The American Med Spa Association estimates there were 8,841 med-spas in the United States last year, up from 7,430 in 2021 and 5,431 in 2018. In 2022, the trade organization finds that med-spas on average generated nearly $2 million in annual revenues compared to $1.7 million the year before and almost $1.53 million in 2020.

The firm Data Bridge Market Research predicts the med-spa segment will advance at a compound annual growth rate of 14.1% to go from $14.4 billion in 2021 revenues to $41.37 billion in 2029 revenues. By contrast, the management consultancy McKinsey & Co. projects that the U.S. beauty industry will register 7% to 8% year-over-year increases annually between 2022 and 2026.

Investors have jumped on the med-spa and facial bar opportunity. Ever/Body closed a $55.5 million series C round last year as it plots to scale its physical footprint across the country. Overall, it has raised in excess of $100 million since it launched in 2019. Also last year med-spa booking app Upkeep raised $2 million in seed funding, and aesthetics services chain SkinSpirit nabbed a minority investment from KKR.

Facial bar business Heyday attracted $12 million in late 2022, bringing its total funding to about $45.2 million since its 2015 launch, and Glowbar snagged $10 million earlier this year. Meanwhile, self-funded facial bar companies like Face Foundrie and Clean Your Dirty Face are planning big expansion through franchising.

Referring to concepts offering aesthetics services, Jay Sonner, managing director at investment bank North Point, explains investor interest in them is due to “immense market potential combined with services that are often recurring with very high profitability margins. It’s generally viewed as still early days, so the upside to a good investment is huge. The concepts that have really leaned into this being a beauty experience versus a stale clinical environment have really taken off.”

As we scout the med-spa and facial bar landscape for concepts cultivating intriguing beauty experiences, we identified three to watch. Below, learn about what makes them unique.

Founded in 2015 by Matt Maroone and former Peach & Lily co-founder and COO Cindy Kim, Silver Mirror is out to elevate the express facial bar. “We believe we achieved an unparalleled positioning between fast facial concepts and high-end spas,” says Maroone, who assumed the company’s CEO position after Kim stepped down in 2021. Kim still holds an ownership stake in Silver Mirror and is an advisor to it.

In upscale interiors designed by Heitler Houstoun Architects, a firm that counts Drybar, Madison Reed and Skin Laundry among its clients, customers can choose from a menu of 30-minute and 50-minute facials that include multistep protocols for cleansing, exfoliating and resurfacing the skin. Treatments are priced from $99 for 30 minutes, about 34% higher than Glowbar’s 30-minute facials, to $155 for 50-minutes, about 6% higher than Heyday’s 50-minute facials.

Similar to other facial bars, Silver Mirror customers can personalize their treatments through a series of add-on services such as dermaplanning, jelly masks, decompression massages and hydradermabrasion for $20 to $90. Silver Mirror’s most popular facials are the 50-minute Anti-Aging and Acne-Fighting Facials.

Technology plays a role in distinguishing Silver Mirror’s services. Its treatments utilize facial therapy tools like PureLift and TheraFace to aid in sculpting and massaging the skin as well as lymphatic drainage. Maroone says Silver Mirror is the only facial bar business offering treatments with TheraFace Pro, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved skin device launched by massage gun specialist Therabody last year.

To keep its edge in a competitive industry, the company introduces new technologies and methodologies to its treatments every quarter. The revolving menu encourages customers to return and return again. Fifty percent of customers that visit a Silver Mirror studio rebook their next appointment within seven days, says Maroone. The business’s core customer base consists mainly of professional women aged 25 to 45 years old.

Silver Mirror operates six facial studios in busy East Coast cities like New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Four locations under construction in those cities are slated to open this year. Silver Mirror aims to expand to additional cities starting in 2024.

A self-funded business from the get-go, Maroone has no plans to spread Silver Mirror locations through franchising. “We are growing the old-fashioned way,” he says. “It’s incredibly important to us that our high-end quality maintains its strict stands, and we believe that a wholly-owned approach is the best way to achieve those superior levels of customer service.”

Arleen Lamba, an anesthesiologist, didn’t start Glo30 in 2012 to achieve an enormous exit or raise loads of money. She started it to provide skin solutions that won’t break the bank. She says, “Everything we’ve done with the business has been customer-focused. It’s not about creating this amazing model.”

