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Meet the award-winning Fraserburgh beautician who is nailing it

Beautiful venture: Jackie Brown hasn't looked back since starting her own beauty salon.
Beautiful venture: Jackie Brown hasn't looked back since starting her own beauty salon.

It’s always a “scary” moment for beautician Jackie Brown when a client starts to cry.

But rather than sad tears, it’s happy tears they shed as Jackie always goes the extra mile to bring out the best in people.

“It’s really rewarding,” says Jackie who runs Rejuvenate with Jackie Brown from Fraserburgh Business Centre.

“I often have someone who comes in to see me because they’ve not got eyebrows due to chemotherapy treatment.

Going to great lengths: Jackie’s love of doing her own nails turned into a colourful business venture. Pictures by Kami Thomson, DC Thomson.

“So I’ll do microblading (a semi-permanent tattoo technique used to create the illusion of fuller brows) and afterwards they start to cry.

“Right at that moment I get a scare because I’m thinking are you crying because you hate them or are you crying because you love them.

“Then they say they love them and then I’ll start crying too.”

Caring and compassionate

As a confidant, counsellor and a listening ear for her clients, Jackie is so much more than a beautician.

“People feel they can come in and speak to me, maybe they’ve been through some hardship because of Covid,” says Jackie.

“I always tell everyone, what’s spoken about in this room doesn’t leave this room.

“People know they can come in and offload – it feels like it’s therapy sometimes.”

People person: Jackie loves catching up with her customers.

Ankle injury

Despite always enjoying doing her own nails, becoming a beautician never crossed Jackie’s mind until an ankle injury forced her to reconsider her career in the oil and gas industry.

“I had just started doing nails as a hobby because I had tendonitis in my ankle so the company wouldn’t allow me to work offshore,” says Jackie.

“I was always someone who was on the go so when I was forced to stop I started putting on weight so I knew I needed hobby, something to do with my hands so I would stop piling on the pounds.

“I thought I could start doing nails so I did a couple of online nail courses so I just started from there.”

Tickled pink: Jackie’s beauty business has grown into an award-winning salon.

Lifechanging moment

Transforming a room in her house into a small salon, Jackie started off doing nail treatments for friends and family.

It proved so successful that Jackie soon had the confidence to turn her hobby into an official business.

But everything was put on hold when Jackie fell pregnant in 2011.

“Just as I was about to start my own business from a room in my house, I fell pregnant,” says Jackie.

“So I had my daughter Mackenzie in 2012 and because my husband used to work offshore he was away for half the year so I couldn’t possibly start a new business with a new baby.”

Eye for detail: Jackie is trained in microblading, a semi-permanent tattoo technique used to create the illusion of fuller brows.

Working mum

Settling well into life as a mum, Jackie slowly started fitting in clients around Mackenzie’s routine.

“Once my daughter was into a routine she would go down every night for 12 hours a night so I was really lucky,” says Jackie.

“Once that was happening I used to take one or two clients at night time.

“And when she started nursery I would take another two clients in the morning so I just slowly built my business from my house.”

Light therapy: Jackie has invested in a Dermalux LED Phototherapy machine to help people with various skin and inflammatory conditions.

Expanding

When Mackenzie started primary school, Jackie started expanding her beauty skills, enrolling in various courses.

Five years ago, Jackie celebrated a milestone moment when she set up her own salon at Fraserburgh Business Centre.

“When I came here I started off in the smallest room in the building and I was in there for about four years and then last October I got the chance to move into the room next door and it’s the biggest room in the building,” says Jackie.

Bright future: Jackie is excited for the future.

Awards

Coming into her own as a beautician, Jackie has since won numerous industry awards.

“Last year I won a silver award for rising star of the year at the British Hair and Beauty Awards,” says Jackie.

“And this year I’ve ended up winning four golds and a bronze – it’s a huge achievement.”

From lash lifts and tints to Indian head massages and facials, Jackie just loves making people feel great.

National recognition: Jackie is ecstatic to win a string of awards at the British Hair and Beauty Awards.

High tech treatments

She has also invested in a Dermalux LED Phototherapy machine to help people with various conditions.

“It’s absolutely amazing, it can help with lots of things,” says Jackie.

“So if you have eczema and psoriasis or anything like that it can really help.

“It can help with wound healing and it’s good for pigmentation, sun spots, scarring, acne rosacea.

Me time: Jackie loves that her salon is a relaxing escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

“My mother-in-law is 85 and she has osteoarthritis.

“Obviously that’s a progressive illness and she’ll never get better from so we go round every Sunday and I bring the Dermalux machine and I put her feet under it for a 30-minute session and then I put her hands and wrists under it for another 30-minute session.

“She gets a lot of inflammation round the joints and it can help with that too.”

With everything going so well for Jackie, she has no plans to make any changes to her business.

“I’m happy to just go with the flow with things just now,” says Jackie.

For more information, check out Jackie’s website www.jackiebrown.bookinbeautiful.com or Facebook

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