In early September, Jena Salzano and her team at Anej Skin Studio in Yardley gathered to celebrate their enterprise’s three-year anniversary. They named the soiree “The Sky’s the Limit,” a nod to another milestone deserving of significant fanfare: a second Anej location due to open in the heart of Princeton’s shopping and cultural district.
“I knew I wanted to open a second location, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast,” says Salzano, who founded Anej Skin Studio in 2021. “We’ve had a lot of success in Bucks County, and I spent the past year casually looking for another location to build on that momentum. When I walked by this place on Nassau Street, I thought: This is exactly what I’m looking for.”
Salzano expects the Princeton location to open in time for the winter holidays. Once complete, it will largely mirror Anej’s original studio in Yardley: a tranquil sanctuary, of sorts, where clients of all ages, backgrounds, and skin types can rest, rejuvenate, and achieve transformative results.
“Our Princeton location is in an historic building with the most beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows, which is ideal because we’ll be able to see clients’ skin in the natural light,” Salzano adds. “No matter which location our clients come to, I want them to feel like they’ve come to a very special place that they haven’t seen before.”
‘The Anej Glow’
Anej Skin Studio is the physical embodiment of Salzano’s commitment to wellness, rooted in the art and science of skin care. As she was bringing the Anej brand to life, Salzano found inspiration in the spas of Europe, which not only take a more “ritualistic” approach to skin care as a linchpin of overall health, but also use “cleaner” products than one might typically encounter in American spas and stores.
“If you go to a CVS, you’ll find maybe 100 ingredients in most of their skin care products, and the percentage of things like vitamin C or hyaluronic acid is very low,” she says. “If you go to Sephora, maybe those percentages are a bit higher. At Anej, the products we use have up to 20 percent of the essential ingredients that are actively working on making changes to your skin on a cellular level.”
Among the many iconic products employed by Anej, Salzano is perhaps most excited about a Parisian brand named Biologique Recherche. She cites Lotion P50, a multifunctional lotion that exfoliates, purifies, and rebalances the pH of the skin. Hardly a one-size-fits-all option, Lotion P50 comes in various iterations, each to address a different skin concern.
Biologique Recherche is one of the most popular brands available through Anej’s online boutique for facilitating clients’ at-home routines. Other high-quality skin care lines available through Anej include Augustinus Bader, Environ Skin Care, and Valmont, all of which tend to be difficult to find in the United States.
Ultra-premium skin care products go hand in hand with Anej’s curated in-studio treatments. Each treatment is tailored to a client’s specific needs to ensure that they leave feeling revitalized and, more importantly, uplifted by the results.
“If you go to a med spa or a facial chain, everyone is treated pretty much the same – cleanse, tone, mask, and you’re out the door,” she says. “We’re going to customize their facial to what they want to see change and pair that with their at-home routine. They need to leave here thrilled with the results they see. We call it ‘the Anej glow,’ which comes from a combination of active ingredients, the handwork we do, and noninvasive technology.
“When you come to Anej, you’re not just coming in for a facial,” she continues. “From the time they call on the phone to the time they check out, the experience has to be absolutely perfect. Most of our clients aren’t used to putting themselves first, but when you come here, you’re going to put yourself first for 60 to 90 minutes. Besides skin care treatments and at-home routines, we’ll also talk about lifestyle treatments and supplements, because our skin performs better when we take care of ourselves.”
One of Anej’s most popular treatments is the Anej Bespoke Facial, an hour-long treatment customized to each client’s individual skin care needs. Another favorite: the Le Lift Facial, which not only exfoliates and hydrate the skin, but also stimulates muscles to lift and reshape the face, neck, and décollete.
“Our aestheticians are such experts at what they do,” Salzano says. “Our lead aesthetician, Alexandra, is a specialist in facial sculpting. She does gua sha, which reduces inflammation and removes the buildup of toxins, and buccal facials, which uses intra-oral massage to release any tension in the jaw or remove excess fluid; it’s like a natural face-lift. Alexis, who is now going to be our director of studios, has been with me since we opened, and she does everything. Clients adore her, and I owe a lot of success to her.
“All the rest of our staff are highly trained and have tons of experience, and they do continuing education every month,” she continues. “For something like a Anej Bespoke Facial, I train all our staff, so I’m able to share all of my experience from 20 years in the industry. We’re all constantly learning, and that has helped us bring new things to the community, like noninvasive body sculpting.”
Coming Full Circle
Salzano’s interest in skin care began at a young age; she started doing skin care rituals at home with her mother as young as eight. She came of age thinking she would pursue a career in fashion, though she had little interest in uprooting her life and moving to New York. To her, though, fashion and beauty/wellness went hand in hand. She enrolled in the Rizzieri Aveda School, where she excelled.
She hasn’t looked back since. In fact, she can’t help but look forward. Her expansion to Princeton is a fine example. Salzano grew up in Mercer County, so the second location is akin to coming full circle.
“The first [skin care] jobs I had were in Pennington and Princeton, and a lot of those clients are still with me 20 years later,” she says. “Nassau Street was a big deal when I was growing up, and it’s having even more of a revival now. To have my own studio right on Nassau is a very proud moment for me.”
Salzano wants to reiterate to her Bucks County clientele that the Princeton location represents an expansion, not a relocation.
“I want to give Princeton the same Anej experience and build our community over there,” she says. “When we opened our first location, I never thought I’d open a second. Who knows? Maybe we’ll open a third one down the line.”
Anej Skin Studio will soon open a second location, at 10 Nassau Street in the heart of Princeton, New Jersey.
Anej Skin Studio
19 E. Afton Ave.
Yardley, PA 19067
anejskinstudio.com
Photo by Alison Dunlap
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, September 2024.
