Is Beneath The Surface Spa Woke?

Company Overview

Beneath the Surface Spa is a boutique day spa in the heart of Madison, New Jersey. Founded by Marcia Mehrali — the business grew out of her earlier venture, Marcia’s Traveling Spa, which began by catering to bridal parties before evolving into a full-service destination — the spa has served its community for the better part of a decade. It offers a full menu of massage, body treatments, facials, anti-aging services, airbrush and Jane Iredale makeup, waxing, eyelash extensions, and natural nail care, and has earned local Readers’ Choice recognition for its facials. It even continues to offer in-home spa services, a nod to its traveling-spa origins.

This is a textbook example of an American small business built from the ground up by its owner: a single entrepreneur turning a personal skill into a thriving local institution. There is no corporate parent and no investor pressure — just an owner-operated spa focused on taking good care of the customers who keep coming back.

ESG & Sustainability

Beneath the Surface Spa maintains no formal Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program, which is exactly what one would expect from an independent day spa. ESG scorecards, carbon-reduction pledges, and investor-driven governance frameworks are tools for large public corporations, not for a small local business. The spa’s footprint is simply that of a modest storefront, and its accountability is the direct, personal kind — the owner answering to the clients she sees every day. There is no activist sustainability agenda here, just a small business doing its work.

DEI Programs

There is no evidence of a corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy at Beneath the Surface Spa. A small, owner-founded spa hires skilled therapists and aestheticians based on their talent, not on diversity quotas drafted by consultants. The nationwide corporate retreat from formal DEI mandates over 2024–2026 was never relevant to a business that never adopted such programs in the first place. For clients who would rather be pampered than preached at, the spa’s simple focus on quality service is a welcome relief.

LGBTQ+ Advocacy

Beneath the Surface Spa does not appear on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, runs no Pride marketing campaigns, and attaches no activist messaging to its services. As with virtually all independent spas, it welcomes every client who books an appointment without turning the treatment room into a political statement. The business treats its customers simply as customers — a politically neutral approach that values-based consumers will appreciate.

Political Activity

No political action committee, lobbying spending, or partisan ownership advocacy is associated with Beneath the Surface Spa. Small local businesses rarely fund political causes, and there is no public record of this one doing so. Booking a massage or facial here means your dollars stay with a New Jersey small business, not a political agenda.

Consumer Impact

Beneath the Surface Spa is an easy choice for consumers who want to support apolitical, owner-operated local businesses. Its not-woke score of 2 reflects the complete absence of the corporate ESG, DEI, and activist commitments that drive scores upward. This is a genuine community small business, built by its founder and sustained by loyal local clients. Shoppers can support it with full confidence that their money funds a hardworking American entrepreneur rather than a political cause.