Striving for Perfection
Skintegrity, the boutique spa founded by Kate Filiberto, provides an elegant, welcoming, and tranquil space where clients come to enhance the health and appearance of their skin.
Entrepreneur Kate Filiberto took her time to make sure she got the name of her business enterprise just right. Finally, after three months of intense deliberation, the answer became clear in her mind: Skintegrity.
“I thought: Well, it’s a spa that will focus on skin, and the most important thing to me as a business owner is integrity, so I smashed those two together,” she recalls.
At Skintegrity, a boutique spa in Haddonfield, New Jersey, Filiberto leads a team of aestheticians who have been blessed with the talent and attitude needed to help clients look and feel their best. Together, they offer a carefully cultivated lineup of treatments designed to improve the health and appearance of each client’s skin.
“The skin is a delicate tissue, yet it can be resilient,” says Filiberto. “With microdermabrasion and other physical exfoliants, you can push the skin too far. With our treatments, we want to strike the right balance, still providing great results with limited discomfort or recovery time.”
Skintegrity’s services include facials, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and LED treatments available at varying levels of intensity. Filiberto is also proud to offer the advanced Ionix treatment, which delivers various modalities of microcurrents, oxygen therapy, and radio frequency to smooth and tighten the skin. Unlike other microcurrent technology, Ionix has a gentle touch.
“Our guests love that they can still receive those energizing treatments without extra irritation,” says Filiberto. “That’s what we want to provide for everyone we serve: a pleasant experience with real results.”
Filiberto’s interest in skin care started at a young age. After graduating from Rutgers University, she had visions of joining the publishing industry as a writer and editor for health and beauty magazines. After getting some hands-on experience, however, she knew she needed to switch directions.
“Once I did my first facial, it was ‘game over’ for me,” she says. “I knew I wanted to nurture clients and create that safe space. It was a beautiful exchange.”
Filiberto completed the skin care and aesthetician program at Rizzieri Aveda School, and then gained experience in high-end spas throughout Philadelphia and Cherry Hill. In 2019, she decided to start her own business, focusing on creating a safe, welcoming, and elegant space for guests and staff alike. Her goal: to create a positive work environment that would enable team members who shared her passion to serve clients without distraction.
Cultivating such an environment is an ongoing process, requiring Filiberto’s attention and intention. She believes a healthy workplace culture begins with hiring the right people—warm, welcoming, and highly capable team members who have an interest in ongoing education. When asked about the best indication that a person would be a good fit for the Skintegrity team, Filiberto answers quickly: “if they can laugh during the interview.”
“We want clients to feel welcome, but we also want them to know they are in capable hands,” she adds. “That’s why we need to stay sharp for our clients. Whenever there’s a new treatment or technology, I make sure all of my team members can participate.”
Such educational opportunities not only add to the client experience but also support the kind of workplace culture Filiberto believes is critical to any business’s success. Each time team members participate in an opportunity to build on their knowledge base and expand their skill set, Filiberto is gratified to see members of her staff “more inspired and excited.” All of this positivity contributes to a nurturing environment where guests can find refuge from the stressors of daily life.
“People come to us seeking treatment for a skin condition, but often they just need a break,” says Filiberto. “After an hour with us, they just fall in love and become repeat clients.”
While Filiberto prides herself on being a hands-on owner—“I make sure to know everything my staff knows,” she says—she also embraces her role as CEO, which means she has to devote much of her time and energy to functions such as marketing, business strategy, and future expansion. It’s a delicate balance, but one she seems to have mastered.
“Even when it was tough, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” she says of her successful four-year-old business. “I didn’t care if I needed to change or adapt. This was my only plan.”
Of course, Filiberto knows that no enterprise succeeds by the efforts of one person. She attributes much of her success to the mentorship and encouragement of other female entrepreneurs. By becoming part of a network of female business owners, she has been introduced to many women who have offered their wisdom, support, and ideas for uplifting her business and her employees. In fact, she has started mentoring her own staff.
“I see each member of my team as a small business within the larger business,” says Filiberto. “As they build relationships, they retain our clients. That’s something I want to empower them to do.”
Every step of Filiberto’s journey—from her time at Rutgers, to her early experiences in the industry, to her first cautious steps in creating her own business—has served her well. Even her role as a new mother, with a baby girl born this past June, has strengthened Filiberto’s connection to her guests and staff. When asked what her advice would be to her younger self, Filiberto’s answer is unequivocal: Trust your intuition.
“It’s amazing all of the physical, emotional, and mental changes you go through when you have a baby, and we live in such a lovely, family-oriented community,” she says. “I can now connect more with my clients, not only as parents, but as human beings. … Looking back, I like my trajectory, though maybe I thought it was going to happen a little faster. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to be patient and that it will all work out.”
Going forward, Filiberto sees more growth on the horizon. Adding to her team of passionate staff members will be essential to Skintegrity’s continued ascent.
“I always want us to be focused on what we can do even better, a little more every day, every month, and every year,” she says. “That’s how we can make that client experience special every single time.”
Skintegrity
112 Ellis Street
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
skintegrityspanj.com
(856) 281-9642
112 Ellis Street
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
skintegrityspanj.com
(856) 281-9642
Photo by Alison Dunlap
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life, September 2023.
