Burned by a laser, Steele built Queen Aesthetics

Simone Steele says a laser treatment left her burned and dealing with pigmentation problems for years—an experience that pushed her to launch Queen Aesthetics Wellness and Beauty Clinic in Houston. After growing the clinic into a six-figure business with a 62%

When Simone Steele thinks about the moment everything went wrong, she doesn’t start with spreadsheets or growth plans. She starts with her skin.

Steele. a board-certified physician’s assistant in Houston. says a laser treatment she sought for her own concerns left her “with burns and pigmentation problems for years.” What was supposed to be a confidence-boosting procedure became a long fight to repair damage that. in her view. happened because the treatment was not in the right hands. She says she “doesn’t want anybody else to feel like I did.”.

She took that anger and turned it into a business model built around care—care she felt she had been denied.

Steele started Queen Aesthetics Wellness and Beauty Clinic in Houston with a different kind of promise: a haven where she could sit down and talk to clients the way she wanted. and where she could make sure practitioners felt confident treating all skin types. She describes the goal plainly—making women feel better about themselves, not just performing procedures.

Queen Aesthetics didn’t begin as a brick-and-mortar storefront. In 2019, Steele launched using in-home Botox and filler parties. She says she wasn’t able to get traditional financing at first. and the parties let her launch without needing the money to rent a space. They also helped her test pricing and build customer relationships at the ground level.

In Steele’s telling, the turning point was service—because in her world, service became marketing.

Her biggest growth strategy from the beginning was making sure the parties delivered great customer service. When Queen Aesthetics opened a brick-and-mortar location in 2021, Steele says that focus made people “go out of their way” to see her.

That personal approach also fueled word-of-mouth, which Steele says matters because people don’t always trust online reviews. She credits customer connection as the biggest driver of growth, helping the clinic become a six-figure business with a 62% rebooking rate.

Service shows up in the follow-up, too. Steele says her customer service includes a personal follow-up call within the following week—not just texts and emails. In the early days, she made every call herself, but as the business grew, she says that wasn’t sustainable. Now, she has an assistant make those same follow-up calls.

Steele also offers memberships that provide customers benefits such as a free facial. She points to those monthly offerings as steady revenue during an uncertain economic climate.

Her clinic’s clients didn’t just return for treatments. They pushed her toward a new product.

Eventually, Steele noticed a gap in the market. Clients told her they were unhappy with the sunscreen options available to them—especially people of color, who often have to deal with a white cast from sunscreen. Steele says she decided to respond to that dissatisfaction rather than ignore it.

She has a degree in biochemistry, and she started testing formulations at home to create inclusive, mineral sun care that “corrects and protects.” To finalize the idea, she worked with a cosmetic chemist. In 2024, she launched Simply Shady.

Queen Aesthetics became the foundation for the sunscreen launch. Without it, Steele says she wouldn’t have had the beta testers she needed. About 200 customers tested the products over 45 days and provided feedback.

That existing customer base—people already coming into her office—helped make the launch work. Steele says Simply Shady sold over 1,000 units and generated more than $50,000 in revenue within the first year without any outside capital.

Now the two businesses share more than a founder. Steele says she can pair marketing for both. Many of her estheticians recommend the product during treatment, and the clinic has a small store attached. That layout gives a “two-for-one use of our space”: a client can walk into the office. see the new product. and then go to the store for shade matching.

At community events, Steele says she can spread the word about the sunscreen while also offering a paired service, like a facial.

She isn’t pretending the hard part is over. Steele says she hopes to boost Simply Shady’s sales via e-commerce and wants the brand to be like Supergoop. where everyone knows it for sunscreen. Right now. she’s still working on the back-end tasks and figuring out how to translate the in-person brand experience to e-commerce to achieve strong conversion.

Even as the businesses have reached six-figure territory, Steele admits the emotional pull of being “further along.” Sometimes she says she feels like she should be, but she frames the pace as necessary—making sure the base framework is good enough to propel the business to the next level.

The throughline, though, is the same as it was when she walked into the first clinic looking for laser treatment. Steele’s business isn’t simply about growth. It’s about building an outcome she says she never received—one that doesn’t leave people burned. and doesn’t force them to live with the consequences for years.

Houston clinic Queen Aesthetics Wellness and Beauty Clinic Simone Steele Simply Shady inclusive sunscreen mineral sun care in-home Botox parties filler parties rebooking rate six-figure business e-commerce memberships shade matching word-of-mouth marketing