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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | JUNE 20, 2021
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Chandler med spa owner left engineering career BY SRIANTHI PERERA Contributor
Southeast Chandler is the home of SkinLab Laser, Aesthetics and Wellness, a new facility offering a variety of aesthetic services. The gleaming, 2,300-square-feet medical spa is inhabiting space that had earlier housed two other spas and salons at different times. Featuring state-of-the-art equipment, SkinLab offers injectables, skin peels, facials, body contouring, laser technology, wellness products such as vitamin infusions, and organic hair care. Owner Marichu Evans of Chandler gave up an engineering career at Intel in 2017 to buy and run a salon. At first, she offered just hair services but gradually introduced medical spa services in 2019. “We outgrew our space and came here. I want to have more services and we were limited with our space there,” Evans said. “I want to deliver to our clients a one-stop-shop for their aesthetic needs.” If judging by the popularity of these services, her gamble paid off. Skin Lab receives about 700 client visits a month. Evans, who has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in materials engineering, finds aesthetics “fun.” “Most people will think that it’s purely aesthetics, but there’s a lot of technology that goes around too – like picking the right technology and the equipment, especially lasers,” she said.
Marichu Evans owns and operates SkinLab in Chandler. (Srianthi Perera/Contributor)
“The laser that we have is the top of the line in the market. We just choose the best equipment that delivers results for the clients.” SkinLab employs about a dozen staffers, most of them part-time, including a medical doctor, nurse practitioner and two nurses. Evans said they are picked for their qualifications and trained regularly with new techniques. A majority of its clientele consists of 25 to 45-year-olds, while seniors are increasingly discovering the spa as well,
due to its proximity to Sun Lakes. Its Instagram account has more than 12,000 members, mostly millennials, who are into injectables, with lip augmentation a popular service. About 10 percentage of its clients are males, who mostly purchase Botox and fillers. SkinLab’s membership programs, Facial Tribe and Skin Tribe, are often purchased by couples. Another of the most sought-after services is organic hair care.
Tina Wallace, hair specialist at SkinLab, said: “I cater to clients who have sensitivities and also I have some people who have gone through chemotherapy and are cautious about not using chemicals that are harmful.” Wallace, who has 20 years of experience, is available four days a week to do hand-tied weft hair extensions, hair coloring and other general hair services such as cutting and styling. Some of her clients drive from the West Valley and Scottsdale just for the organic hair products such as Organic Way, Neuma and Loma. “A lot of the salons don’t offer organic,” Wallace said. “I think it’s good for people to know there are options to not having harmful chemicals in your hair dye and that have the same performance as the regular hair color,” Evans said. “It still has the longevity and regular grey coverage like hair color but without harmful chemicals.” Evans pointed out that her facility doesn’t have the strong smell of ammonia, the one giveaway that a salon’s products are harmful to the body. “As you enter our facility, you don’t See
SKINLAB on page 36
How 2 local businesses capitalized on pandemic BY SYDNEY MACKIE Staff Writer
Mark Stewart said his marketing-public relations firm helped a Chandler interior decorator generate $3 million in new business with a comprehensive digital refresh. Stewart – a Chandler City Council member who is founder of Concept2Completion – said his company’s work for Haus Interiors at 2350 E. Germann Road demonstrates the value of an engaging social media presence in extreme economic circumstances – like those created by the pandemic. It’s not just Haus Interiors that benefitted, either. “Our business actually picked up during the pandemic because people recognize that they need to redo their website, update their LinkedIn profile or take videos that tell their brand’s story. All those things became apparent,” said Stewart. Stewart’s work helped Haus Interiors capitalize on the pandemic’s impact on households. As more people worked from home and families spent more time there, more homeowners wanted to remodel.
Haus Interiors Alyssa Warring said Mark Stewart’s work helped her firm. (Special to SanTan Sun News)
At the same time, Stewart said there was a need for companies to enhance their digital outreach to take advantage of the fact that online use spiked. “The overall electronics usage went through the roof during that period of time because people weren’t going to the movies and were out shopping as
little as possible, so they were filling their time online,” he explained. Capitalizing on this unique opportunity, Concept2Completion doubled its number of clients, Stewart said. They included small to medium businesses that included blockchain companies, orthodontic practices and lawyers. They all had one goal, Stewart said: “Establish their brand, understand their messaging and ultimately, build a cadence and rhythm so they would be at the top of mind and tip of the tongue when opportunities came by.” Haus Interiors, a four-employee contracting company, wanted a better platform to display their work and expand market awareness of their services. These services include personal consultations with professionals in the industry, access to showrooms and an overall more intimate experience with customers to ensure their satisfaction with their renovated spaces. Concept2Completion hired an array of photographers and videographers to document Haus’ before-and-after transformations of homes, giving the company’s Instagram page a cohesive theme.
Stewart also ensured the brand could be found at the top of a Google search for general contractors or home remodeling, according to Haus Interiors project manager and interior designer Alyssa Warring. “It was nice when we started working with Concept2Completion because they were able to fully take on everything so we don’t even have to think about it, it’s a well-oiled machine,” Warring said. Added Stewart: “We’ve really created a following of people interested in their work, they may not even be interested in doing remodeling but they’re interested in the content.” Moving forward, both Haus Interiors and Concept2Completion plan to grow their organizations, hiring people and capitalizing on the lessons they both learned during their work together. “The takeaway from us is that digital is not going away and if you’re waiting for the perfect time to plant that tree, there are two great times,” Stewart said. “One time is tomorrow, so you can sit in the shade 30 years from now, another month and you’ll be in the same place you are today, so just take action.”
