Serenity Beauty, run by husband and wife duo Neel and Serena Chandarana, opened its doors a week ago on the ground floor of the popular shopping centre next to Zara and opposite Lush. When asked why they decided to open a beauty salon, Mr Chandarana said that he has grown up working in shopping centres as part of his family's business. "My mum and dad used to have a little kiosk in the middle of a shopping centre in Aldershot," he explained.
"I used to spend my weekends selling men's belts, ladies' handbags, all sorts of stuff growing up." Mr Chandarana went on to explain how both him and his wife are trained in accountancy, but a week into working as an accountant Mrs Chandarana decided to take a beauty qualification. He said "She did all of her qualifications and then a week after qualifying she left her job and decided she wanted to be a beautician instead.
It was quite the turnaround!" Mr Chandarana went on to describe the sort of treatments the salon offers to its clients. "Our main services are eyebrow threading, facial and body waxing, manicures and pedicures, massages, that kind of thing," said Mr Chandarana. "We don't use any drills of any acrylics in the salon as we want to promote healthy nails.
We only do shellac or vinyl and avoid any fumes, and when we remove them we only use a light acetone." Mr Chandarana explained that this is the same for his pedicures which they also use less invasive techniques. They do everything by hand.
"We're kind of new to Reading after opening up other salons in surrounding areas," he continued. "We opened our first branch in Aldershot around 11 years ago." The couple also have a salon in Bracknell among other areas which they opened around six years ago.
When the pair first decided to start up a beauty salon business eyebrow threading was really taking off, so they saw a chance to get involved with the new craze. "We basically just trialled something for the first time in a small kiosk in Aldershot and it really took off," Mr Chandarana. Mrs Chandarana does all the treatments in the salon whilst Mr Chandarana deals with the business side of things.
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