A BUSINESSWOMAN has opened up her first beauty salon after running services from her own home for 20 years.

40-year-old Iona Walshaw has been running a beauty salon service from various locations in Essex for many years, including from her own home in Belvedere Place in Maldon for 20 years.

Now that her services have gained considerable support and attention throughout the years, she has taken the plunge and bought her own salon to operate from at the Elm Garden Centre near Danbury.

Enhance Beauty and Nails is a small and personal beauty and nail salon offering high quality and up to date treatments for hands, nails, feet, eye-lashes, brows and faces.

Iona officially launched the salon on Thursday, with guests invited along for some champagne and a tour of the new premises whist raising money for Farleigh Hospice through donations. As of Friday, the salon raised £512 for the charity on the day.

Iona said: “I’ve been in the business for more than two decades now, I originally started off working in Southend, then provided more services in Dengie areas such as Cold Norton, before deciding to operate completely from my home in Maldon.

“The great thing about it is that a lot of my customers have followed me wherever I’ve moved to, so I’ve managed to build up a wide variety of customers from around the county.

“The scale has increased so much that it was becoming too big to manage completely from home, so the time was right to purchase my own salon to take the next step.

“The garden centre has some great independent businesses who have made me feel at home since I first bought the salon, and I’m really looking forward to giving my clients an even better service from a brand new salon that’s not just a section in my house.”

Enhance Beauty and Nails is open from Monday to Saturday. Visit www.enhancebeautyandnails.co.uk.