Editor’s note: Small businesses drive Sonoma County’s economy. Throughout 2023, local consumer and economy reporter Sara Edwards will be profiling the entrepreneurs who own or manage companies, boutiques, shops and other small businesses that play an integral role in our regional economy. Have a suggestion? Contact editor rick.green@pressdemocrat.com

Sonoma business owner Dolores De Alba has always been surrounded by beauty and wellness. She loved going to spas as a teenager, her aunt owned a hair salon and, for a time, she did bridal makeup before training to do eyebrows for celebrity clients.

De Alba has done it all.

She has trained in wellness, skin care and beauty across the world with “the best of the best.” She’s lived and trained in places like Italy, Los Angeles and Australia before bringing her world-class training to her day spa, Blush, in Sonoma County.

The Press Democrat recently caught up with De Alba to talk about her career, her spa, and how people are prioritizing wellness and self care after the pandemic.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Sara: How did you get started in the skin care and wellness industry?

Dolores: Beauty is such a huge part of Italian culture so I always leaned toward the skin care industry. I moved (from New Jersey) to San Francisco where I worked for a few years, I got my esthetician license and decided to go back to this well-known school in Florence, Italy, for advanced training.

It was all about the wellness piece, the lymphatic drainage, detox and body wrap so it was face and body. So, that’s basically how I got interested in being a spa junkie myself. I’ve been doing this for close to 30 years and I still love it.

Sara: You’ve trained with some of the best in the industry. Walk me through your experiences.

Dolores: I got my very first job in San Francisco working for this amazing woman who had celebrity clientele.

She trained me and I would take her overflow. I worked with her for two years before I went back to Italy to do advanced training and I came back and moved to L.A. where I landed this amazing job with these two women who were secret icons in L.A. Cindy Crawford was going there for like, 12 years.

We saw Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and Melissa McCarthy.

Celebrities came there to be well cared for and anonymous. And, everybody learned from them but I was the only person they ever trained to do brows. They were brow magicians and I had to watch them for two years before they would even let me do a brow.

I eventually had my own station and became their skin care consultant, manager and did brows. It was kind of amazing.

Sara: What led you to Sonoma County?

Dolores: I was watching young clients come in and talk about when they first started and now their kids were coming and that’s what I wanted.

I had an opportunity to move to Sonoma and that’s when I opened in 2004. I got to see the best of the best and we try to bring a little bit of that to our little space. It’s been an amazing experience.

Sara: The beauty industry was put through the wringer during COVID. What was that like for you?

Dolores: We were closed for 10 months and I was on my own. I developed an online Zoom facial experience — I put together a ton of samples to put together a mini facial kit, and I would walk someone through the steps of a facial and showed them how to take care of their skin at home.

Business was down 70%, but I was very blessed because some of my clients had memberships that kept them because they wanted to make sure I survived. I would also do porch pick-up for my products. Between those few things, I was able to at least stay in touch.

Sara: What was it like for you once restrictions were lifted and you could reopen?

Dolores: (Business) looks different. You also adjust. We were open in 2008 when everything fell apart then. I just took my lessons from that period and have slowly built back.

We used to be open seven days a week and I had eight employees; now we’re open five days a week and I have four employees.

But there were a lot of blessings from COVID. Before, people used to come in sick and now we have the blessing to say, “I don’t think that’s a good idea because you’re sick. Why don’t you come back when you’re better?”

Sara: What are some other challenges facing your industry right now?

Dolores: The recovery for sure. The biggest challenge that we’ve heard over and over is staffing. I’m very fortunate that right now I have this amazing dream team. But that just happened in the last few months.

It was pretty sparse until last summer, so it was really hard to find employees. Big companies are open to offering like a $1,500 signing bonus, but I feel like one thing that saves small businesses is the safety factor. You have a little more control of who you have and you’re serving a more local clientele.