Former UK Navy Medic Adds Beauty And Charm To St. Stephen
ST. STEPHEN — Divine Beauty Supplies owner Kelly-Jayne Sutcliffe says her main goal is to bring the beauty industry together. After opening the store at 57 King St. in St. Stephen on January 8, Sutcliffe is already making her mark on southern New Brunswick’s beauty scene.
Originally from the UK, and with a 13-year career as a medic in the Royal Navy, Sutcliffe entered the beauty business by chance while living in Alberta.
“I used to get my nails done and when I was back in England — my sister has been our nail tech for forever — so I was very privileged in the fact that if I had broken a nail I could just turn up at her doorstep and ask her to fix it, and she would,” Sutcliffe explains. “It was a huge privilege.”
After breaking a nail one day, Sutcliffe realized it was going to be weeks before she could make an appointment to get it fixed and decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I decided to learn to do them myself. That’s kind of my thing, if I decide I’m going to learn something, I learn it.”
Once she got her certification in Calgary, she started browsing the beauty supply store in Lethbridge, where she was living, and realized it was in need of some TLC.
“I said ‘look, you know, you’ve got this beautiful store up [in Calgary], the showroom’s amazing, everything’s so pristine and pretty. Then your store down in Lethbridge looks like [it’s] going out of business,’” Sutcliffe recalls.
“And they said ‘we’re interviewing next week for a manager, how would you like it?’”
Her decision to accept that role set her on a new career path, with success in Alberta and now here in New Brunswick.
“I missed the ocean. Obviously, being in the Navy, being from England, we’re all from the south coast. We didn’t realize how much we’d actually miss the ocean [in Alberta],” she says.
So when an opportunity to move came up, it was time to give the East Coast a try.
She was going to hang up her shingle as a nail esthetician but soon realized it was hard to get the supplies she needed in southern New Brunswick. And that’s when she took her knowledge and experience from managing the beauty supply store in Alberta and struck out on her own.
Divine Beauty Supplies’ clients are beauty salons, spas, certified estheticians, and other commercial beauty businesses. Sutcliffe says she saw an opportunity in southern New Brunswick because no one else in the region carried many of the products she does. She’s brought some of her Alberta favourites with her — like Ugly Duckling, Amore, and PhatKat — plus products like nail stampers, which are relatively new to the region.
Stocking hard-to-find beauty products, especially eye-catching nail polishes and gels, can be tempting for clients.
“It’s like walking into Tiffany’s,” she says. “You see all these pretties.” But Sutcliffe says she wants to build a community where people can come to her for beauty advice, and that means helping them resist the urge to impulse over-buy.
“I had one client that came all the way from Saint John a couple of weeks ago and she spent an absolute fortune on one gel line and then she said ‘oh, maybe I should buy this one too.’”
“I just said to her play with the brand you’ve got because it’s a new one, too. Don’t take another one yet.”
That might seem counterintuitive, but Sutcliffe explains she doesn’t want her clients to feel pressured to buy.
“I’m not here for that. That’s not my thing. I want my clients to know that they can trust me,” she says.
She says even though the industry can be competitive, she thinks there’s room for everyone in the southern New Brunswick beauty supply industry. Understanding the needs of her clients is a big part of making that work.
“I’ve got a coffee night tomorrow and the girls will come and we’ll talk about what other products they want in, we’ll talk about what hours work for them for the store,” she says. “It gives them the feeling that this is their store too, you know, because I can’t do it without them.”
Building those relationships with her clients and the community she and her family now call home is important to Sutcliffe.
“I want you to come to me and say ‘hey, my kids school needs new basketball hoops. Can you sponsor us?’,” she says. “I want to say to you, ‘hey, I’ve got so many stamping plates and so many stamping bits and pieces. Let’s do a class at the school with some of the kids… let’s go to the retirement home and give some [product for] manicures and pedicures.’”
“That’s why we decided to open the store [in St. Stephen], rather than opening it in Saint John or Fredericton, because it brings something to the community that we live in. It gives back.”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].