By GREGORY ZELLER //
An ambitious entrepreneur is betting big on new-age wellness, next-generation tech and old-school moxie – and laying the foundation for a Long Island wellness empire.
Thirteen successful years after opening her first location in Bayport, licensed esthetician Kara Morris has officially opened a second Karasmatic Day Spa location in Port Jefferson. Morris and her professional team – a “Charlie’s Angels”-esque squad of skincare therapists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, MDs and others – held an opening reception March 5, introducing clients, friends and family to the new location.
The new North Country Road office gives Karasmatic a North Shore foothold that’s rich with opportunity – not only physically located in a prosperous ZIP code but completely organic, according to Morris, who counts about a third of her “personal clientele” hailing from the North Shore.
“I know plenty of their friends have always wanted to come see me, but we were all the way down on the South Shore,” she told Innovate Long Island. “This makes it much more convenient for them.
“I wanted to reach out to a whole other area of the Island, and there are really no other spas here offering the technologies and services that we do,” Morris added. “This was a great opportunity to bring our services from the South Shore to the North Shore.”
Kara Morris: Skin in the game.
Karasmatic’s services, of course, set the tone. To be clear, this is not your grandma’s day spa.
In addition to a full menu of skin-reinforcing chemical peels, topical facials and deep-tissue massage therapies, the spa – which caters to women and men – offers a frontline array of laser-based skin-resurfacing options and a full arsenal of anti-aging injectables, with major brands including Juvéderm and Botox in play.
Karasmatic also specializes in microneedling treatments – known also as collagen induction therapy, in which sterilized needles prick the skin, encouraging the body to produce more collagen and elastin.
Pulling it all together is Morris, who’s anything but a beauty school dropout. In fact, the entrepreneur earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Rhode Island’s Johnson & Wales University a full year early, before going to work for Georgia-based developer Pulte Homes, managing new development on Long Island.
It was a plum gig right out of college, but “I wasn’t loving it,” Morris noted. “So I kind of reevaluated.”
Factoring into her future-planning was Morris’ own experience with troubled skin – in her case, a nasty, protracted bout of adult acne. Working her way through various treatments, experimenting with new pharmaceutical and physical therapies, Morris eventually found her best face, and her calling.
“I want to make a difference in women and men’s lives by bringing their skin to its healthiest state,” she said. “When we’re confident in our skin, it affects our entire life.”
Operating on the cutting edge of wellness and beauty is no mean feat, especially for a large and multidisciplined team. With two new full-time positions in Port Jefferson, Karasmatic now boasts 17 positions between the two locations – including a male massage therapist and a bilingual, board-certified internal-medicine specialist – and figures to add on soon, according to Morris.
Hail HydraFacial: Karasmatic goes a little deeper than cucumber slices on the eyelids.
“We’re mostly floating back and forth now,” she noted. “We’ll add more positions (in Port Jefferson) when we know there’s a demand for it.”
In addition to steadily growing, the team is “always researching,” Morris added.
“We’re always up on the latest and greatest and trying it on ourselves first, before we invest in the devices or treatments,” she said. “We want to see the results first, so we can stand behind what we present to our clients.”
The day spa is especially particular when selecting new high-tech machinery, which Morris invests in personally (client open houses and special package deals help offset the costs, she noted). Karasmatic often welcomes nurses and other manufacturer representatives for training purposes – hours, sometimes days of hands-on practice before the day spa crew is qualified to bring the anti-aging weapons to bear.
As much as it benefits Karasmatic’s clients, this continual professional development and constant upgrading of tools and techniques is critically important to her business, according to Morris, who sees parallels between skincare, exercise programs and the economic law of diminishing returns.
“We’re always looking to trick it up and do something different,” she noted. “It’s just like working out – if you do the same exercise every day, you’re eventually not going to see the results that you might otherwise see.”
As both a wellness expert and a small business owner, Morris is all about the results. Since launching in September 2008, the innovator has engaged almost all forms of advertising – from radio to print to digital – but says nothing has worked better for Karasmatic than social media and word-of-mouth marketing.
She’ll be counting on both as the Port Jefferson office finds its footing. The North Shore expansion is Morris’ main focus now, but it’s also part of planned growth strategy – with the future opening of new Long Island facilities already on the drawing board.
“Right now, it’s south and north, and that’s our focus,” Morris said. “But maybe one day soon, east and west, too.
“It’s definitely on the radar.”
