Kate Somerville Is the Celebrity Aesthetician Giving Good Skin
July 23 | 3 minute read
Words by Lisa Marie Corso
The Beverly Hills-based aesthetician’s definition of healthy skin is when “you don’t have to think about it”. Just like when we’re physically healthy – it’s only when the first signs of a sore throat or a fiery pimple start to emerge – that we pay attention.
Somerville’s philosophy to skincare is ‘skin health’. Through her Beverly Hills clinic and eponymous skincare label Kate Somerville, she and her team target skin concerns holistically by investigating the root cause, then treating them with science-backed treatments and custom formulations.
For Somerville, healthy skin is not a sign of vanity but every person’s right, and she’s spent over 20 years helping as many people as she can get the radiant skin they deserve.
Somerville’s acute desire to help people feel comfortable in their skin is directly linked to her childhood, where she felt uncomfortable in her own. “I’ve always had really bad skin challenges my whole life and if I’m stressed, the environment adds to it,” explains Somerville.
Growing up on a farm in Fresno, California, Somerville first experienced eczema as a child. She was taken to dermatologists but nothing seemed to take the edge off those flares up.
“I was on a journey of healing myself,” she says. “That journey became almost like an obsession in the fact that I really understand what it’s like to feel really uncomfortable in your own skin.”
Through trial and error, she discovered some things that helped her skin immensely. “I found certain things that I would do or eat would help my skin,” she explains, including her mother’s addition of goat milk in the bath, which would later inspire her brand’s Goat Milk Moisturising Cleanser and Cream.
Eventually Somerville’s fascination with skin led her to become an aesthetician, with an entrepreneurial spirit at that. When she began her career in medical skincare, she was determined to rent a room in a leading plastic surgeon’s clinic.
“I would pitch to them; ‘I want to work in your office, you can do facelifts, you can do all kinds of things surgically, but you won’t change the quality of someone’s skin’,” she recalls.
“I was like, this is a perfect marriage, right, because I'm going to get the quality of the skin better and you're going to do all of your surgical things.”
It didn’t take long for Somerville’s medical skin treatments to become highly sought after, with her devoted client list reading more like the rolling credits of a Hollywood blockbuster.
In 2004, Somerville went out on her own and opened her Beverly Hills medispa, which, at the time, was the first of its kind. She wanted to open a clinic where technology, science and aesthetics intersected, but with the same luxurious feeling of visiting a day spa.
After she was inundated with requests to bottle her in-clinic formulations for home, she launched Kate Somerville skincare, with holy grail products including DeliKate® Soothing Cleanser and ExfoliKate® Intensive Exfoliating Treatment.
“It’s a peel, it’s a mask, it’s a scrub, it hydrates, it helps with redness, it’s a resurfacer, it does so many things in two minutes,” explains Somerville of ExfoliKate®. And don’t worry, there’s a liquid version ExfoliKate® Intensive Exfoliating Treatment for sensitive skin types that’s equally good.
One of the clinic’s most coveted services – “the dermal quench, which takes oxygen and infuses the hyaluronic into the skin” – was also transformed into a bestselling product with Dermal Quench Liquid Lift Advanced Wrinkle Treatment (described as Somerville’s ‘signature facial in a bottle’).
Somerville’s mission “to be yourself and just look your best” is the driving force behind her products, including 2024 newcomer Mega-A.
Powered by retinal (retinol’s gentler cousin), Mega-A is for those who typically cannot tolerate retinol, and targets wrinkles, dark spots and helps even skin tone.
“You can use Mega-A and it's still going to give you results, but it's not going to give you the irritation,” Somerville explains. “It’s something that is going to be corrective and transformative, and not one of those products you put on everyday.” Somerville personally uses Mega-A twice a week.
So what does the day-to-day skincare routine of a leading aesthetician look like? Surprisingly simple with Somerville’s five daily do’s: cleanse, exfoliate, hydrate, moisturise and protect.
The products she reaches for most are the ones that soothe her sensitive skin, including her Goat Milk Moisturising Cleanser, ExfoliKate® Intensive Exfoliating Treatment, HydraKate Recharging Hydration Serum, Mega-A and sunscreen.
The Kate Somerville range really does work hard to help you feel comfortable in your own skin. And who knows? Maybe you’ll also find you spend less time thinking about your skin because you’re so distracted by your newly acquired Somerville glow.