Now, more than 10 years after opening its first location in Bethesda, Md., the membership-based facial studio-cum-med-spa is poised for major growth. It expects to open 1,000 locations over the next decade via franchising and is working with the franchising broker Fransmart to make that happen.

At the moment Glo30 operates four corporate-owned locations in the Washington, D.C., area. A fifth corporate-owned location is set to bow in the bottom level of Amazon’s new building in Arlington, Va., this year.

A longstanding Glo30 member connected the company with Amazon. The latter was searching for tenants to populate its building’s retail spaces. Lamba notes that’s just one example of many in which customers contributed to Glo30’s expansion. Franchising seemed like the logical next step for the self-funded business.

“I believe in people. I believe in members who have helped this business grow through word of mouth over the years,” she says. “I believe that people who love our concept and who have skin in the game will help this business grow on the ground.”

Designed to yield lasting effects for 30 days, the 60-minute FreshGlo Facial is Glo30’s hero treatment. Before entering a treatment room, customers’ faces are scanned by “GLOria,” a proprietary artificial intelligence-powered skin analyzing tool that measures tone, texture and tightness along with external factors like air quality, temperature and season.

The result is a hyper-customized facial that changes from month to month. Priced at $89 for members and $150 for non-members, customers can further personalize their FreshGlo Facials with peels, light therapy, gua sha massage or facial cupping at no extra cost.

Lamba says, “I study the data from science, from weather, from different modalities of global skincare from different countries and what people are doing, and I bring those ingredients and methodologies into our treatments.”

Non-invasive Botox and laser resurfacing treatments are offered at Glo30, too, as are 30-minute nano-needling facials that deliver hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, filler and Botox into the skin using a device that has hair-thin needles. Called the NanoGLO Microinfusion Facial, it’s Glo30’s most requested treatment. A TikTok video showing the treatment in action has garnered 1.7 million views. It’s priced at $399 for members and $499 for non-members.

Facial bars have become a crowded market since Glo30 premiered, but Lamba reports that the company has retained between 65% to 75% of its original membership cohort. Glo30’s highest performing corporate unit in Bethesda produced roughly $1.8 million in sales in 2022.

Fild Studio recently planted a premium med-spa format in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. It represents anesthesiologist Randa Jaafar’s first foray into cosmetic treatments and the culmination of years of private practice experience providing trigger point injections and Botox for medical ailments such as chronic migraines.

In addition to Botox, customers at Fild can get laser facials, dermal fillers, I/V therapy and PRP or platelet-rich plasma injections intended to stimulate hair growth and revitalize the skin. Botox injections in the upper and lower face cost $395 per region, with filler coming in between $500 and $750. I/V therapy is priced at $195 per session.

In a differentiator for the business, Fild customers can request that a doctor perform their procedures. Jaafar says, “Most med-spas only have physician assistants and nurses with no medical doctor to perform the procedures, just a medical doctor as a director.”

Walk-ins and same-day bookings are available with no cancellation fees. Credit cards aren’t required to hold an appointment. Jaffar says, “Consults are free and performed by a medical doctor. Fild might be the only med-spa offering that.”

Botox is Fild’s most requested treatment “due to its quick and effective results,” says Jaafar. While she declined to comment on Fild’s early sales performance, she estimates that between 50 to 60 customers have walked through its doors every week for treatments since the studio opened earlier this year.

To widen its menu of services, Fild recently kicked off a partnership with Angel Skin NYC. The beauty services specialist will operate a mini-clinic within Fild providing laser hair removal and HydraFacial services.

Fild is running digital advertising campaigns on Instagram, Facebook and Google to draw customers. On top of the ads, its referral bonus program is a lure. Return customers receive $100 off their next treatment if they refer Fild to a new client. New clients receive $50 off their first visits.

Jaafar has grand ambitions for Fild moving forward. Its product business, which accounts for 5% of sales today, is set to grow in the near future as she enlarges Fild’s branded line and third-party brand lineup. Currently, the Fild skincare line consists of a tinted sunscreen, a 0.1% tretinoin cream and a bruise cream. Fild carries the spa-favorite skincare brand iS Clinical.

Fild is self-funded, but Jaafer is looking to take on investors. She’s excited by the possibility of expanding Fild with franchises. Jaafer says, “We want to offer our affordable and effective cosmetic services to everyone around the U.S.”

This story was updated with new information on Tuesday, May 2nd.