Meet Cyan Beauty Studios – Edinburgh’s Friendliest Salon

This month we’d like to introduce you to one of Edinburgh’s friendliest salons, Cyan Beauty Studios. You’ll find Cyan perched on Jeffrey Street in the Old Town, with its newly painted exterior and warm, inviting staff.

Cyan was established in 2013 and is now co-owned by Rachel Sylvester and Nadia Ashley. The studio has recently gone through a total makeover, relaunching this February with a new company logo, a fresh interior, and even more services on offer. At Cyan you can get everything from hair cuts and nail treatments to facials and massages. They’ve even developed their own app, where you can book your appointments and get loyalty discounts. Cyan’s aim is to help you leave their studio feeling like your best self, both inside and out.

We got to speak with Nadia, who is one of the co-owners of the salon. She offers her insight into the world of beauty and how she landed in the industry, as well as some of her best hair and skincare tips. But it gets even better – Cyan is kindly giving away an exclusive treatment package for one of our followers, so keep reading to find out more!

1. Could you tell us about your business and how it started? 

We are an independently owned Hair, Beauty & Aesthetic salon founded in 2013 by Rachel Sylvester. Rachel worked as a sole trader for a few years before turning the business into a Ltd company, with me as the co-owner. Due to growth and expansion we took on an Investor Director late last year, Mr. Joseph Smith, who has been a huge inspiration to us and helped broaden our horizons and refocus our goals by upgrading the salons look and introducing new brands to our services. It’s a very exciting time for us here with lots of positive changes taking place.

2. What kinds of treatments do you offer and what’s unique about Cyan?

There are many aspects to our business covering a vast array of services. We offer everything from hair cuts and keratin blow dries to gel polish and facials. Along with our signature facials we also offer dermaplaning and mesotherapy. Massages, waxing, and tinting are some of our other services, among many more.

We have a variety of barber services available for gents which includes cut throat shave, full face or tidy up. With the relaunch, we changed the style of the salon and I think this has helped us appeal to both sexes more. It uses to be pink and purple and appear very girly, shall we say, but now we have a lot of dark blue and grey which chrome fixtures. I love that more men visit us now and you can tell they feel very comfortable when they’re in our salon. This is the direction we want the world of hair, beauty, and aesthetics to move in. Men should be feeling just as liberated as ladies do by this industry, and if we can help ease them in and give them confidence in any way, then we are succeeding.

3. What are your favourite trends in hairdressing at the moment?

We are loving the funky colours that everyone is going wild with these days! Hair has reached a whole new level of creativity and more and more clients are requesting funky colours. The sky is the limit when it comes to colour and our clients can literally have any look they want.

4. What’s your favourite thing about owning a salon?

It’s hard to pin it down as there are so many things I love about running a salon, however, I really love that you can be as creative as you like and there are always new trends and services to explore. The best part for me has to be when the customer leaves your salon feeling beautiful, not just on the outside but on the inside too. That really makes me feel accomplished in what we aim to do here at Cyan.

5. What are your best haircare, skincare and self-care tips for our readers?

For hair I would say our Smoothing Keratin Blow Dry treatment; it really tames any frizz and leaves you with incredibly shiny and healthy looking hair. The treatment lasts up to 3 months and it has been a total game changer for me as I have naturally very thick, curly and frizzy hair. Now I barely have to do anything to it, I just blow dry it and that’s often enough.

For skincare, I would recommend our Mesotherapy treatment. This is an amazing treatment which nourishes and rejuvenates the skin by using a series of superfine injections of vitamins, minerals and amino acid cocktails delivered into the mesodermal layer of the skin. Collagen and elastin are then stimulated, which are essential for the skins natural elasticity. You’ll be left looking much more youthful and bright after this treatment! This particular treatment really helped reduce some prominent scarring that I had on my face from an accident. I was insecure about the marks that were left and now you would never know the scars had ever been there at all.

In terms of self-care, I am a firm believer in ‘healthy body, healthy mind’. So my biggest self-care tip is to prioritise exercise. I try to do at least 30 minutes exercise a day, this helps me keep my stress levels low and my serotonin high.

6. Who inspired you to get where you are in your career and what advice do you have for women who want to start their own business?

My Dad has always been the reason why I wanted to run my own business and my biggest inspiration. He worked his way up from nothing to becoming an incredibly successful (yet humble) businessman, and I saw firsthand how hard work could pay off. His work ethic certainly rubbed off on me as I don’t like to sit still for more than five minutes!

If I was to give advice to women who want to start their own business or perhaps go into business with someone like I did, I would say always plan ahead. Make sure you look at the figures and keep thinking outside the box. Detach yourself emotionally and try to separate business from emotions to enable you to be open to suggestions that might just lead you to your pot of gold. A positive, open and liberal mind will help you achieve and attract your goals. I loved reading ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne. That book is a must-read for anyone going after their goals.

7. Here at Dickins, we’re all about Edinburgh. What would your ideal day out in Edinburgh be?

This is a hard one as Edinburgh has so many amazing things to do. My husband and I love climbing up Arthurs Seat for the beautiful views and then going for a nice pub lunch at the Espy by Portobello seafront. Or for a fun attraction, we love Camera Obscura and World of Illusions Museum, especially as a family.

8. What are some fun/unique events taking place in the salon this year?

We have some really exciting things lined up this year. Our Guinot launch event will take place in the next few months – this is our amazing skin care brand who are real experts in beauty. We also have our hen and stag packages launching soon and the plan is to collaborate with other companies in Edinburgh to make it easier for a group when booking for the weekend. Our long term plan is to eventually branch out and open a chain of salons in Edinburgh. 

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COMPETITION TIME

(Competition now closed)

Win a File & Regular Polish along with a heavenly Back, Neck & Shoulder Massage at Cyan Beauty Studios – worth £63!

The competition runs from Thursday the 14th March until midnight on Wednesday the 20th March 2019. 

The giveaway is open for entry to everybody over 18 in the UK.  This promotion is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

For a chance to win, choose from one of the following options:

1. Like Cyan Beauty Studios & Dickins Facebook pages and share the competition post on Dickins Facebook page.

2. Follow Cyan Beauty Studios & Dickins on Twitter and retweet one of the competition tweets on the Dickins Twitter account.

3. Follow Cyan Beauty Studios & Dickins on Instagram and tag a friend on the competition post on the Dickins Instagram account.

Make sure you follow us on social media so you don’t miss out on our monthly giveaways!

GOOD LUCK!