Main street move for award-winning beauty business

Award-winning local beauty treatment business Beauty Antix is celebrating its move into Wairoa’s new main street redevelopment.

Owner Amber Forrest, is committed to Wairoa with the relocation into a purpose-built space providing the opportunity to create a holistic wellness day spa, beauty treatment, therapy and training centre.

Her three-tiered model expands on the success of Beauty Antix, offering an all-inclusive wellness facility that utilises the wealth of knowledge available to train rangatahi in beauty, health, and wellness pathways.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little is thrilled to have a business of the calibre of Beauty Antix moving into the retail and community courtyard section of the main street rebuild. “We are excited that this first stage of the Marine Parade redevelopment will open before Christmas and include energy from businesses like Beauty Antix and Layton and Ange Gemmell, who will operate Gemmells – Café, Bar and Restaurant from the new facility.

“This is a long-awaited development, and I know Amber and her team will add a professional and fresh dynamic to the main street.”

Beauty Antix is a nationally recognised professional skin care, beauty therapy and appearance medicine specialist business. Amber wants to use her new premises to grow on this success and develop a unique high-end facility that caters for a range of wellness approaches. The aspiration is to create a luxurious healing sanctuary using a range of alternative treatments and therapies to leave clients feeling revitalised and rejuvenated.

“I am so excited to be taking this next step. Businesses in Wairoa have had a hard year, including Beauty Antix which was impacted by flooding in North Clyde. It is exciting to be moving to the main street development with new services to bring the town together again. We will be opening from our new site next month and aim to create a holistic wellness centre in Wairoa that will remove access issues and provide an alternative treatment, therapy and care option for Wairoa people.”

Amber is always self-developing and is constantly upskilling to maintain her national status. She firmly believes in passing her skills on to create sustainability and viability within her industry and for Wairoa. Her passion for training staff has seen her tutor many young Wairoa girls, qualifying them to become self-sustaining and employed locally, nationally and internationally.

“We can provide a career path and beauty, health and wellness qualification for young women, primarily Māori, through a nationally recognised Beauty and Wellness Training facility. Through hands-on training, rangatahi will gain a recognised tertiary qualification and secure employment. The programme will allow students to become Nationally Accredited Skin and Beauty Therapists, and through the International Dermal Institute (IDI), postgraduate training will also be available.”

Amber’s point of difference is to train and prepare rangatahi to become work-ready in the beauty industry. Through her status and industry connections, she can place them at clinics nationwide to further develop their skills. “It’s about community inclusiveness and strengthening young women so they can work sustainably in the beauty industry. This is about a future where we can showcase Wairoa and the skills of our local rangatahi.”

“Our vision is mentoring and role modelling by demonstrating to our rangatahi that opportunities can be created and with the right support, everyone can achieve the outcomes they want.”

The Beauty Antix relocation and expansion will focus on inner and outer wellness. The centre will include a new day spa, treatment rooms, a training classroom, a practical training area, reception, and innovative retail space. The vision includes soothing spa therapies using Pure Fiji products, which are found in top spa centres worldwide and has endorsed Beauty Antix, a gold facility, to use its products. Additional services will include wellness consultations with stress management, emotional wellbeing, movement sessions and counselling tailored to individual needs.

The background story

Amber has been a beauty therapist for more than 27 years. She initially established a salon within a local pharmacy and, 10 years ago, launched Beauty Antix in rented premises at North Clyde.

The local entrepreneur has been showered with top national industry awards, with the pinnacle in 2021 when Beauty Antix took out the national title of New Zealand Beauty Clinic of the Year, followed by being named the supreme winner of the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards and then the MWDI Māori Businesswomen’s Award for the Ikaroa region.

Amber credits her win to her staff and the Wairoa community. “There is always a lot of hard work that goes into meeting the awards’ criteria and being recognised at a national level, and putting Wairoa on the stage and under the spotlight makes it all worthwhile.

“Being recognised nationally is a tribute to all those people who support our business and especially our team who help make this possible.”

Living in a small town does not stop Amber and her team from delivering a world-class, top-level service, with Beauty Antix immersed in the diversity of its clientele and community, providing a wide range of expert and professional treatments.

“Our motto is ‘Exceeding Expectation with Expertise’. It is an environment that is open, inclusive, culturally responsive and respectful to all customers and serves our community in a uniquely holistic way.”

Amber’s philosophy is to treat every client equally and offer beauty and wellness services for all walks of life. She believes every client should receive just as good a service in Wairoa as they would in Auckland.

Beauty Antix is an esteemed skin educator which endorses Dermalogica, the internationally renowned skin health technique and treatment brand and the world's number one professional skin care system. Amber has reached the highest education level Dermalogica offers, Skin Health Expert Status, and received the NZ Best Skin Therapist award.

20 November 2023

Back to Archive