Turning Her Facials Into ASMR Content Helped Make One Esthetician's Spa A Multimillion-Dollar Business: ‘Changed My Life Completely'

Forbes

20-05-2025

Esthetician Holly Tanella and Kaylee Dudley
Kyndal Banks
Three years ago, an idea from a colleague changed Holly Tanella's business—and her life—forever.
In 2022, Tanella—who owns BOHO Alternative MedSpa in Allen, Texas—was speaking with her social media coordinator when she suggested that Tanella try taking the work she was already doing as an esthetician and turn it into ASMR content for TikTok.
'She said, 'Hey, I know ASMR is a big thing—you should do ASMR,'' Tanella tells me on Zoom. 'And I was like, 'You mean eating food?' Because that's the only ASMR I knew—eating food. I'm like, 'I don't know how that's going to tie into facials, my friend.''
ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, which, in layperson's terms, is a tingly feeling brought on by so-called 'triggers'—auditory or visual stimuli that vary person to person in their effectiveness. ASMR is widely considered to be relaxing and calming and can often lull a person to sleep—and personal attention videos (i.e. getting a facial, as is Tanella's content) continue to rise in popularity. Popular triggers include whispering, tapping and crinkling, and many ASMRtists (great name, huh?) offer roleplays in their videos. That's where Tanella differs—for her, there is an actual client on her table, brave enough to have their bare face be given a facial treatment on Tanella's channels as the world (or at least a corner of it) watches. Until they fall asleep, anyway.
Holly Tanella in her treatment room.
Kyndal Banks
Back in 2022, Tanella's social media coordinator made it sound simple: 'She's like, 'No, do your facial, don't talk and just tap on things,'' Tanella recalls. 'I'm like, 'Okay, so just do what I normally do and shut the f— up and just tap.''
Tanella's first TikTok video hit 6 million views overnight. She thought it might be a fluke. So they produced another one, 'and, again, it was a multimillion-viewed video,' she says. Her third video, she says, got 45 million views 'and I got 500,000 followers from it,' she says.
An ASMR star was born.
Within a year, Tanella hit 1 million followers on TikTok—which, of course, is known for its shortform content. The masses began demanding longform content, asking to see the whole facial—not just a bite sized chunk of it. Last year, she started producing on YouTube and is expected to hit 1 million followers by summertime (as of this writing, she's at 865,000 subscribers and 847 videos). Tanella and her husband Trey run BOHO (as well as three other businesses together—'We're literally insane,' she says), and their five kids—who are YouTubers themselves—think it's so cool that mom is on the platform. (The kids have even appeared in YouTube videos getting a facial from mom.) The decision to add ASMR content has 'changed my life completely,' she tells me. Folks are flying into Allen, Texas—nearby Dallas—from all over the country 'because they want to come and get an ASMR facial, and they want to come in and experience it instead of just watching it,' she says. They're flocking in from California, Miami, New York and New Jersey, she says.
'Literally everywhere,' Tanella tells me. 'They come from all over. And it's high pressure. I actually get more nervous to see somebody who flies in to see me rather than seeing a high-tiered influencer because these people—they adore our channel and I appreciate them so much because they changed my life, but they do expect to have their life changed by a facial. So the bar—it better be a damn good facial if I'm flying from Florida.'
Tanella
Kyndal Banks
ASMR has become such a part of BOHO that it has evolved into an ASMR MedSpa, including a forthcoming in-person ASMR facial where clients wear headphones and hear all the ASMR sounds that are so beloved while actually getting the treatment itself. Driving home Tanella's attention to detail, the headphones, she tells me, will be in the back of the ear so 'that way, when the head wrap goes on, it doesn't smash your ears,' she says.
Tanella's content is innovative—think slime, think Pop Rocks, think jelly masks and marshmallow facials. It's not your average day at the spa. 'The BOHO experience is experiencing ecstasy,' she says, adding—as only a Texan can—'We love to basically melt your ass to our table, let you go to sleep and wake up with the skin of your dreams.'
But while the facials are certainly fun (there's a Taylor Swift-themed facial, a Valentine's Day facial and a Halloween facial, for starters), Tanella isn't sacrificing quality for creativity, she tells me: 'People think that we're just a fluff and buff,' she says. 'I've been showing more of my before and after pictures, and I'm actually really good at skin correction. In the beauty industry, it's either you can only have fluffy, relaxing or a medical treatment where you're being tortured and then you leave. But I'm like, 'Why not have both?''
'We really want to help people,' she says. 'Give them the skin of their dreams, but also give them a space where they can relax and rejuvenate and just f—king breathe.'
