Profile: Carissa Tunis, Tula Skin Therapy
Staying healthy in a recession
Carissa Tunis, owner of Tula Skin Therapy, describes herself as a faces person. “I love meeting and talking to people, and it’s their faces that always stick with me.” In our recent phone conversation, Carissa illuminated for me the connections between soul and skin, Orange County and Portland, and the recession and starting a business.
Struggling with bad skin as a teenager, she wanted to know why good or bad complexion happened. The more she learned about faces, the more she noticed the skin and understood that face is an expression of inner processes: “What’s inside us, comes out on our skin. Inner and outer beauty are interconnected.”
After graduating from California State University at Fullerton with a degree in psychology, she moved to Portland in 2006, and resumed her studies with an aesthetician license. “The school closed the loop to where I’d started,” she said. “As a skin therapist, I get to talk to people. Now I can combine helping hands with helping ears and lead clients to feeling healthier both on the outside and on the inside.”
As an aesthetician, Carissa understands she’s in the health business, not beauty business. When people have underlying issues, it’s easy to put something as seemingly simple as skin on a back burner, and treat it with products or just cover it up with makeup. As the next step, in a few years, she plans to study dermatology. “As an aesthetician, I’m dealing with epidermis only, and dermis, the true skin beneath, is out of my reach. Skin is our largest and most underappreciated organ and I want to know everything there is to know about it.”
Meanwhile, at Tula Skin Therapy, Carissa only uses natural products. “I wouldn’t put on my skin anything that I don’t know,” she said. “Synthetics may be tested but we can never know their long-term effects. Nature offers many things with positive health effects. I only use products that grow on trees or plants and are tested through centuries of use, so there are no surprises.”
About her ideal client, Carissa said it’s “someone who wants to know and talk more about herself and her body; someone who is ready to embrace her skin; and to take care of herself now because she understands how important self-care is.”
Carissa is an independent contractor located at Elixia Wellness Group in Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood. She’s been in business for about a month and is still part-time, while working at the National College of Natural Medicine, and she plans to go full time within a year. She admits being nervous about starting her business now, but she’s an optimist. “I have faith in that what I do matters to people. Even in a recession it means a lot to take care of yourself. My clients won’t let the economy keep them from taking care of their health. The lipstick index works!” The first weeks in business dispelled her anxiety; she’s been so busy she’s had no time to be nervous. She thanks her clients with quality treatment and monthly specials, such as the current introductory prices. “When the times are tough, women will take even better care of themselves and find a way to afford what their health and beauty require.”
(February 2009)
