MIAMI, FL — Ask Annie Martinez the secret behind twenty-five years of steady growth at Beautiful Skin by Annie, her South Miami skincare spa, and she will not point to an ad campaign or a marketing funnel. She never had one. Her business was built the old-fashioned way: one glowing face at a time.
“It’s just hard work and passion. That’s all it is. There’s no magic,” Martinez says.
Today, Beautiful Skin by Annie is a five-person operation — three estheticians and two front-desk staff — housed in a serene South Miami spa, with a client list spanning generations of Miami families, referrals from some of the city’s most prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons, and a reputation that travels through dinner tables, school group chats, and word-of-mouth alone.
Martinez’s love of skincare started in childhood, but it was not the path she was pushed toward. Her father — like many immigrant parents — wanted a traditional degree, not a six-month certificate. So she earned her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene and science and built a successful career working alongside respected dentists, an experience she credits with instilling the medical rigor and professionalism that still define her practice.
But the dream never went away. She went back to school, earned her esthetician license, and began building a clientele one day a week alongside her hygiene work. Then two days. Then three. Eventually, she was so busy she had to choose.
“I always told myself: one day I’m going to get my license, and I’m not going to listen to anybody,” she says. “Skincare was always my passion. I don’t even call it work.”
Walk through the spa today and the investment in her craft is everywhere: HydraFacial machines, oxygen and microcurrent systems for natural collagen stimulation, cryotherapy, Morpheus8 skin tightening, the IONIQ “Hollywood facial” system used at red-carpet events and luxury resort spas, and her newest addition, SoftWave tightening — alongside a full SkinCeuticals product line. Every machine, she notes proudly, was added little by little over the years, and everything is paid for.
The service menu runs from teen acne treatment to bridal facials to a specialty that has made her a quiet authority in Miami’s aesthetics world: post-surgical lymphatic massage. Several of the city’s leading plastic surgeons routinely refer their patients to Martinez for post-operative care — relationships she deliberately keeps neutral, believing her job is to guide each client to what is right for them.
“I always feel there’s enough for everybody. I never compare,” she says. “I focus on being the best version of me, I give it to God, and everything else comes.”
In a market as crowded as Miami’s, her differentiator is disarmingly simple: results and customer service. Her proudest accomplishment is not a number — it is her clients’ skin. Doctors refer her. Dermatologists send her patients. Parents in private-school group chats pass her name along when a teenager is breaking out.
That authenticity was tested during COVID, the hardest chapter of her twenty-five years. She responded the way she does everything — personally: educating clients over Zoom, hand-delivering skincare products at the door, and keeping relationships alive until the doors could reopen.
Martinez’s story is also a family story. She and her husband came to this country as immigrants, and the values they lived shaped more than the business. Her son grew up watching that work ethic and went on to become a Major League Baseball pitcher and All-Star.
“We were immigrants. We came to this country, we work hard, and we’re grateful. Nothing is for free,” she says. “That’s just who I am — I don’t know any other way.”
Retirement is not in the vocabulary. Now a grandmother of four, Martinez is open to growth — including a possible second location — and to embracing new technology where it helps the business, though she is confident no machine will ever replace the human touch of a great facial. Her advice to young estheticians is the standard she has held herself to for twenty-five years: be passionate, never stop learning, and learn to delegate sooner.
Or, as she puts it: “You want beautiful skin, you come see us. That’s it.”
Beautiful Skin by Annie is a skincare spa in South Miami, Florida, offering advanced facials, acne treatment, HydraFacial, microcurrent and collagen-stimulation therapies, Morpheus8 and SoftWave skin tightening, post-surgical lymphatic massage, and the full SkinCeuticals product line. Follow @beautifulskinbyannie on Instagram, or contact (786) 864-2220 / visit beautifulskinbyannie.com to book an appointment.