Hidden Gems: Meet Courtney Sensley of Glow Aesthetics Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Sensley.

Hi Courtney, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey into esthetics wasn’t planned, it was personal.
For years, I struggled with my skin in silence. After my youngest daughter was born, my skin completely crashed. I was dealing with painful cystic breakouts, dark spots, and the kind of frustration that makes you try everything lemon, honey, whatever TikTok told me would work. It didn’t. Some of it made things worse. I remember wearing a mask on school drop-offs because I was too embarrassed to show my face. Not because of COVID. Because of my skin. I finally found an esthetician who didn’t judge me, didn’t just sell me something, and actually made me feel seen. That experience changed everything. I realized I wanted to be that person for someone else. I got licensed, opened Glow Aesthetics Studio in Midtown Atlanta, and built my practice around corrective skincare for melanated skin, the skin type that gets the least attention and the most damage from the wrong treatments. Now I’m in the middle of a deliberate pivot toward men’s corrective skincare. Black men especially are dealing with clipper bumps, hyperpigmentation, and acne scarring with almost no awareness that real solutions exist. That gap is where I’m planting my flag.
I’m still building. I still work a full-time remote job while running the studio. I’m a solo parent. None of this has been linear or easy. But here I stand your esthetician in Atlanta that specializes in male corrective skincare!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I built Glow Aesthetics Studio while working a full-time remote job, raising my kids as a solo parent (including a toddler) and figuring out what it actually means to run a business with a physical location. Nobody hands you a manual for that. The operational side, the marketing, the finances, the booking systems; I was learning all of it in real time, with limited resources and even more limited bandwidth. The hardest part though isn’t the logistics. It’s the visibility. I know I’m good at what I do. My clients know it too. But Atlanta doesn’t know me yet, and that gap between the quality of your work and the size of your reach is a lonely place to sit. You’re showing up every day, doing the work, getting real results for real people, and still feeling invisible in a city this size. Building a presence from scratch, as a solo parent, as someone who is also an employee, it tests you. There were moments I questioned the timing, questioned whether I was moving fast enough, questioned everything except the work itself. The work has always been the one thing I’ve never doubted.
Right now I’m in the middle of the road and moving along, that’s the most important part, I’m still moving.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Glow Aesthetics Studio is a corrective skincare studio located in Midtown Atlanta, specializing in skin concerns that are often undertreated or mishandled, particularly for people with deeper skin tones. I work primarily with Fitzpatrick skin types 4 through 6. That’s intentional. Melanated skin requires a different level of precision. The wrong peel, the wrong laser, the wrong product can cause more damage than the original concern. I built my practice around getting it right for skin that has historically been misunderstood. My focus areas are acne, hyperpigmentation, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and acne scarring. These aren’t just aesthetic concerns, for a lot of my clients, they carry real emotional weight. The dark spots from a breakout that won’t fade. The scarring that shows up in every photo. The embarrassment that follows you into rooms. I take that seriously. What sets me apart is the combination of clinical knowledge and genuine personal experience. I’ve lived through the same concerns my clients come to me for. That changes how I show up in the treatment room. Right now I’m in the middle of a deliberate expansion into men’s corrective skincare, specifically Black men dealing with clipper bumps, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and acne scarring. This community has real skin concerns and almost no awareness that clinical solutions exist beyond what’s on a drugstore shelf. That’s the gap I’m stepping into. What I’m most proud of is the trust. My clients don’t just come back, they send people. In a city this large, that word-of-mouth means everything.
Atlanta deserves access to corrective skincare that was actually built for them. That’s what Glow Aesthetics Studio is here to do.

How do you think about happiness?
My children.
Specifically, the look on my 9 year old’s face when I share a win with her. That expression of pure, unfiltered pride hits differently every single time. Not just because of what I accomplished, but because of what she’s absorbing. She’s watching. They’re all watching. I share my wins with my kids on purpose. I want them to see the process, not just the outcome. The late nights, the pivots, the moments of doubt, and the breakthroughs that follow. I want them to understand that building something real is hard and that you do it anyway. That awareness is actually what keeps me most accountable. Knowing my children are watching every step means I can’t afford to be halfway in. Giving anything less than dedicated, consistent, and intentional effort would be a disservice to them and to everything I’m building.
So when people ask what keeps me going, the honest answer is them. Not in a cliché way. In a very specific, daily, practical way. On the days when it’s hard and the city still doesn’t know my name and the to-do list is longer than the hours in the day, I think about that face. That’s what happiness looks like for me right now. And that’s enough to keep moving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://glowaestudio.podia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_glowaestudio?utm_source=qr