The ADARA Spa is located in the Village at Shirlington in Arlington, Virginia.

Founded in 2017 by esthetician Julie Grosso, The ADARA Spa is a woman-owned and operated boutique spa located in the Village at Shirlington in Arlington, Virginia. ADARA is a place where education comes first and their passion for the industry is clear to every client walking through the door.

Grosso has worked in the skincare industry since 2008 and her spa has seen over 4,000 clients for a range of skincare issues that include acne, acne scars, aging, and hyperpigmentation. Grosso also hosts Skin Talk, a podcast that provides an in-depth explanation of skincare, ingredients, treatments, and more. The spa’s YouTube channel focuses on experimenting with numerous product lines, explaining the main ingredients featured, and more.

ADARA’s menu and results-driven services are created to be outside the box and are meant to be unique to create change. Their promise to their community and employees is to always research and continue education within every aspect of the company. ADARA is also currently creating a post-treatment skincare line with award-winning labs in CA.

We interviewed Grosso, who shared details about The ADARA Spa’s amenities, treatment recommendations, and more:

Why You’ll Love It: Our clients love that ADARA is their safe haven. There is so much uncertainty in the world, in our industry, and especially given the times we are facing right now. We have extremely strong communication with our clients; we are empathetic to their situation and we are results-driven. If I do not have the answer or perform the service they need, I will find the answer and find the service that best fits their needs. Customer service in a luxury industry needs to always be at an all-time high and I take that very seriously.

Key Features: We are a smaller spa—when under construction, the idea of a “quiet room” was so important to me, but we could not make it work. However, that “quiet room” space is now a full-time red light therapy room. The way we offer red light therapy is extremely unique to the spa world: we have unlimited sessions so you can see actual results.

Insider’s Tip: My insider tip would two things:

Your client is paying for a luxury service; work smarter with each client not harder. Be extremely thorough with post-treatment regimens and building your relationship.
Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. Be unique, listen to your gut. I listened to my gut with light therapy when everyone in the industry told me not to and it has been the best thing that has happened to my clients and me.

Bonus: We offer two weeks of red light therapy to every new client. Red light therapy is not something you can do once and your life is changed. It’s all about consistency—we want our clients to notice a change in their skin with red lights and enhance their treatment results.

Snacks Served: My all-time favorite water is organic mint (we grow a ton of it!), cucumber, and berries. Every event we have I do chocolate-covered strawberries, I can’t resist! We always switch up it up, but given COVID-19, we have decided to cut our hors d'oeuvres and water for now.

Unique Treatment: I think PROCELL’S micro-channeling is extremely unique. I couldn’t get behind the dragging method, I think less room for error is better. Their gun is flawless and the results are absolutely incredible and instant!

The hallway leading to the treatment rooms.

Splurge Treatment: When I think “splurge,” I think it has two different meanings. One splurge could be microchanneling and light therapy to finally start getting rid of those acne scars. Another splurge could be more relaxing by doing a Hydrafacial, light therapy, electrical current lift, and one pass of a light peel to help brighten, hydrate, and plump the skin.

My favorite thing to do every year for our anniversary is to add “complimentary services” and “paid services” to the menu. Complimentary would be something like ultrasonic cleansing tools and paid would be adding a service you aren’t offering or aren’t getting enough results with the current options you have. Technology changes daily, therefore, our menu needs some Botox, too!

The ADARA Spa’s menu and results-driven services are created to be outside the box and are meant to be unique to create change.

Insider’s Favorite: My favorite treatment regimen is to go back and forth between “treatment” and “facial.” Do a chemical peel or micro-channeling once week and a microdermabrasion, Oxygen or Hydrafacial when your skin has just finished healing. Going back and forth from treatment to facial gives you the best results and overall is hitting multiple concerns. Unfortunately, moderate to severe acne clients need to stick with chemical peels only back-to-back for a period of time.