A Cwmbran business started by two friends has celebrated its tenth birthday. Gabriella Mallett and Jessica Moseley are the entrepreneurs behind The Beauty Bar in Fairwater Shops.
Gabriella said: “It is an achievement. I think it’s just gone so fast that me and Jess were just like ‘where the hell has that time gone?’ We are really proud of ourselves actually, but it hasn’t always been easy. We’ve had babies and you know we’ve had family things and all that sort of thing, but yes, we’ve managed to juggle it between us.”
Twelve people now work across a variety of services in the shop. Jess said: “We are like a little family.” The team is growing again next week with another member joining.
Gabriella said: “We’re really excited because we’re going to be launching lots of new skin treatments. We always want to keep up with the latest things in the beauty industry.
“We’re really busy with nails, we do lots of lash lifts, we do waxing, pedicures like all your basic beauty, then we’ve got four hairdressers and then me and Jess in particular are focusing on skin at the moment.”
Gabriella grew up in Ty Canol and went to St Alban’s RC School. Jess lived in Henllys and attended Llantarnam Comprehensive School.
‘Grateful we’ve got each other’
Jess said: “I say this all the time, when you start something, you start as a nail tech and then all of a sudden, ten years later, you’ve grown this big thing, and yes, it’s definitely been a journey. We are so grateful that we’ve got each other.
“Especially when you’ve got between our three children, the eldest is five, so it’s full on, so just having each other to pick up the slack when someone’s not quite available.
“I was a client of Gabby’s before my wedding and we just clicked straight away and we said we’d always like to work together, and then an opportunity came up for our first little shop in Old Cwmbran.
“We just went to view it and then we were like ‘no, we’re not going to commit to anything,’ and then on the day we were like ‘yes let’s just do it’.”
Fairwater Shops
They stayed in Old Cwmbran for about five years before spotting a larger two‑floor unit in Fairwater Shops with more space for their growing business.
Jess said: “This place was available and it’s a much bigger space, and so yes we just went for it and here we are.”