Kristy Gardner, LE
I came to esthetics as a second career, and I believe that is precisely why I practice the way I do.
Before skin, there were words. I studied English, read obsessively, and spent nearly twenty years at a desk before admitting that I wanted work that engaged both my hands and my heart.
Once licensed, I spent several years in medical spas, performing advanced treatments including microneedling, chemical peels, radiofrequency and laser. That work gave me a deep, clinical understanding of the skin. It also made clear what I did not want: to measure care in revenue, to sell people on correcting themselves, or to speak about faces as problems to be solved.
Atelier Viola is the practice I had been hoping to find. My work now centers on touch, drawing on myofascial release, lymphatic work, and sculptural and lifting massage, and I continue to deepen my training. Away from the treatment room, you will find me reading poetry, cooking, baking or knitting, rarely without a dog nearby.
Nothing to fix. Everything to nourish.
Atelier Viola is a bespoke facial studio in Old Town Longmont. It is a one-room, one-practitioner studio by design. There is no front desk, no rush, and no one waiting for the room after you.
I believe skin health is the foundation of everything else, and that radiant skin grows from the fundamentals of rest, movement, nourishment and community, in whatever form those take in your life. A facial cannot replace them, but it can offer an hour of attentive touch that supports them.
“’Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on.”
VIOLA · TWELFTH NIGHT
Beauty, in its fuller meaning
Modern beauty culture has narrowed beauty to appearance and keeps moving the goalposts. Here, beauty returns to its fuller meaning, found in nature, art, experience and sensation, and in the simple wonder of being alive. You will never hear your face described as a list of flaws, and you will never be sold something you do not need.
Clients of every age are welcome, and I hold a particular hope that women will find a place to grow older without apology. Consider the older women you have loved most. Few of us ever looked at a beloved mother, grandmother or sister and saw anything other than beauty. I hope you will come to see yourself with that same tenderness.
A workshop, and a heroine.
An atelier is an artist's workshop, a place where things are made slowly and by hand. Viola is the heroine of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and she is my favorite character in all of literature.
Viola's story begins with a shipwreck. She washes ashore in the unfamiliar land of Illyria, alone and grieving the twin brother she believes has drowned in the wreckage. With nothing but her intrepid spirit and wit, she disguises herself as a young man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino. She soon falls in love with him, only to be sent to court the Countess Olivia on Orsino's behalf, and Olivia, in turn, falls in love with Cesario. It is a tangle of longing and mistaken identity, and Viola meets it with patience, humor and remarkable tenderness.
What I love most about Viola is that she never hardens. She loses nearly everything, lands somewhere strange, and still leads with warmth, honesty of feeling, and a quick, generous mind. She speaks some of the most beautiful lines Shakespeare ever wrote, and she listens as well as she speaks. In the end, her faith is rewarded. Her brother is alive, the knots come loose, and love finds its rightful place.
I named this studio for her because I, too, have come through a kind of shipwreck and arrived somewhere new. I wanted a place that carries her spirit of resilience, wit and grace, and her belief that a gentle heart is a wondrous kind of strength.
Be one of the first.
Join the founding client list for first booking when the studio opens, and a thank-you from Kristy.