As beauty consumers grow weary of ingredient overload, TikTok “dupes” and ever-expanding skincare routines, Punta Gorda’s ästhetik has built its reputation around a simpler philosophy: long-term skin maintenance over constant correction. “We spend a lot of time educating clients to stop doing too much,” founder Alexis Pfropper says. “Stop constantly changing routines, stop layering every active ingredient and stop treating your skin like it needs to be attacked to improve—healthy skin requires consistency, not chaos.”
That minimalist philosophy now expands into a new 2,800-square-foot space in Fishermen’s Village, four times the size of the original. “It allows us to create a destination—not just a spa appointment,” she says, referring to the location within Punta Gorda’s historic, waterfront anchor.
Alexis and her mother, Jen, first opened their spa in 2020 and closed it the same week, when the COVID -19 quarantine went into effect. While they were closed, Alexis traded spa services for rent and started educating clients about skincare via Zoom. The extra time went into developing the line she’d started to help address recurring issues she heard clients discuss: dehydration, inflammation and compromised skin barriers caused by a combination of Gulf Coast sun exposure, aggressive treatments and increasingly layered regimens. “We do not believe in overwhelming people with aggressive treatments or a 12-step routine,” she says.
Courtesy ästhetik
aesthetik simplfying skincare routines team
By the time they reopened, the pandemic years had forged an algorithm filled with clinical skincare jargon and marketing smoke. “Social media has made people both smarter and more confused,” she says. Alexis wanted to help people cut through the noise. She positioned ästhetik within the growing clean beauty category, but with a measured philosophy rooted in formulation quality and skin behavior rather than fearmongering. “Consumers often misunderstand ‘clean skincare’ as automatically gentle, natural or better,” she says. “That is not always true—a product can be ‘clean’ and still irritate the skin if it is poorly formulated or not appropriate for that person.”
Personalized consultations drive the practice, with factors such as clients’ travel schedules, stress levels and lifestyles shaping their facials and prescribed regimens. New products continue to be shaped by what she sees in the treatment rooms. “Every formulation is based on years of hands-on experience, working with thousands of different skin types and conditions,” she says.
For Southwest Florida clients, that means products focused on treating sun exposure, with ingredients such as cold-pressed botanical oils, peptides, plant stem cells and antioxidant-rich extracts that work to support the skin barrier and improve inflammation. The roughly 30-product collection—including cleansers, moisturizers, serums and sunscreens—focuses on plant-based ingredients while avoiding harsher fillers and sulfates common in many mass-market formulas.
Courtesy ästhetik
aesthetik simplfying skincare routines seurm
Four times the size of the original, the new 2,800-square-foot spa has a harbor-facing set-up for 30-minute express facials, lash lifts and tints, and brow services.
The team spent nearly five years developing a reef-safe mineral sunscreen people would be enticed to wear every day, without chalkiness or pilling under makeup. Another standout, the Liquid Gold Serum—with tamanu, squalane, rosehip, pomegranate and prickly pear—won the 2025 Best Face Serum award from CertClean, an independent organization aiming to establish benchmarks around ingredient transparency and formulation standards in the murky “clean beauty” category.
Alexis emphasizes sun protection and barrier support as the biggest factors in addressing or preventing most long-term skin issues, as the former helps alleviate premature aging and the latter prevents environmental toxins from penetrating the body. The distinction between skin that looks temporarily polished after aggressive treatments and skin that remains resilient over time is key. “Healthy skin is calmer, more hydrated, less reactive and better able to tolerate life, climate and aging,” she says.
As their growing online presence and word of mouth drove demand for ästhetik, the Pfroppers brought Megan Dubbaneh on to oversee branding, and they recruited more esthetitians. While the spa offers med spa treatments such as dermaplaning, LED light therapy and lymphatic massage, Alexis says much of the work now involves helping clients simplify routines and understand what their skin needs. “Skincare isn’t just about how things look,” she says. “It’s about function, balance and long-term skin health.”