Rei Gentle Retinol Cream

Athena Hewett spent twenty years as a master esthetician before she founded Monastery, frustrated by how often the products meant to help her clients' skin were doing the opposite. Her approach draws on childhood summers in Greece, gathering herbs with her grandmother and learning to work with the body rather than against it. That principle, support rather than override, still shapes every formula. Each product is made by hand, in small batches, at Monastery's studio in San Francisco. Plant oils and absolutes are chosen for how they nourish and balance rather than irritate, formulated to work with the skin's own repair processes instead of overriding them. Nothing synthetic. Nothing rushed. The company remains independently owned, with Athena and her team sourcing, testing, and bottling every batch themselves. At Tessuti, we carry a small selection of Monastery's essentials, the treatments we return to, the ones that reward patience and daily use. Skin, given the right conditions, knows how to heal itself.