Behind the Beauty: Shanice Armitage on What It Takes to Run a Successful Salon & Aesthetics Business

Founded by aesthetics specialist Shanice Armitage, Cosmetics HQ is a one-stop shop for hair, beauty, and aesthetics, centrally located in Southbourne, Dorset. Working closely with her mother, Lucy Armitage, who serves as the salon manager, Shanice has successfully cultivated a unique environment where clients can access a multitude of beauty and aesthetics services under one roof. Alongside advanced aesthetics, Cosmetics HQ offers an extensive range of beauty treatments such as waxing, eyelashes, nails, massage and luxury extensions, as well as other hair services, delivered by her talented team of specialist staff and self-employed experts. So much more than a salon, Cosmetics HQ provides a collaborative, community-oriented environment that empowers beauty professionals to showcase their diverse skills and thrive within the industry.

“We came up with the idea of Cosmetics HQ being a one-stop shop for hair, beauty and aesthetics treatments because there were so many times before where I'd go down the road to go get my hair done and then have to drive five miles to go get my Botox & my lip filler done, and then drive another five miles to get my nails done. So, when it came to setting up my business, it just made sense to have everything under one roof. We specialise in aesthetics, as well as hair & beauty, whether that's nails, massage, semi-permanent makeup or hair extensions. It can take all day if you're going to get your Botox, your massages and skin prep done for the weekend, and people enjoy being in the space.”

Through her commitment to education and staying up to date with the latest advancements in skincare, beauty & aesthetics, Shanice has established herself as a trusted expert within her field and local area. Expanding her expertise to the wider industry, Shanice is currently working hard behind the scenes to set up an accredited academy to train beauty professionals at all levels who want to enter the aesthetics space and advance their skills.

“I do all the aesthetics treatments at Cosmetics HQ as the resident expert. So, I do the anti-wrinkle treatments, the dermal fillers, the skin boosters. We've got quite a long list. It covers everything from skin to rejuvenation. I naturally transitioned from beauty treatments into medical aesthetics and it’s something that I love. There are always more treatments that are coming into the market because aesthetics is constantly evolving, so I am constantly training to try to get in there first before somebody else does.”

"On Vagaro, we use the transaction reports so we can see how much each staff member has made for us when we’re paying wages each month. We can also use these reports to work out the commission structures and it's so much easier to do this process through Vagaro—you just press a few buttons, put in a day and all the information you need comes straight to you. We've got quite a few people who are on the road that are self-employed, and they use Vagaro to see how many clients they have booked before coming in. Self-employed staff can also use Vagaro on their phones or iPads to check whether they have repeat clients coming in, how much money they’ve made that month, and even have the option to create Daily Deals for themselves. Our self-employed staff love using Vagaro because not many other booking systems can be set up in this way. I've never actually found a company before that can have employed staff on there as well as self-employed staff all under one system, but also separate [on the backend view].”

“The customer support at Vagaro is second to none. There's not been one occasion where I've had an issue that hasn't been fixed in no time at all. I have never had to wait for hours for a problem to be solved by customer support. The people that you speak to are amazing and they're really helpful. They know everything about the system and everything about your business. As practitioners, we care for our customers, so it’s quite nice to have a booking system that supports us in the same way. I would 100% recommend Vagaro because it's a system that has so many values to it. Whether you've got self-employed businesses working under one roof with employees, or whether you want to do reports, work out what your transactions are for the month or send out marketing, everything's under one system, so there's no reason, really, to go anywhere else. I've not found a system on the market that works the way Vagaro does.”