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CHARLOTTETOWN — Halifax company DermaEnvy Skincare will officially open its seventh franchise Sept. 1.
The clinic’s Charlottetown location will be its first on Prince Edward Island and, according to owner Kristi MacKay, it wouldn’t have happened if not for the Atlantic Bubble.
DermaEnvy is a laser skin clinic that offers procedures like laser hair and tattoo removal, microdermabrasion, chemical peels, and facials.
MacKay was one of the clinic’s biggest boosters before she started her own franchise but says it’s still a small miracle she’s been able to open her clinic.
MacKay is a Charlottetown police officer (and will stay with the force even after DermaEnvy opens), but she comes from a family of entrepreneurs. Her father and grandfather were, in her words, “both self-made businessmen,” and because of them MacKay always wanted to be a part of the business community.
She’s been working as a police officer for 12 years but when the opportunity came up to bring a business she believed in to her home province, Mackay said she couldn’t turn it down.
“I just saw the opportunity as an entrepreneur to dive into something that puts me outside my comfort zone,” she said. “I was always told to take risks, and this was a risk.”
She started the process in February but was soon hit with a series of devastating setbacks.
Covid-19 hit the Maritimes in March, throwing a serious wrench into MacKay’s plans. Then, in a tragic turn of events, her dad passed away in April.
He had known she was planning to bring the business to Charlottetown and MacKay said his death made her even more determined to see her plans through.
“It actually fueled the fire to continue on and do it for a different reason – do it for the reason he wanted me to do it,” she said. “And he’d be proud.”
As much as she wanted to open her new business, MacKay and company owner Cohen MacInnis were still limited by Covid-19 travel restrictions.
MacKay said the two “became favorites in each other’s phones” as they planned the opening remotely. However, she says if that Atlantic Bubble hadn’t opened at the start of July “we would still be at zero.”
“We started the wheel, and then Covid hit and that stopped everything,” MacKay said. “Then, only because of the Atlantic Bubble, we were able to get the wheels back in motion, have the franchise owner come back over, select a location, and so on.”
Covid-19 remains at the front of consumers’ minds and MacKay said she is still apprehensive about opening in its midst. However, she is confident in her safety protocols and believes the business can thrive even in the middle of a pandemic.
“It’s amazing to see a business open during Covid time, and this shows that PIE is still flourishing even with a pandemic. And it’s especially [great to see] a skincare clinic that relies on person-to-person contact can still thrive,” she says.