BOHO has been in operation for 11 years, but after they started to go viral on TikTok, they more than tripled the amount of clients because of social media. After launching their BOHO Cleansing Balm in January 2024—which is used in nearly all of Tanella's ASMR videos, with clients frequently commenting on its aroma—'it immediately became our most popular cleanser, in-store and online,' Tanella says. As to its scent, 'If you've ever had Orange Julius, that's what it smells like,' she adds.
BOHO's Shopify sales grew in 2023 by 74 percent from the previous year, with 35 percent of all online product sales coming from social media—and 74 percent of that coming from TikTok. (That platform is BOHO's leading source of organic traffic and engagement.) Tanella's skincare line, Bohemia Skin, had a 248 percent increase in sales from BOHO, with posts highlighting a specific product leading to immediate surges in sales—'up to 150 percent above daily averages within the first two hours of posting,' Tanella says.
'ASMR was one of the biggest ways BOHO was able to become a multimillion-dollar business, but it also helped me find my true calling of healing people through their sleep,' she tells me. 'It helped me build BOHO into something much more profound and allowed me to connect with people on a deeper level—not just through skincare, but through healing.'
Tanella wants to bring BOHO to everyone, she says, adding that 'ASMR gave me the platform to do that. Facials are just the beginning. Healing is my life's work.'
Some of the faces seen in BOHO's ASMR facials on YouTube are from longtime clients; some are people who specifically come to BOHO to be in videos. 'I do have a lot of clients that are my own clients, and it started with me [saying], 'Hey, can I film? I'll give you a free treatment, a free add-on or a mask.''
Since 2020, Tanella has worked with influencers and content creators, originally just doing Instagram Stories and, since joining the platforms, expanding onto TikTok and YouTube. 'I found that it's been one of the best ways to grow my business,' she says. These days, influencers are reaching out to her, 'and they want to be filmed, because now it's become a clout thing,' Tanella says.
Kaylee Dudley
Kyndal Banks
One content creator, Kaylee Dudley, often appears in BOHO's ASMR videos. 'She put me on the map for bigger influencers,' Tanella tells me of Dudley, and their business partnership is taking a big leap forward this month when they launch an oxygen-infused serum together under the Bohemia Skin line. 'Kaylee has always wanted to do skincare, and I was like, 'Why don't we do something together?'' Tanella says. Dudley is known for her glow, Tanella says, and 'this serum, in a nutshell, is meant to give you the super glow—like glass skin, mega glow.'
The serum will join Bohemia Skin's product lineup, which includes the cleanser, a gua sha tool and fan brushes.
Dudley, who is also from Dallas, tells me on Zoom that Tanella's videos on Instagram—which were sent to her from a friend—piqued her interest. 'And I never even had facials done in my life, so I was super interested and intrigued,' she tells me. Dudley says that she started going to BOHO when she was pregnant, and 'I had a lot of acne and she was like, 'I want to help you get through this,'' Dudley says. 'She completely transformed my skin. I feel like I owe her so much.'
From there, a friendship developed, and Dudley—who boasts 1 million Instagram followers—eventually ended up appearing in a number of Tanella's ASMR facials on YouTube. 'I don't really feel 100 percent comfortable with my face, but I also want to be relatable,' Dudley says. 'And I know I did have a lot of acne scars that Holly has helped me through that I got from my pregnancy.' Postpartum, Tanella was doing treatments like microneedling to help Dudley with those scars, and the two got the idea to start documenting Dudley's skincare journey. 'And I am not going to lie—I was very nervous to show my face at first,' she says of the vulnerable experience of having your bare face watched by the world. 'But everybody's always so kind, and you do get used to it.' Plus, she says of Tanella, 'you feel like you're in great hands. I always feel comfortable—I trust her completely.'
Tanella's setup for filming ASMR facial content.
Kyndal Banks
'She's such an expert at what she does, but I just feel so taken care of and I feel relaxed,' Dudley adds. 'Even filming content, I feel relaxed. There's times where we're filming and I'm like, 'I'm going to fall asleep,' even though I know I'm being filmed.'
As for watching her videos back? 'I will watch some of them,' she says, adding that 'it is a little hard for me to watch myself, but I'm the same way with even my content.'
'I don't love seeing myself, but it is cool seeing the other side—what other people are seeing—and I can feel what she's doing, but seeing it back is always kind of cool because I'm like, oh wow, I knew she was doing a good job, but seeing her hands work—the magic of what she's doing—it's pretty cool.'
Prior to doing ASMR facials at BOHO, Dudley would watch ASMR unboxing videos and cleaning videos. 'I just love the sound of everything,' she says. 'It's so crisp, and it's very relaxing. And so, when I started watching the facials, I was like, 'This is a whole new world.''
Dudley called Tanella putting her work in ASMR form 'a very genius way to promote, not only her products but her business. I think it's probably pulled in a lot of customers—people that may have never even thought of getting facials.'
