Sarah Mourtos Some called her choice to move to a bigger location ‘brave’, but it paid off.
We understand this year has been challenging for a lot of businesses, so we love it when we can bring you a success story. Meet Isabella Loneragan, she has been in the business of skin for 13 years and recently expanded her clinic to a new location in North Sydney. The Dermal Diary moved into a renovated Victorian townhouse after Isabella saw continued demand for her treatments, which ranges from a 30-minute brightening facial for the time-poor through to an Intrinsic facial. However, not everyone saw the move in the same light.
“We had some interesting responses from people when they’ve found out we were moving to a larger location. Even our new landlord called us “brave” when we signed the new lease given the current times. But we’re very excited to have expanded the business during a challenging year for the industry,” Isabella said.
Isabella believes one of the keys to The Dermal Diary’s success during this difficult time was its established client base who followed her after the move. The new premise contains all the distinct Dermal Diary features, like the chic white and navy aesthetic, but now with four new treatment rooms. One of which is dedicated to Healite treatments; a clinically proven LED technology that stimulates collagen and elastin, reduces redness and treats skin conditions like acne and rosacea. Like so many other’s in the industry, Isabella used the lockdown period to focus on growing her business for when things return.
“The closure was actually incredible for me on a creative level, as I’m not good at being idle, so I used the ten weeks to design new products and manifest what I wanted for the future of The Dermal Diary. The closure also made me more determined than ever to get back to running our successful business. It just made me hungrier to get back to what I love, which is skin education and management,” she said.
The new expansion meant she has been able to bring on three additional therapists to help keep up with the demand. Isabella is one of the very few therapists in Australia who have trained under Yakov Gerschovich, an internationally renowned expert in the Buccal Massage. This is a technique of massaging the face from inside the mouth, and it happens to be a personal favourite of Meghan Markle. It’s featured in The Intrinsic Facial, and Isabella has since gone on to trademark the term.
“It’s unique in that it’s a 3D massage, massaging the face from the inside out effectively. Traditionally facials are only conducted from an extrinsic angle (externally), so the Intrinsic Facial really turned the facial concept on its head,” she adds.
Isabella was surprised to see continued demand for her treatments after lockdown, as she was convinced she’d have to rebuild her business after the closure. Instead, she had opposite results and attributed this to the desire for human touch.
“I just couldn’t see how people would want to come in for facials after COVID for quite some time. The human touch is often so undervalued. As soon as we opened our doors on June 1st the business doubled.”
Check out the beautiful new The Dermal Diary clinic below:
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