Almost One Year of Newslettering!

Gratitude, Patti Smith Vibes, and Some Very Good Reads

Mar 08, 2026

Venus of the Mind is a weekly newsletter about beauty, culture, and magic. New to Venus? Start Here. Looking for the archives? Right Here. Want the global beauty directory? For you.

Inside the Culture List for March 2026

- A Note of Gratitude

- Newsletter Recommendations to Celebrate One Year on Substack

A Note of Gratitude

Greetings Venusian Lovelies!

The Earth is counting down to March Equinox. Can you all feel it?

March 21 will bring spring to the Northern Hemisphere and autumn to the Southern Hemisphere. During March equinox nature lives through equal parts daylight and darkness as the Sun appears to sit directly above the equator and the cardinal sign of Aries ushers in spring.

Personally, this coming equinox is particularly special because Venus of the Mind will turn one! Spring Equinox of last year I wrote the following first newsletter:

On Beauty & Being Here

Ivana Esther Martínez

March 20, 2025

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On this Spring Equinox I have remembered myself once more. There is value in choosing to do labor that centers the wellbeing of others. Especially now, when just across the Potomac hatred is wielded as a blunt tool of statecraft. It is a gift of the Spirit to engage in labor that celebrates each individual’s light. Especially now, when just across the Potomac ignorance and conformity are valued over enlightenment and plurality. I clock in and I get to watch face after face bloom.
From, “On Beauty & Being Here.”

One year later (and three years total since returning to the beauty industry) I am happy to report I not only feel the same as written in the above quote but am now even more dedicated to my work than before. Given that I believe our bodies house our souls, for me working in esthetics is more than working with skincare and skin health. All of that is at the surface of what estheticians do. The deeper energetics of working in esthetics is that in caring for someone’s body one is also caring for a vessel housing that which comes from God. Beyond the bare minimum of holding a master esthetician license, I feel a responsibility to keep learning, keep growing, and keep refining my technique as an expression of reverence for the holy creation that I get to work with. Lofty? Yes. Does every esthetician feel the same? Definitely not. While I know other facialists who share similar sentiments I know many more who don’t and that’s fine. Plus, I have never met a waxer, laser tech, or brow specialist that feels the same. In fact, they most definitely are better off having a level of determined irreverence in order to efficiently rip out or burn hair off while managing to make the experience sort of enjoyable LMAO. Does any of this have to be that deep? Nope. But I like depth, it’s how I choose to give my life meaning, so that’s how I approach my work.

The data on how my approach is working out: in my current role working for a popular facial spa-chain I typically see up to eight clients per work day. My same-day rebooking average from last spring through today sits at 73% and my overall rebooking average per pay period sits at 87% — for perspective, the average rebooking rate in spas/salons is ~44% to 47%. When I first returned to the industry three years ago my initial 90-day review had me at a client satisfaction rating of 4.6. The feedback my shop educator shared during that first review set me up for improvement (thank you Regina, you’re the best!) and at every quarterly review since then my client rating has oscillated between 4.9 and 5.0. In Q4 of 2025 it was 4.9 due to one “neutral” review out of 232 appointments — each 50 minutes — October to December.

In short, depth matters!

While I am proud of these numbers within the context of working for a VC-backed beauty brand, everyday I am increasingly curious to see who I can become through working exclusively for myself. When I started this newsletter last spring I knew I desired to craft an experience of beauty that was more considered and sustainable than eight clients a day. High volume is great, but over time there is an increased risk of it coming at the expense of quality and personalization, particularly within an express facial format.

Writing here since last spring and steadily growing this newsletter has given me the confidence to step into a personal vision of work that prioritizes intimacy of experience over high volume performance. Last November, Ivana Martínez Studio was born and I am currently deep into the process necessary to make a full-time pivot. I’ve spent the past five months crafting a long-form facial experience that is first and foremost person-centered. It’s also been fun for me to observe that as my approach in-studio has evolved so too has my approach to creative expression here inside Venus of the Mind. I am so grateful to every reader who has opened an email, read through the various newsletters, hearted, commented, and also messaged me 1:1 with feedback regarding this newsletter’s evolution. I love knowing how something lands for readers and it’s always heartening to know one isn’t just writing into the void!

In particular, and most importantly, paid subscribers are the reason I have been able to turn this newsletter into a viable avenue to support my solo work. Paid support of this newsletter goes directly to my studio fund as I refine my esthetic practice and prepare to pivot full-time into small business ownership.

THANK YOU to paid subscribers for supporting an ethos of care and creativity that values beauty with soul.

12 Newsletter Recommendations to Celebrate 12 Months on Substack

Tengo ganas de comerme el mundo entero is a sentence regularly riddled throughout my journal entries from middle school into present day. “Comerse el mundo” is an idiomatic expression in Spanish, translated literally it means “eat the world.” Interpreted for essence, this expression denotes a desire to take it all in — the idiom suggests an ambition that demands no crumbs be left in the feast that is life. It is a phrase that encapsulates Patti Smith’s energy in the following one minute clip from a 1976 interview while touring the album Radio Ethiopia.

I also love how Calle 13 embodies the energy of this idiom when Residente and iLe sing, “cocíname las ganas que mis sueños tienen hambre.” Loose translation: cook me up the drive/will, my dreams are hungry.

One of my favorite things about being on Substack this past year has been reading works by individuals who write with a voraciousness for their respective worlds. Through their writing one can tell that the calling within them to live vibrantly is a strong one and I love that about their work. To celebrate year one of writing Venus of the Mind below is a list of 12 newsletters from six publications that have brought me pleasure as a reader, inspiration as a writer, and have informed my own evolving approach to life as I continue to comerme el mundo a mi manera.

Publications are listed alphabetically. Beyond the six listed there are many more I subscribe to and thoroughly enjoy. However for the sake of reading time I focused on six writers that I keep coming back to. Some of their works I have printed out and annotated for continued reference because re-reading is fun! It’s like going back for seconds except you never get tired and the food tastes better each time. Re-reading the good stuff is one way of arriving at an eighth heaven à la Patti Smith.