Kejal Al-Failey
Stoyan Kolev
joely shek
Romela Masih
Glasgow Caledonian University
Alec Wersun
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Remake-up was founded in 2014. These treatments were not widely used and therefore, represented a gap in the market. The founders Pedro Santos and Cristina Bernardino seized this opportunity to create something unique.
In recent years, microblading and scalp micropigmentation have become more popular for treating the effects of a variety of medical conditions such as alopecia. Microblading is the term given when beauty artists use a small needle for semi-permanent pigmentation to the skin, for example, the most common way of microblading is to the eyebrows. This is when mini strokes are made to replicate natural hairs. Scalp micropigmentation on the other hand, gives the illusion of a “buzz cut” hairstyle, a short length all over low maintenance style. This treatment is often used by people suffering hair loss as a result of cancer treatments. It is used to create the impression that hair is present on the scalp.
Using their social business model, surpluses are reinvested in the business, and towards a pay raise for their employees or free treatments for those who cannot afford to pay. Not only do ReMake-up reinvest their profits but they also have two programs targeted people who have medical conditions. These two programs are ‘Giving Fridays’ and ‘Stroke4Stroke’ as explained in the overview.
Pedro Santos and Cristina Bernardino came up with this business innovation after Cristina was involved in a car accident in 2001, which left her with scars on her neck and her chin. Cristina became depressed due to the changes in her appearance. To overcome this, Cristina visited a lady in Portugal who performed paramedical tattooing to help camouflage the scarring. This inspired Cristina herself to learn how to do paramedical tattooing. Years after this incident, in 2014, Pedro (Christina’s partner received a Muhammad Yunus scholarship from Glasgow Caledonian University, where he completed a Master's degree in social business and micro finance. During his Master’s, he entered a lottery prize competition, which gives out funds to help business start-ups and this inspired Pedro to start up his own business. Furthermore, in 2016 Pedro and Cristina developed a business model and launched ReMake-up.
“Seeing people look at the mirror and the way they react it is a thank you without words and that is enough. When you see that you are having that impact on people’s lives for me it is very rewarding and for Cristina as-well” said Pedro on the overall impact of their treatments on clients.
The impact of ReMake-Up is endless. Pedro and Cristina are very passionate about the service that they provide, and their clients are very appreciative of the treatments as they send emails and provide feedback on their Facebook page thanking them for their work and for them regaining their self-confidence. .
The treatments that are carried out for clients suffering from hair loss have a drastic impact on their physical appearance as “People don’t understand even just the eyebrows it’s just different and if I was to camouflage your eyebrows now and you take a picture you will be ‘wowed’”.
ReMake Up is a very special business as “you won’t find any other business like ours anywhere because there is no one in the beauty industry that who’s mission is a social mission at the for front” said Pedro.
Operating a business within the third sector, Pedro and Cristina had to develop a unique selling point to differentiate themselves from other businesses within the industry. They offer permanent to semi-permanent services as an allied health solution.
The treatments that ReMake-up offer are Scalp micropigmentation , Vitiligo camouflage (which is the process of implanting color into the dermal layer with specialised techniques), Dermarroler body (involves hundreds of tiny needles rolled on the skin to help repair the skin), Demrapen face (is a micro-needling treatment to improve facial and body appearance by minimizing scars, acnes, wrinkles and stretch marks), lipofirm plus ( is a procedure which results om fat reduction by manipulating fat cells and converting them into liquid), ZO obagi peel ( which is used to improve overall skin tone, texture and complecion), Micro blading (which involves adding semi-permanent pigment to the eyebrows using a tool which has serval tiny needles), Scar Camouflaged (which is a procedure to reduce the appearance of scars), Eyeliner (depositing ink into the skin to create permanent makeup), Areola tattooing (Involves the use of needles to place pigment under the skin), Lips (Permanent tattooing), Blade and shade signature eyebrow (involves micro blading the brows and then the tattooing machine is used to define shading to the tail and under arch).
In terms of their environmental benefit, Remake-up are environmentally friendly as they do not use any harmful chemicals in their products. They use minimum amounts of chemicals in their pigmentation products and take great care with disposing the used products after each use to minimise the risk of any cross contamination. In addition, they have been reducing the amount of paper usage within the business and are now introducing digital forms for customer relationship management.
For their social impact, ReMake-up help their clients to become more self-confident by improving their physical appearance. One example is a woman who has a cleft lip. Cleft lip is very visible and therefore can be challenging when covering it up. Cristina was able to do was raise her lip a little and then camouflage the scar so that the cleft lip was not as visible. As a result of this change, Pedro explained that she “left crying”. Not only did Cristina help her regain her confidence but she also managed to reduce the visibility of her cleft lip.
re-occurring situation, however, after a few months she started to come to terms with communicating with others.
Pedro and Cristina do all they can to provide the best treatment to patients especially to the patients with illnesses that carry psychological consequences as many have depression and loss of self-confidence. Pedro and Cristina support all their patients throughout their procedure journey and have contact with many of them after they leave.
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Remake-up is a social business that operate as an “aesthetic” clinic in the heart of Scotland’s commercial capital, Glasgow. ReMake-up offers treatments to those who suffer psychologically due to medical conditions such as cancer and alopecia, which can cause changes in physical appearance, and consequent loss of self-confidence. They offer a wide range of treatments from microblading to scalp micropigmentation. Although these treatments are available commercially to all customers, ReMake-up offer free treatments once a week through their “Giving Fridays” programme.. “Giving Fridays” offers people, with medical conditions such as cancer or alopecia the opportunity to receive treatments for free, however, if the person wishes to pay for the treatments rather than receive it for free, they can do so. This brings us to their other programme called “Stroke4Stroke”, and this is a programme which also gives out free treatments from the profits that is generated from their sales but it for those who cannot pay.