Opening a spa - which products?

[Loupy]

Hi,

New to all this but am opening a beauty salon/spa and trying to work out which products and treatment lines to use - would have liked to use Clarins or Elemis but both have a minimum starter package of between 6 & 8K - perhaps I was a little naiive but hoped to be able to just get traing and enough product to get started initially as it costing so much to set the business up already. Any help appreciated!

 

[oey]

HI Loupy

Welcome to the salon geek - you will find all the information on here of invaluable use, especially when opening a salon.

I have just taken on board the Germain de Capuccini range of skin care products - theyare fabulous. Not yet a well known name to the clients but the start up costs were reasonable and they are a very good quality.

Just another tip - If you fill in more details on your profile it will help greatly when other geeks are giving advice to you. Go to the user cp above and then edit your profile. It just gives other an idea of what kind of experience you have and will then be reflected in the advice they give back.

 

[Loupy]

Ok will have a look at updating, cheers. Also will do a search thingy for the products. Thanks

 

[bombini]

Have you thought about Decleor, Dermalogica or Matis ?

Which ranges have you worked with before ?

I think one of the reasons that some brands have high start up costs is that they don't want any old salon stocking their products. They want salons that have invested lots of money into the business etc. etc. I suppose they are just protecting their reputation at the end of the day.

I know how you feel, I rent a room in a salon & all the ranges id love to stock are way out of my budget :cry:

One range I looked into told me the reason the min order was £3000 was to ensure that the salon is commited to the brand & stocks the full range of treatments, which is fair enough but no way could I afford that at the time !

 

[Loupy]

:cry: Can nobody else help me.......pleeease

 

[Loupy]

Thanks for reply, I will get around to filling out my profile soon so it makes sense what im doing - have a feeling i will be on here a lot in weeks to come!. I am not a beauty therapist myself, am setting up in business and employing staff so trying to get a good idea of what are the best products from you guys who obviously have a much greater knowledge than myself.

I originally thought of Clarins or elemis but but just too expensive to start and DeCleor was a possibility but think they are around £4000 which is still too much initially and another salon locally uses it so thats out. have not heard of the others you mentioned so will check those out. want to make sure that even if I can't have the top names that I am still offering quality treatments for clients.

 

[jnail]

Hi Loupy,
If you were in Australia I'd highly recommend the Natalie range.

But ......Hyperion Group have a range called Nimue -
Creative Nail Design – the official UK supplier
Maybe that's an option for you ? They also stock Creative Nail Design Spa ranges. Training provided. An excellent choice.

Another suggestion is the Vani-t Bodywear range. this can be a body treatment menu on its own. Mani - Pedi - Body scrubs/wraps - pre tan exfol's.


HtH

XX J XX

 

[bombini]

Thanks for reply, I will get around to filling out my profile soon so it makes sense what im doing - have a feeling i will be on here a lot in weeks to come!. I am not a beauty therapist myself, am setting up in business and employing staff so trying to get a good idea of what are the best products from you guys who obviously have a much greater knowledge than myself.

I originally thought of Clarins or elemis but but just too expensive to start and DeCleor was a possibility but think they are around £4000 which is still too much initially and another salon locally uses it so thats out. have not heard of the others you mentioned so will check those out. want to make sure that even if I can't have the top names that I am still offering quality treatments for clients.

I think Dermalogica would be a safe bet then. It is very popular around here & has an excellent reputation the start up is around £2500 which for a big name brand is very reasonable.

I considered it myself but there are 3 salons in town that stock it & a few home salons in the area that also have it.

 

[jnail]

Just found this post -
http://www.salongeek.com/skin-geek/54156-nimue-facials.html

HtH
XX J XX

 

[Loupy]

Thankyou for your replies ladies - I shall have a look at Nimue as it seems to have come up a lot on here in the past as well. Would it be odd to start with a cheaper range then change products when I have more £ do you think ?

 

[Sassy Hassy]

I may be wrong here but I wouldn't really say Nimue is a spa range, it's a cosmeceutical range - a no frills, gets results, bloody brill range, but is not aromatherapy based and not a mega pamper range that you usually associate with spas. If you took this on I think you'd a need a range to complement it such as Academie, or take Academie alone as their products are lush!

Or you could look at Biodroga, it's a German range and I know it is used in many spas in Europe, and Beauty Concepts that distribute it here are really getting into the spa market. Could be worth a chat with Brenda Griffin there (say Sarah Haslam says hi!) BEAUTY CONCEPTS INTERNATIONAL: LCN - PMC - BIODROGA
Both Academie and Biodroga have low start up prices, at least the latter did when I looked at it 2 years ago.

Good luck in your venture!

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Thankyou for your replies ladies - I shall have a look at Nimue as it seems to have come up a lot on here in the past as well. Would it be odd to start with a cheaper range then change products when I have more £ do you think ?

Using a barnd with a cheap start up costs doesn't always mena you are starting with a cheap brand - it jsut means you get less products to start with. Most start up costs are because you get tons of retail items, having read this month's Professional Beauty it appears that your retail sales can be in the thousands per week, so you will need enough retail stock to aim for this sort of target. Retailing should be your friend, it's the easiest way to increase profits without having to increase your staff or your client base. make sure your staff are trained in effective retailing, you could even incentivise them with retail sales targets!