This Nail Salon And Spa Concept Provides Clean Beauty Services In A Squeaky Clean Setting

Clean Beauty Bar may very well be the healthiest bar in Tampa Bay and Winter Park.

The growing nail salon and spa concept serves up cold-pressed juices while offering manicures, pedicures, facials, massages and more to wellness-oriented Floridians. It’s opened two locations in less than a year, and founder Kelly Newton plans to expand to a third next year perhaps in St. Petersburg before branching into franchises after planting two more Clean Beauty Bar units in South Florida cities.

Clean Beauty Bar

“Clean is exactly like its name. It’s clean and you can really feel that. It also smells great. We don’t have acrylics. We use essential oils, and you can smell them when you walk in,” says Clean Beauty Bar founder Kelly Newton. “It’s completely different from salons where they don’t sanitize their implements. I’ve seen tons of nail technicians at other salons take out their nail files and use them on someone else.”

The almost 2,500-square-foot Winter Park location contains three pedicure chairs, three manicure stations and four treatment rooms named after essential oils: Mint, Citrus, Lavender and Geranium. In the 1,000-square-foot Tampa Bay location, there are two manicure stations, three pedicure chairs, two treatment rooms – Mint and Lavender – and a hydrotherapy room. Manicure and pedicures are priced from $25 to $50, and Clean Beauty Bar incorporates Londontown polishes and scrubs made in-house.

Clean Beauty Bar’s locations feature essential oil bars where customers can customize essential oil blends at the price of $21 for a 1-oz. container. Spa services range from $65 for a stress-busting 30-minute massage to $600 for brow and scalp micropigmentation. One of the most popular services is the $90 Lemongrass Body Polish treatment.

Clean Beauty Bar

Newton has carved out retail areas in both of Clean Beauty Bar’s spots. At the smaller Tampa Bay location, the retail section is about 150 square feet, and it’s 500 square feet inside the larger Winter Park space. Clean Beauty Bar sells skincare, home and fashion items. It has its own brand with soy candles from $12 to $33, a $35 diffuser kit, $7 lip balm, $29 face and eye cream, and $21 body lotion.

Newton, who is a talent manager representing recording artists as well as the owner of Clean Beauty Bar, carefully thought out Clean Beauty Bar’s modern, gleaming white interior design to enable it to spread to many locations. “As soon as someone comes in the door, they can tell I’ve established a brand,” she says. “People always ask me, ‘Is this a national brand?’ It doesn’t look like your average mom-and-pop shop.”

In 2018, Newton’s revenue goal for Clean Beauty Bar’s two locations is $1.5 million. She believes its mix of retail and services helps her business weather retail’s troubles. “If I only had a retail shop, I think I would be suffering right now, but because we are a service environment and carry unique products, clients want to come in and experience the spa,” says Newton. “We have a lot of exclusive products to draw people in.”

Kelly Newton
Kelly Newton

Clean Beauty Bar’s target customer is health-conscious women from 25- to 34-years-old. Newton foresees their ranks swelling going forward and is banking on them increasingly searching for non-toxic alternatives to traditional salons and spas. “People want to take care of their bodies and skin, and they’re realizing chemicals in most products aren’t good for them,” she says. “I believe more and more people are transitioning because they’re concerned.”

As Newton builds Clean Beauty Bar, she readily acknowledges that she faces challenges. “People always assume they have this great idea and people are going to run in the minute the doors open. That’s not the case. I work nonstop at marketing and, right now, I don’t feel there is a great marketing outlet for spas and especially for my brand,” says Newton. “I put myself in my customer’s shoes, and TV, radio and print doesn’t really work with them. It’s really about social marketing and word of mouth.”