Advanced Skin Spa Sees Opportunity, Seizes It

POLAND, Ohio – When the painters next door to Advanced Skin Spa in Poland moved out,owner Jennifer Kurz saw an opportunity.

Where products used to paint walls and structures sat, now sit several lines of skin-care products to beautify the human face.

“We basically gutted the entire space and redid everything,” says Kurz, a licensed aesthetician who’s been working in the skin-care industry since she was 18.

“It was a big investment,” Kurz says, although she declines to say how big.

The additional space at 58 S. Main St. enlarges Advanced Skin Spa’s footprint to more than 2,000 square feet and allows Kurz to expand her services.

Since opening eight years ago, Kurz’s primary business had been providing facials. Now she’ll also offer manicures and pedicures, massage therapy and spray tans.

“We’ve expanded our services quite a bit,” she says.

Just off the retail space sits another new room where physicians Wayne Roccia and Robert Lewis offer their services.

Roccia is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Lewis a board-certified plastic surgeon.

“Jennifer and I have known each other for some time and we started to realize that we were seeing a lot of the same patients,” Lewis says.

Pictured: Robert Lewis, board-certified plastic surgeon at Advanced Skin Spa.

It occurred to Kurz that instead of having her clients go to a medical office and wait, “Why don’t we bring the doctors here?”

The physicians book limited one-on-one appointments at Advanced Skin Spa, which Kurz says is one of the benefits of being a client.

For Lewis, whose practice is in Canfield, it’s a way to expand his patients.

“Some people from Poland would rather come here instead of going all the way to the other side of Boardman,” he says.

Most procedures Lewis performs here are injectibles, such as Botox.

“In general, there are younger patients looking towards fillers earlier, as opposed to coming in later in their life,” he says.

In addition to the two doctors, Kurz is looking to hire another aesthetician, a massage therapist and a pair of nail technicians.

Only Kurz and fellow aesthetician Mandie Hayes handle the hundreds of clients. Hayes, an aesthetician 10 years, has been with Kurz the last two years.

“We have a lot of clients that come in with severe acne,” Hayes says. “Helping a client to get through that and giving them their confidence back is just great.”

Among the facial treatments Kurz and Hayes offer are Hydra facials, microdermabrasians and oxygen infusion facials.

“The oxygen that we use is medical-grade oxygen,” Hayes says. “So it’s taking the air from the room, cleaning it, and then we’re applying it to your skin.”

Pictured: Mandie Hayes, aesthetician. 

Kurz says one aspect of the business her clients most appreciate is not having to wait. All services at the spa are by appointment only.

“They like the exclusivity of having us to themselves when they come in,” Kurz says.

Sue Ambrose of Poland comes to Advanced Skin Spa to relax when her job at an area hospital becomes hectic: “It’s kind of my reward to myself.”

Jami Byler of Petersburg also comes to relax. “It feels like a luxury to come here,” she says.

For Kathy Osborne of Canfield, the main draw is the makeup line: “I feel that my face can breath better and feels more refreshed.”

The majority of her clients are female professionals, Kurz relates. “We’re at a day and age where looks and youthfulness and staying young is important to everyone,” she says.

The spa’s services aren’t limited to women. Kurz says many men have come, albeit reluctantly, after their wives pressure them.

“They think they’re getting some kind of fluff and buff treatment,” Kurz says, “and then they come in and really enjoy it.”

And the men and women of the Valley are not alone in their pursuit of looking younger.

A 2015 report by Euromonitor International projects that sales in the skin-care industry will surpass $131 billion by 2019.

Kurz has known for some time that the market in the area is adequate to sustain her business should it grow. Now that she has the physical space, she’s nearly ready to make it happen.

The only uncertainty, she says, is “We still have some extra rooms that we’re not sure what we’re going to do with yet.”

Pictured at top: Jennifer Kurz, owner of Advanced Skin Spa.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.