'I think that she has something really good going, and you don't really see a lot of ASMR facial channels, and if you see them, they're probably getting the idea from BOHO,' Dudley says.
Among other types of roleplays, Sarah Lavender—a full-time ASMRtist with 452,000 subscribers and 353 videos on YouTube as of this writing—does personal attention ASMR work on her channel. Lavender's first exposure to ASMR was about 10 years ago when she was in school for mechanical engineering and 'I was very anxious during that time in my life, and I had a friend recommend ASMR to me,' she tells me on Zoom.
'I would listen to it while I was studying,' Lavender says. After she graduated, she became an engineer, 'and I decided just for fun to try making a video,' she says. The key to quality ASMR? A good microphone, and Lavender was in luck—her fiance is a musician, and he had a good mic on hand. 'So I made a video, and then it did okay,' she says. 'And then I kept doing it for fun, and then maybe six months later I had a viral video.'
This video—Lavender's first medical roleplay—went viral in July 2019. By November of that same year, she'd quit her job as an engineer to do ASMR full-time. 'I was like, 'Maybe I'll try this and see where this goes,'' she says. Over five years later, she's still at it. Her channel has expanded from roleplays to book reviews and her popular Pomodoro series, 'which is nice,' she says. 'I started listening to ASMR as a student, so it's nice coming full circle and making 'study with me' videos.'
Sarah Lavender
Courtesy of Sarah Lavender
Most of her revenue comes from Google AdSense, she tells me—the ads that play in the beginning of her videos. For ASMRtist, ads can really only play at the beginning of the video—you can't interrupt soft-spoken, whispered sleep content with a loud ad that would wake your viewer up. (A very quick way to lose followers.) Lavender also does about two to three sponsorships a month, and she also has a Patreon, which brings in income, as well. (On the side, in addition to being an ASMRtist she is an artist—'I draw and paint and stuff,' she says. 'And I send it to supporters on Patreon.') She also makes money by distributing her videos on Spotify and Apple Music, but 'those don't pay as well as YouTube—but that is a part of it too,' she says.
Lavender is currently in a moment where, after five years away from the engineering field, 'I'm starting to be faced with the reality that getting a job as an engineer again will start being really difficult the longer I spend away from that field,' she says. 'I think that's the risk anyone takes quitting their career trajectory.' After five years, she says, she's coming to terms with the fact that her ASMR career 'isn't going to last forever,' she tells me. 'And I think it's unrealistic to treat it like it is.'
For the first two years she was a full-time ASMRtist, she reduced her own consumption of ASMR because 'it became my job, [and] when I would watch other people's videos whose content was similar to mine, I'd be like, 'Oh, they're doing it so much better. Their mic sounds so much better.' I was working. Or like, 'Where'd she get that trigger?'' She's back listening to ASMR again, 'mainly listening to people whose style is different from my own.' She adds, 'I am learning Spanish, so I'll listen to Spanish ASMR just to make it different than what I do.'
'It is weird how a hobby turning into a job is—everyone thinks it's a dream, but it's exhausting sometimes,' Lavender says, adding that her supportive community of loyal followers has kept her going. 'Once you reach a certain size, you're still going to get bad apples constantly,' she says of viewer feedback. 'But, like, 99, 98 percent of my comments are really sweet.'
Lavender
Courtesy of Sarah Lavender
Lavender isn't sure there's a ceiling with ASMR on YouTube, but tells me that 'the internet's so fickle that, even when you think there's no ceiling, you can very quickly fall out of favor with the algorithm.' Lavender is currently getting a little over 2 million views per month and is earning more than what she was earning as an engineer, she tells me, 'but I'm not earning 'I never have to work again' kind of money.' There are ASMRtists who are making that kind of money, but as for her viewership, 'sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down,' she says. As she begins to think about the next 30 years of her life, she can't help but consider the 'question of when it's going to keep going down.'
'At the point I'm at now, it's still a good job,' she tells me. 'So I'm not too stressed about it. But it's definitely not up and away forever and ever.'
Tanella
Kyndal Banks
ASMR has changed Tanella's business, but what's next for BOHO? Well, for starters, more ASMR content—and with Tanella coming out from behind the camera to in front of it 'to get to know me more,' she says. She tells me she wants to continue to expand her skincare line, continue to create 'very niche facials that you can only get at BOHO MedSpa' and eventually franchise BOHO to other locations. Mostly, though, Tanella wants to continue healing work that she says she feels called to do.
'I get so many emails of people telling me how much I've helped them in their everyday life,' she says. 'People who have crippling anxiety or depression—they don't feel like they can live in the world. My channel is a safe place for them, and I just feel so honored to put the world to sleep.'