ROBYN McAlpine once thought you had to be “into the superficial” to be in the beauty industry.
“I always wanted to get into skin therapy when I was younger but my only experience of the industry was a frizz-permed lady called Shazza,” jokes the 35-year-old of her rural upbringing.
Careful to underline that she is not into “nails, hair or injectables”, Ms McAlpine is the founder of Skintifix skin care salon in Cooks Hill.
The business specialises in laser hair removal and, says Ms McAlpine, is the only salon in Newcastle and Hunter that exclusively offers treatments via corneotheraphy, essentially non-invasive and individualised skin care.
“The secret to our amazing results isn’t exactly what we put on your skin, it is what we don’t that really matters,” she says.
“Our mission is to help sort fact from fiction and take away the guess work when it comes to buying the right skin care – we are a BS free zone.”
Skintifix uses Dermavidual products and at the brand’s recent industry awards, where 200 salons competed, Skintifix won four out of seven awards, including corneotherapist of the year (Ms McAlpine).
Ms McAlpine studied at the Australian College of Beauty Therapy in Maitland, intrigued by the science of skin.
“Skin can hold you back from being confident, if there is something you have to cover with makeup you don’t feel spontaneous or you don’t want your partner to touch your face,” she says.
She worked in a day spa then for a cosmetics company before opening her business in June, 2009.
“I found a way to blend the science and high tech things with the relaxation or beauty treatments that you go to a spa for,” she says, adding that her staff share her passion and dedication to women’s skin.
Ms McAlpine said making a difference in people’s lives drives her.
“I just give them permission to be who they are by taking away the skin things that hold them back,” she says, adding that facial hair can be debilitating for women who are constantly stressing about it in social settings.
Her motives for getting in to the industry do not stem from having problematic skin herself. She simply thought something was missing in the industry.
“It was a very vain superficial industry and no-one could pinpoint what was causing concerns with their skin, what is happening at a cellular level,” she says.
Skintifix takes a holistic approach to assessing skin, looking at internal and external factors affecting it.
Many clients seek “repair work” with a large chunk of them damaged by what Ms McAlpine calls the “epidemic” of harmful treatments including exfoliation.
“There are lot of cosmetic and invasive treatments that are prevalent and for a business they are lucrative but when done incorrectly or on wrong skin types it’s a disaster,” she says.
