Skin in the game: Karen Meiring de Gonzalez wants a better beauty industry

Six months after moving countries and “pouring every penny” into her new business venture, Karen Meiring de Gonzalez opened the doors to Skin Correctives in Shellharbour.

Since that day in January 2011, the business has gone from strength to strength, winning over 40 local and national awards and gaining recognition as an industry-leading clinic.

It is by every measure a success story, but as Karen points out, it had to be. “Failure wasn’t an option,” she says.

Rewind six months and Karen had migrated with her family from South Africa – though perhaps “fled” is more accurate.

“We didn’t feel safe raising our children there,” she says.

“We had an incident of people breaking in and making themselves at home while we all slept upstairs. They stole, drank at our table, left fingerprints all over the place; they were brazen because they knew it was a low-priority crime for South African police.

“Murder and assault in our neighbourhood were all too common. It was no way to live.”

The conversion rate from the South African rand to the Australian dollar meant losing a lot to make the move, but arriving in the Illawarra in July 2010 was a happy day for Karen and her family.

With some financial urgency to their situation however, Karen, an internationally qualified skin therapist who had trained at a world-renowned college and gained experience overseas, tried to hit the ground running and worked as a manager at a Sydney skin clinics chain. Three weeks in she quit.

“I soon learned regulation on the beauty industry in Australia was a lot looser than I was used to, and I found it hard to work in a space where the standards and ethics did not align with my own,” Karen says.

“I told my husband, ‘I think I am unemployable; I need to do things my way’. And he said ‘Well, why don’t you then? I know you will make it a great success.’

“That night I hopped online and Googled how to start a business in NSW, printed out a checklist and started chipping away. It was a huge risk; we were pouring every penny into it, but six months later, we opened the doors to Skin Correctives and I haven’t looked back since.”

Skin Correctives is a results-focused skin clinic using a tailored, holistic approach to skin revision based on proven science.

Karen was confident it was a model the Illawarra clientele would love, but she didn’t have a great deal of capital to invest in marketing. Instead, she leaned into the oldest trick in the book to grow her business – networking.

“I literally walked the streets and introduced myself and my business to the people of the Illawarra,” she says.

“A lot of relationship building happened through Illawarra Women in Business (IWIB). I had never thought about awards before, but (IWIB director) Glenda Papac persuaded me to enter the ‘Best New Business’ category the year I opened, and I won.

“I realised awards were an excellent way to get your name out there, lift your profile and spread the word about your work.”

Over the years the business has grown. Karen says public education about safe and effective skin care treatments, and advocacy for the beauty industry have been cornerstones of its success.

“We’re proud to be the first clinic in Australia to be ‘SafeSkin Certified’ – that is to say the Aesthetic and Beauty Industry Council (ABIC) has assessed our business on every level and deemed us to have met professional standards,” Karen says.

“It means our clients can feel safe and our staff nurtured in a highly professional environment.

“Because we’ve elevated ourselves through awards and this kind of industry recognition, we’re recognised as industry leaders and that’s given us a platform. I am honoured to be appointed as an ABIC Councillor, representing and advocating for the beauty therapy sector of our industry, and working towards better standards and regulation.”