Salon in the Spotlight: The Powder Room Beauty Parlour, Hull
By Kat Hill | 18 July 2018 | Feature, Salon & Spas
With a tight budget but a clear dream, Claire Edwards knew she wanted to achieve – the upmost luxury in a boutique setting. “The Powder Room Beauty Parlour was established in November 2011,” explains Claire. “I already had a small business renting a room within a hair salon, but I just became so busy I had an apprentice working with me and knew that it was time to expand.
“I found the premises as I drove by and instantly fell in love with the original front door. On visiting, I realise it was an empty shell but I had a vision. I had such a tight budget of £5,000 that I borrowed from my family to build rooms, provide electrics, plumbing, decor, stock and furniture.
“I worked hard for six weeks with my family and friends to get it up and running I bought second-hand beauty couches and furniture from car boot sales. I was still running my business at this time too, working at the new place during the evenings. It was just myself most of the time and our working six days and three late nights and only paying myself £50 a week.”
Fast forward and the salon soon started to make a name for itself. “We went from two staff members to five within the first year,” Claire explains. “As we got busier I was able to start replacing things and adding extra treatments. I really saw a massive change in business when we started to offer CND Shellac™ nail services early 2012 and introduced HD Brow treatments. We got busier and the salon was just too small for us. Moving wasn’t an option, so we extended back into an extension on the building in December 2016 which gave us three new treatment rooms.
“Now, there’s eight of us at the moment, including a full-time receptionist and an apprentice. We all bring something different to the salon and clients like that. I feel like we are so busy and have so many returning clients because of the atmosphere we create friendly and relaxed yet professional making sure we’re always up for a good chat and a cuppa. A warm welcome is very important.”
To ensure this welcoming feeling is felt throughout the salon, the décor is homely, vintage and oh-so chic. “At the time I opened the salon, vintage wasn’t really a big trend. We really were unique with old fashioned furniture and quirky wall papers.
“I wanted a place that was cute and girly and somewhere ladies could enjoy the surroundings. Everyone always comments how cosy the salon is. As the vintage trend became so popular I still wanted to be different so I’ve always tried to keep ahead of the game by constantly changing things up. Pink is always our colour of choice! I’m always on the look out for things we call ‘powder-room-ish!’”
“We offer a variation of treatments from CND Shellac™ to microblading,” explains Claire. “Our CND Shellac™ and brows treatments are our most popular treatments; we do up to 400 manicures and around 200-300 brows a month.
“We recently started offering treatments using Elemis’ Biotec,” adds Claire. “It has been very successful for us, giving more of an instant result as opposed to just a relaxing hands-on facial.”
“I’ve recently just revamped one of the rooms into a brow bar which looks fab. Next on my list is the nail area; it gets so much use! I feel like I’ll never get bored of creating new ideas and the clients love it too!”
