Face Body and Beauty won a host of awards at the recent Dermaviduals clinic awards, including clinic of the year and corneotherapist of the year, which was won by owner Annalysse Mitchell. Zoe Mclevie was runner-up in junior corneotherapist of the year.
It capped off what has been a big month for the South Otago clinic, which has a team of seven, including part-time staff, and also celebrated its 10th anniversary this week.
"I was absolutely thrilled, it was definitely a goal [to win] I guess.
"You just never expect to win something like that, there’s so many other amazing clinics ... which share the same passion," Mrs Mitchell said.
Although she was based in a provincial town, she had never skimped on any of her business decisions, she said.
"I don’t feel like women here should miss out."
Coincidentally, her good friend Sally Choie, owner of Skin and Beaute in Mornington, Dunedin, was runner-up for both clinic of the year and corneotherapist of the year.
Being in the beauty industry was not originally part of Mrs Mitchell’s plan, but fate played its part when a bad snowboarding accident when she was 18 changed her focus.
Originally from Christchurch, she was studying events management at Lincoln University when she "fell off a cliff" at Mt Hutt and broke her back while training for a competition.
That put a "bit of a halt" both to university and her life plans. She could not afford to continue at university and she had to get a job which fitted in with her rehabilitation.
Her first job was as a bra fitter and, through that, she realised how she loved working with women, particularly on a one-on-one basis, including those who were going through cancer treatment.
She later moved to Otago and finished her degree in consumer and applied science. She lived at Columba College, where she helped look after pupils and, during that time, did make-up for people.
While at Lincoln University, Mrs Mitchell had met her future husband, Callum, who came from a South Otago farm, and she ended up moving south.
She did a postgraduate teaching course, through distance learning, and set up a clinic in Balclutha, employing a beauty therapist to work in it while she was primarily teaching at school.
At that time, there were only two other therapists in the town, and they were "one-man-bands" and booked up, so it was difficult to get an appointment. She had sensed an opening, she said.
Being a newcomer to the community — the only person she knew in the area when she moved there was her husband — and setting up a business meant she had to work hard, but she never gave up.
The business had grown from there and she discovered a passion for skin and people’s holistic wellbeing, she said.
Armed with lots of training and courses over the past decade, including oncology aesthetics, Mrs Mitchell — the mother of two young children — now only does the occasional relief teaching.
People were much more aware of their health and how important it was to look after themselves and their skin.
She "absolutely loved" her beauty career, both the clients — who often shared milestones in their lives — and the camaraderie among the team who motivated each other, she said.
When it came to the future, she wanted to remain "top of the skin game" and continue to grow her team’s passion for everything they were doing at the clinic. She also wanted to contribute back to her community and help encourage younger ones in the industry.
Last year, Dunedin overwhelmingly made its mark at the national Industry Awards, which recognise the best business, training and creative talent in New Zealand’s hair, beauty and barbering industries, including Ms Choie’s Skin and Beaute, which won beauty salon of the year.
It is a finalist again in the same category in this year’s awards, which will be announced on November 6, along with a raft of other Otago finalists in various sections.
Ms Choie said it was an "absolute honour" to be among some of the best skin therapists and leaders in the industry at the Dermaviduals awards.
