Richelle Marty, the COO of medical spa Plump, met her partner, Dom, in 2017 while she was trying to install infrared saunas at 11 Howard for a pop-up with HigherDose, her employer at the time. “I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going when I got there because the only time I ever went to 11 Howard was to go to The Blond,” she says. When she asked for help, Dom, then the hotel’s director of food and beverage, came to her rescue. “It wasn’t my job to make room keys, but I saw this beautiful woman standing around and I took my chance and offered to help,” he says. “Of course, I was hitting on her.” Eight years later, the couple is married and expecting their first baby—a little girl—at the end of July. How did they get here? Saunas, of course, blistered feet, and a whole lot of skincare and hair products. Naturally, we had to ask them all about it in celebration of Valentine’s Day. Keep reading below.
Richelle Marty:
I’m pretty sure I was the one who asked Dom to go on a date to Kiki’s because that was my favorite place in the whole world.
Dom Marty:
We walked from the hotel to the restaurant and my feet were killing me. This was back when I was trying to be fancy, so I was wearing slacks and a button-down shirt with the classic 2017 Oxfords and no socks combo. My feet were so blistered. But it was a match made in heaven because after Kiki’s, we kissed on the rooftop of an apartment building.
Richelle:
Some time later, I remember opening Dom’s bathroom mirror and being surprised that he had a product with 20-percent glycolic acid.
Dom:
She always brings this thing up. [Laughs] My friend had bought it for zits and gave it to me. I wasn’t using it regularly. All I knew were Stridex acne pads and Neutrogena when I first moved to New York. But my friend was using Kiehl’s and La Mer products, so I was introduced to those brands pretty quickly. I think men are especially comfortable with Kiehl’s because if you’re a single dude and you’re shopping to peacock yourself up, it’s a safe space. The stores have neon lights. [Laughs] And it’s much easier to walk into a Kiehl’s than a department store like Bloomingdale’s that has so many more brands and products. But honestly, I was experimenting with some weird stuff.
Richelle:
I would end up in the burn victim unit at the hospital if I used 20-percent glycolic acid on my face. So pretty early on, I introduced him to other products.
Dom:
When I went over to her apartment for the first time, she had so much stuff. She was like, ‘Here, have this and this and this.’ Suddenly, I had all of these oils. There was probably a time when I was far too greasy.
My soap game definitely changed, too. I was using Dove’s sensitive skin bar, which I would still be using if she hadn’t bought me Swedish Dream sea salt soap, the one with an anchor on the packaging. Now I like Soft Services’s buffing bar—I like that it’s gritty—and a beef tallow and honeysuckle bar from some farm in Nashville that Richelle picked up on vacation.
Richelle:
I also got him on Sofie Pavitt’s Clean Clean cleanser, which Elizabeth Grace Hand—who we both see for facials at Ställe Studios—introduced me to. He also likes Face Reality’s ultra gentle cleanser, a recommendation from a facialist I saw years and years ago.
Dom:
My skin can get dry pretty quickly—especially if I don’t put on moisturizer after cleansing—but I never have that problem with the Face Reality one.
Richelle:
And he loves May Lindstrom’s Blue Cocoon.
Dom:
It’s the best stuff. It keeps me moisturized but it doesn’t make me oily. And it lasts forever. Richelle gave me a tin of it in early October and I’m not even halfway through it because you need the tiniest little bit. It’s fantastic after I shave, too.
Richelle:
Dom was actually the one who introduced me to Augustinus Bader’s Rich Cream.
Dom:
I’m going to sound like such a bougie husband, but I’m a simpleton. It’s just that when we held events at the hotel, there were always leftover products.
When it comes to my body products, I do have to shout out our amazing oil.
Richelle:
My mom’s Indian, so she would only use Ayurvedic beauty products on me as a kid. Dom and I went to India to visit family maybe three or four years ago. It was his first time there and he was introduced to Ayurvedic skincare stores. There’s one called Forest Essentials where we found an amazing oil that’s a mix of a ton of different oils. If it were sold in the US, it would have a bunch of binders and fake stuff in it but it’s just so pure. You put it on after you workout or sweat or something.
Dom:
There’s so much beauty stuff in the world. We have a photo that we took at her apartment when we first met. You can see all sorts of things, like high-frequency glass wands, around. I was introduced to a new caliber of stuff as a result of who I got lucky to fall in love with. I started caring about myself more when I met Richelle, too. I was a cigarette smoker and I stopped. You just start taking care of yourself when you meet someone you love.
Richelle:
But he doesn’t use sunscreen.
Dom:
I don’t think I need one. I’ve never burned. But I’ll commit to sunscreen as a result of prolonging my longevity and my wife’s happiness—and so I don’t turn into a baseball glove.
Richelle:
I’ll have him use Ultra Violette’s Supreme Screen SPF 50+. I became addicted to it after someone [Editor’s note, that someone is Daise] told us to pick it up in London. I later had another friend go on vacation in Berlin and I asked him to bring back bottles for me.
But credit where credit is due: Dom was the one who taught me how to take care of my hair.
Dom:
She had—and has—great hair.
Richelle:
But I wasn’t using any products. My hair is big and curly and I would just let it be, but it would get so dry. I also hated sleeping with products in my hair because it looked disgusting the next day.
Dom:
I was using Moroccanoil’s leave-in styling cream when I met her, which is what I gave her. Styling cream is better than gel, I think, because it doesn’t leave your hair crunchy or super shiny. I almost think you need to wear a tux to pull off hair gel.
Richelle:
The Moroccanoil one smells so good. He taught me to put it on damp hair. I was probably using half of his inventory because he had the full line of products. Then he had phases with Oribe and Kérastase, so I started using those, too. More recently, we use Rôz Foundation shampoo and conditioner, which we learned about from Reagan Baker at House of Reagan.
Dom:
And we’ve landed on Paul Mitchell’s original leave-in-conditioner. I don’t know what’s in it but it makes your hair so good. But we both luckily have good hair genes. Our little baby girl’s going to have big, dark, curly hair.
Richelle:
I’m due at the end of July. Dom will be the one to figure out her routine.
Dom:
If I can get TikTok famous and quit my job because of my little daughter’s hair, I’ll do it all day.
—As told to Daise Bedolla
Photographed by McGuire McManus; Courtesy of Richelle Marty
