Oak Cliff's Skincare Experts

Meet Esti

My name is Esti!!
I’d love to be your new Esthetician!
First my stats: I have 12 years of experience in the spa and beauty industry, as a makeup artist and skin care specialist. I received my Esthiology Certification from the Aveda Institute of Arts and Sciences in Dallas with a curriculum based on holistic and Ayurvedic treatment.

I am licensed to practice through TDLR in Texas since 2021, and an insured member of the Association of Skin Care Professionals (ASCP). I’ve continued my education by getting specialty certified in several Medical-Spa modalities like derma-planing, chemical exfoliation, micro-needling, and intense pulse light photo rejuvenation at the Texas Laser Institute. I’ve taken the advanced ingredient science certification through the Concepts Institute of Esthetics, and organic cosmetic ingredient and formulation through Formula Botanica.

Meet Sofy

My name is Sofy Lobatos and I’m a licensed esthetician and co-owner of Yoali Studio, located in the heart of Oakcliff, TX. My beauty journey began when I graduated at the Aveda Institute of Arts & Sciences in Dallas, specializing in the holistic treatment of skin. I’ve been practicing in the beauty world since 2020!

I offer all services pertaining to beauty such as facials, brow/lash styling, makeup and full body waxing. My personal favorites being brow laminations and acne care! I partner with products that honor our mission statement by using the best of what nature gave us and dermatology; this includes Circadia, Herbal Skin Solutions, Yoali Beauty and Sesha Skincare.

Yoali's Journey

With a 17-year career as a leading beauty professional for beauty conglomerate giants like Estée Lauder Companies and Coty Luxury Brands, Esti Romero made it personal by founding Yoali Studio- a Holistic Spa & Yoali Beauty -a clean Beauty Brand uplifting Mexican Botanicals in 2021

Esti founded Yoali Studio to be a truly Integrated Esthetics Day Spa that combines Mexican holistic methods and ingredients, advanced treatments, and top of the line ingredient science. The brand celebrates and is dedicated to the inclusive beauty of all women, men, non-binary, and gender-expansive people regardless of age, class, weight, or ability. Striving to be a go-to and safe space for the LGBTQIA and BIPOC community. The brand aims to converge its ancestral rituals and ingredients and modern ingredient science — creating a unique perspective in the beauty industry. The brand seeks to unearth each person’s distinct desired standard of beauty celebrating diversity, joyful aging, and achieving balanced healthy skin.

In 2021, Sofy Lobatos joined the team as a part-time wax specialist to help break away from the traditional pipeline of being in a corporate setting for years. Fast forward to this year, 2024. She is now a co-owner of Yoali Studio. As a business with a unilateral structure, our goal is to uplift fellow POC in building their own business and creative freedom. We firmly believe this practice is key to creating generational wealth and freedom in our communities. This an industry that often targets young, hardworking beauticians and is hugely profit driven; which is why we are transparent about our structure in hopes of changing the norm to see each other as equals and take home what we work so hard for.

As seen in the Dallas Morning News and ABC’s Good Morning Texas the Yoali Brands are committed to our space, our services, and our community being radically inclusive for all bodies, ages, & identities while being a third space for cultural connection to our Mexican Heritage

Media + Publications

Get to know us
even better

Get to know us even better

Yoali Studio
902 W Jefferson Blvd.
Dallas, TX 7502

Now who I am really:

I grew up between Oak Cliff, Dallas TX, and Mexico City. I’ve always loved makeup and skincare and have been very proud to have made it my career. What I have not been so happy with is the current state of who has access to wellness services– who is seeing themselves celebrated and invited to the table and who is not. In my current practice as an esthetician, I have adopted the idea of “decolonizing wellness” as a north star in the work I am doing. I think it’s important for me to explain exactly what I mean by that in my experience, as so much of the wellness industry and social sphere is designed to appeal to the white, cis, able-bodied, rich, or privileged. Pushing ideas that a lot of the time are highly capitalized, ablest, fat-phobic, non-inclusive, and tone-deaf to the needs of the culture, the practice they are appropriating comes from.

As it relates to my practice:

I want to hold space for people who throughout history experience draining trauma from being marginalized. Like people of color, people of the trans or gender expansive experience, people who are disabled, who don’t have a lot of money. Putting them at the forefront and not just an afterthought, through what I know how to do.

“you are of greatest service (to yourself and others) when you are rested, nourished, grounded, easeful, peaceful and connected to yourself”

Is such a beautiful thought but, How many times do BIPOC get to know rest under capitalism? How can we connect to ourselves and be at peace when we fear getting shot by police? As a testament to our resilience, we have always found ways to take care of ourselves in rituals and techniques that the wellness industry is built on, but as we know it today we have been erased. How many South Asian yoga instructors or Japanese reiki practitioners do you know? Probably not many. But yet how many people are buying out Palo Santo but have no reverence towards the indigenous cultures that have been using it in sacred rituals for hundreds of years?? Or who thinks limpias are weird but smudge their space? How many black people have to experience having their hair systemically policed by society for wearing ancestral hairstyles??

This is a problem, as it enables white supremacy.

I know it sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. I am very aware that I won’t fix any of these issues through moisturizer, extractions, or proper exfoliation. I really know that. But I know touch is healing, I know safe spaces create energy and give comfort, and I know BIPOC and people on their gender-affirming journeys have highly specialized needs, that are not addressed broadly enough. Even if it is just the skin on your face looking nicer, if that can make you feel good about yourself, and help you celebrate your beauty more clearly, that is so powerful to me.

I don’t think of myself as a light worker or a healer or an empath or anything like that. I know myself to be someone with an enormous amount of solidarity for all to nurture the body they live in with care, and look however they desire to look and be happy in the skin they’re in. However, I can help people get there is the center of my practice. I know myself to be someone with the values and cultural competency to hold space for people who haven’t had the opportunity to feel comfortable in that space. Finally, I think of myself as someone confident in their skill in esthetics to contribute to my community and as many people as I can reach through what I do in my practice. Decolonizing wellness has become a pillar in how I plan my moves in my career.

“But Esti why are you making facials political?”

My very existence as a first-generation, immigrant-born, fat, differently-abled, queer woman is political….that’s the only way I have existed. If that feels so divisive to you I invite you to ask yourself, why? Im not interested in promoting the status quo of wellness values. I very intentionally seek to be a part of the work going on right now to create new definitions of beauty and spaces to be well. If that seems political, I boldly accept that.

I hope that resonated with you and cannot wait to meet you!