After over 20 years in the beauty industry, Dundonian Karen Roberts has created a product range on track to go global.
The beauty therapist graduated from Dundee College in 2003, worked for seven years before creating her own business and soon began teaching at Dundee and Angus College.
Jugging her own full-time job with teaching proved difficult, as there simply weren’t enough hours in the day.
Wanting a change, she created her new brand Lady Tonic over lockdown.
“I thought, why not do my own accredited courses from my own salon?,” she says.
“During lockdown, I wrote all my own courses and that gave me an idea.
“If I’m going to be doing my own courses, why not launch my own product range to go hand in hand.”
Lady Tonic range takes off
After researching ingredients and liaising with manufacturers, Lady Tonic’s professional range launched last year.
These include lash lift and brow lamination products for use in beauty salons.
The 39-year-old’s products are used by professionals across Scotland and England.
A personal range with an eyelash growth serum, eyelash growth mascara, brow growth serum, brow jelly and lash and brow conditioner launched six months ago.
Karen says: “The personal range has now taken over and is more popular than the professional range.
“It started out as a bit of a side hustle and I feel like it’s starting to grow now.
“I had somebody the other day from California wanting to buy the brow jelly.
“My website’s not set up yet for international shipping, but I got her details and posted out to her, so my products have ended up in America now.”
Team of supporters
On top of Lady Tonic products, Karen offers beauty treatments and teaching in her St Martin Drive salon.
Instead of lash extensions, she prefers promoting natural beauty through lash lifts and lash growth products.
While Karen do all the treatments and teaching herself, husband Paul, sons Jamie, 11 and Jack, 7, and her team Tiffany and Kev all help keep Lady Tonic running.
The website is put together by Kev and Tiffany takes care of social media, while wee “chatterbox” Jack loves to help with pop-up shops.
Karen says: “It’s been a lot of hard work and a big financial outlay, but I’m quite lucky.
“My whole working time in the industry I’ve always been busy, especially since going self-employed.”
Global dreams for Lady Tonic
Her lash growth serum has quickly become a best seller online, with stockists and at pop-up markets.
The next goal is to get Lady Tonic into an online or physical beauty store.
“There’s a lot of competition in the beauty industry, but it would be great to get into a store,” Karen says.
“Next year I’ll look into posting my products internationally and I might bring out different products too.
“My absolute goal is to go global, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so I’m just chipping away at it and trying to grow as much as I can.”
Conversation