home kitchen in Santa Barbara in 2019. I had been an esthetician for 12 years and had worked for others and then myself for the last few years. For the first years of my career I didn’t feel like being an esthetician was a “serious” enough job. I was looking around at the people who had graduated college and were working high paying corporate jobs and by societal standards they were successful people and that wasn’t what I was called to. So, I made myself small and didn’t fully own what I was doing. I was influenced by the values of my employers and wasn’t pulling back the layers to define what I truly wanted out of my life and career. As the years went on I worked in spas and was really just a cog in someone else’s machine. Working insanely long hours on my feet, over worked and underpaid, I was feeling run down and totally depleted. One particular job was my greatest teacher on what not to do and how I didn’t want to feel in my career. I had an awakening after quitting that job that I didn’t want to do anything anymore that didn’t light me up. I didn’t want to do lash extensions I didn’t want to do waxing, I didn’t want to do harsh peels or anything invasive. I wanted to learn about plants and the systems of the body and approach the skin from a holistic perspective. Once I had that clarity my whole world opened up. I started taking herbalism classes, reading books on plants, finding mentors, and understanding the skin in a whole new way. For the first time I felt totally aligned with what I was doing and I knew this was my calling.

Then 2020 came and Covid was here. I grew up in Idaho and my parents were still there. I remember March of 2020 talking to my mom on the phone and she said “ya know Anna I think shit is about to get really weird and you should consider moving back home.” I took a moment to really sit with myself and feel what this idea felt like in my gut. It was a scary, but certain hell yes. A month later my mom drove to Santa Barbara with the horse trailer (so Idaho ha) and with the help of my best friends we packed up 12 years of my life and made the trek to the high desert of Boise. Fast forward past the months of sadness and loneliness that myself and many of us faced. I was able to find work and meet good people soon after touching down in Idaho. I worked for a spa for a little while before the opportunity became available to take over the lease of that building. Again, a very scary but very clear hell yes. I had a vision and I knew that if I didn’t take this opportunity I would always wonder.

Oil Studio just had her third birthday and we are steadily growing! I just hired my first esthetician Ellie and she is a beautiful addition to the space. On our menu you will find apothecary style holistic facials and sugaring hair removal. We are proudly partnered with Botnia and have really found our place in the holistic skincare world community.
I fall in love with Boise more everyday. I am able to grow personally and professionally here in a way that I couldn’t before. Being in a city that is expanding and changing in real time is very cool to experience. There are so many young creatives here and it really feels like the sky is the limit. Being close to family and nature has been a true blessing. I could do without the long winters though!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Hands down referrals and word of mouth has been the most successful way for us the grow. Getting out into the community to meet and talk with new people has been a wonderful way to share what we are doing. Once I get people in the door I take that very seriously. This is their time and skin can be such an intimate, sometimes traumatic topic, so providing a space that makes them feel safe and taken care of if important. We are detail oriented, everything from the feel of the sheets to the sounds and smells when you walk in is intentional.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I started to make my own skincare oils in 2020. I would play around with infusing different herbs and flowers in oils and then blending them together with other oils and using them on my face, body, and hair. I started to deep dive into self study of ancient civilizations and the rich history of using oils, clays, and plants in beauty rituals. From this my first product was born – Remedy Oil. It’s a face oil but can also be used on the body and hair. I wanted to focus on healing redness and inflammation when formulating this oil. I had many clients suffering from skin issues related to their barrier being compromised from many years of using harsh exfoliants and peels. They needed something that would nourish the skin and assist in rebuilding a healthy barrier. It took a lot of tries to get it just right but today I still use the original formulation for the Remedy Oil. It is our most popular selling product and has helped heal many peoples skin!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oilstudioskincare.com
• Instagram: @oil.studio.skin
• Facebook: Oil Studio Skincare

Image Credits
Tessa Sheehan, Rachel Walker.