Situated on Gandy Street, one of the trendiest streets in Exeter, Amy Pinkerton-Clark is celebrating her fifth Year of business at Amy Clarks Hair, Nail and Make up Studio. A fully qualified beauty therapist, media make-up artist and nail technician, Amy spent two years working in London as a nail technician at The Champagne Nail Bar in Harvey Nicholls, before going on to manage Prim nail salon, an independent nail boutique in Primrose hill. Amy decided to return to her home town Exeter in 2008, to pursue her dream of running her own salon. The experience and knowledge gained from her time at Prim would prove invaluable as Amy says "being a new salon it gave me the experience of running a brand new salon and building up a client base from scratch".
Aged just 23, Amy Pinkerton-Clark established Amy Clark Nail and Make up studio in June 2008 in a small unit on New Buildings Lane, of Gandy Street, by October 2008 Amy had outgrown her small premises and moved around the corner on to Gandy Street. Business continued to grow and in June 2009 Amy took over the upstairs hair salon, beautifully complementing the beauty treatments, and becoming Amy Clark Hair, Nail and Make up Studio. Amy had chosen Gandy Street because of its city centre location, and because Amy liked the arty vibe of Gandy Street; Full of independent boutiques, eateries and the Phoenix Art Centre Amy believed her salon would fit in well. The studio has a contemporary and extremely clean but welcoming feel. Amy says "We're very friendly; we have a very relaxed atmosphere".
Amy specialises in threading, her most popular treatment, as well as specialising in a range of manicures and pedicures, gel nails, minx nails, bridal make up and treatments for the eyes, including eyelash tinting, eyebrow tinting and eyelash perming. Amy now has a team of four working with her. Charlotte Jewel also does nail and beauty treatments, specialising in Acrylic nail extensions and eyelash extensions. In the hair salon Lee Filan and Lucy Davies are the full time hair stylists, who between them both have overtwenty five years of experience, as well as one newly qualified and part time stylist Poppy Voss, who is building up her clientele. Hair stylist Lucy has worked at Amy Clarks for two years and said "it's a lovely friendly but professional environment, I get to be very flexible with my working hours and I feel like part of the family".
In times of a recession Amy Clark's is positively booming, but with the global economic indicator of the "Lipstick effect" shifting to the "Nail polish effect" and with nail polish sales having increased by 70% in 2012 it's no wonder. An affordable luxury, a pampering session, an hour to oneself, and lovely looking nails that are going to last for up to a month will make any woman feel good during hard financial times. As Amy points out "I started my business in a recession" a benefit as Amy has never known anything different so has nothing to compare to. During the recession Amy has managed to secure a loyal client base and the salon is thriving, and looks set to continue on the soar.
Other than through social media Facebook the business is not advertised, all clientele comes from word of mouth, and Amy's very loyal clients recommend the salon to friends and family. Offering threading, a unique hair removal treatment, particularly popular with clients of an Arab origin, is a unique selling point. Currently there is no other salon in Exeter offering the treatment.
One long standing customer Amanda Chaudhry couldn't wait to tell me why she keeps coming back to Amy Clarks "I'll have been coming to Amy's for two years this summer. Being of Arab origin threading's a big thing for our culture, to finally find someone in Exeter who does it is ace. When you come here you feel like part of the family, Amy makes you feel welcome, she always remembers what she spoke to you about five weeks ago, I love that, at other places you're just a number on a bit of paper. Amy's amazing, I wouldn't trust anyone else to thread my eyebrows". With her amiable and bubbly personality it's no wonder she has a loyal clientele who I'm sure return for the "Amy" experience as much as for their beauty treatment. In Amy's own words the secret of her success is definitely being "friendly but professional".
For the future Amy says "at this moment in time I'm not 100% sure what I envisage. I want to obviously continue doing what I'm doing and I do hope to continue being busy with it, I don't see myself expanding the business, I like having a boutique salon, I'd rather be a small busy salon than a big empty salon, I like my location, I've got a good team working for me, and I want to carry on doing what I'm doing, making sure this one salon stays successful".
