Woman opens new esthetics business in back of boutique

 

LAKE MILLS — A Lake Mills woman has started a new business focused on helping people feel beautiful.

K&P Esthetics opened Dec. 3 in the back of 103 N. Mill St. in Lake Mills.

Owner Kali Wilkinson said she offers facials, back facials, chemical peels, body waxing, facial waxing, eyelash lifts and tints and hopes to get certified in lash extension and other services in the future.

“I love the aspect of making people feel good about themselves and helping see results and knowing the importance of skin care and taking care of your body and trying to stop the aging process,” Wilkinson said.

So far the business has been going well, she said, and there have been many local residents and people from around the area who have been coming in.

She works by appointment in the late afternoons and evenings every weekday and some Saturdays.

Wilkinson said she began researching esthetics about a year ago and completed a 600-hour skin care esthetics program at La’James College in Mason City.

She said as a single mother, she didn’t finish college her first time around and has been waitressing for 11 years.

“I’ve tried different careers here and there — I just never loved them,” she said. “I always fell back to waitressing. I love it so much, but I knew I needed to find a career that was going to be a forever thing.”

She was initially terrified to go back to school at age 29 when she had a daughter in school, but then one day she said her mindset shifted.

“I’m going to go back to school, and I’m going to show my daughter what it takes, what hard work looks like,” she said. “So I did it, and my mindset has changed so much.”

Though the last year has been difficult — working a full-time job at The Other Place in Clear Lake where she is a waitress and event coordinator and going to school five or six days a week — she is proud to have completed the esthetician program and to now own her own business.

The business, K&P Esthetics, includes the initials for both her first name and her daughter, Paisley’s, first name. She said her daughter is 7 and loves coming to work with her.

Wilkinson said she comes from an entrepreneurial background — her parents own Wilkinson Tool & Die and Midwest Metal Stamping in Lake Mills — and has learned the value of hard work.

“I’ve had a job since I was 14,” Wilkinson said. “That’s one of the things that I hold near and dear to me.”

One of her friends owns Quinn & Co. in downtown Lake Mills and allowed her to rent the back part of the building for her spa business.

“It’s been amazing,” Wilkinson said. “I could not ask for it to be any better.”

She said so far she has been booked out about two weeks in advance.

To schedule an appointment with Wilkinson, people should send a message on the K&P Esthetics Facebook page.