With a dream to encourage people to take the time for themselves, Cheranda Fraser Williams started Honey Sparkle, a Montreal beauty and wellness company offering a variety of services such as aesthetic services, body/skin care products and home decor. We spoke with Cheranda, Owner and Founder, to hear more about her journey.
What is your business called and what does it do?
My business is called Honey Sparkle. We are a beauty and wellness company that promotes self-care through a variety of aesthetic services as well as body/skin care products and home decor such as candles.
What made you want to do this work?
I founded Honey Sparkle in February of 2020 originally as a teeth whitening company. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic shutdowns that came a few months later, I had to reevaluate my business as a whole. While reevaluating, I asked myself how can I keep up with the idea of self-care / making people feel good about themselves so I started researching how to make products. Some of the very first things that I learned how to formulate and eventually ended up selling were lip glosses, body butter and candles. I got great feedback from the products and decided in 2021 that I wanted to expand my knowledge on the skin even more and eventually start offering treatments so I enrolled myself in an Aesthetics program. Fast forward to today, I’ve since graduated as a certified Aesthetician, learned more about formulating skincare products and put more time into perfecting the craft of candlemaking all to continue to expand and grow my business.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
Before starting my business in 2020, I realized that there were very limited options for affordable self-care treatments and products. I started with teeth whitening because, at the time, I was unable to find anyone around who was offering the service for an affordable price (besides dentists but their treatments are typically $500-600+). Once I “rebranded”, I realized that affordable and natural products were hard to come by as well and I wanted to be an outlet for people to do their shopping all while not breaking the bank. Moving forward to today, even with all that I currently offer, I try my best to be as affordable as possible because I truly believe that self-care (in all of its forms) is not only important but necessary for one’s mental health and it should be accessible to everyone even if it is a simple treat for themselves every once in a while or if it is a monthly ritual.
Who are your clientele/demographics?
The majority of my current clientele are women between the ages of 18 and 40. However, I do have a growing clientele of women over the age of 40, men and teenagers.
How does your business make money? How does it work?
There are two sides to Honey Sparkle: our aesthetic services and our e-commerce. In terms of our aesthetic services, I offer lash lifts/tints, brow laminations/tints, tooth gems, full body waxing and facials from a salon in Montreal-West and I also just recently became certified to offer lash extensions. As for our e-commerce, we sell a variety of products on our website such as body butter, sugar/soap body scrubs, serums, candles and wax melts, a variety of body care accessories as well as the retail line of medical-grade skincare that we use in-house during facial services.
Where in the city can we find your profession?
We are currently located at a salon in Montreal-West on Westminster, however, we are appointment only. Appointments can be made here. For our products, we carry a few of our candles and retail skincare at the salon but the best place to purchase our items would be online at our website: www.honeysparkle.com. We currently only ship across Canada and the US at this time and free shipping is available on all Canadian orders over $199 CAD.
What is the best question a prospective customer could ask a member of your profession when comparing services? Give the answer as well.
Besides asking for pricing (to make sure the services are in your budget), the best question a prospective customer could ask someone in my profession would be: Where did you receive your training/certification to offer the services that you do? I’ve always found that it is best to go to certified professionals (whether that be that they were certified by the aesthetics program offered by the government or from an accredited institution) as the training offered in these programs are typically months to a year or so long and dive deep into the topics at hand. Unfortunately, there are people out there offering services without the proper knowledge of one’s skin, hair growth cycles or even the treatment itself. The internet makes it super easy for people to find information about these topics and there are a bunch of people who offer aesthetics/waxing “courses” which promise to certify you in a few days. After having gone to aesthetics school through the EMSB school board, I know that it is next to impossible to get the proper knowledge on these topics in just a short few days so I always advise my clients or potential clients to make sure the aesthetician or service provider that they decide to go with has the proper training before allowing them to service you.
What is the best part about what you do? What is the worst part?
I think the best part about what I do is being able to see the joy that my products and services bring to people. I love seeing my clients get off of my treatment table happy with their results and excited for their next appointment and I also love hearing reviews from customers after they’ve purchased and tried our products.
The worst part about what I do would have to be seeing people give up on their skincare journey too early. A lot of people think that by coming to see an aesthetician once or twice, their skin issues will miraculously be cured right away but unfortunately, there’s a lot more work needed to make that happen. Seeing a professional is important but ultimately your home care routine, your diet and your lifestyle are all major players in seeing the results that you’re looking for and it is important not to put those on the back burner!
What is your favourite joke about your own profession?
My favourite joke right now about estheticians is that we spend all of our free time doing beauty or skincare routines on ourselves 😂 However, that’s just not the case! While thinking of myself and the majority of my friends and colleagues who are in the same profession, we’re typically the most neglected when it comes to beauty routines and our skincare is usually just the basics because we barely have time.
Where can we follow you?
Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook
PAY IT FORWARD: What is another local business that you love?
I honestly can’t pick just one right now so here’s a two of them! Beauty by Bougie for all of my nail care needs and Hamsa Gems for all of my semi-precious stone jewelry!
