Blue Lagoon expands seven-million-turnover beauty chain to Estonia

Finland’s largest beauty salon chain, Blue Lagoon, will open its first outlet abroad in Estonia in November, Yle reports. Founder and chief executive Sini Virtanen has built the company into a franchise chain with 16 locations and 235 beauty professionals, despite removing injectable treatments from its services five years ago.

Blue Lagoon began in September 2006, when Virtanen opened a 10-square-metre salon beside a gym in Meilahti, Helsinki. Nearly two decades later, the company has annual turnover of seven million and is preparing to open at Ülemiste, Estonia’s largest shopping centre.

Virtanen, who turns 40 a month after the Estonian opening, has spent half her life working in the beauty industry. She became interested in the field after a difficult time at school led her to study cosmetology. She was particularly drawn to creating gel nails.

“I have always been creative and restless, but doing nails calmed me down. You could say I found myself through nails,” Virtanen says.

She always wears bright red nails, which she describes as a personal reminder of inner strength rather than a message to other people. Red nails are also associated with courage, confidence and femininity.

Beauty services become everyday wellbeing

Virtanen says beauty services are still often dismissed as superficial. She recalls clients who paid in cash because they did not want their partners to see the appointments on their bank statements.

At the same time, the beauty industry has become a major business. The number of companies providing beauty services in Finland has grown sharply in recent years, with several thousand new businesses established, according to Statistics Finland.

The turnover of those companies has increased by about 44 percent in five years. That is substantially more than the growth recorded in the barber and hairdressing industry, where turnover rose by 7 percent.

Beauty services have also shifted from occasional pampering towards everyday wellbeing. Virtanen says people no longer view them as concerning only their appearance, as wellbeing is now understood more broadly.

She says social attitudes have changed as well. “You do not have to be modest. A person is allowed to be visible,” Virtanen says.

The pursuit of a presentable appearance has become a norm and a social expectation in an increasingly visual culture. Research has linked good looks with income level, employment and finding a partner.

Virtanen calls for stronger regulation

Virtanen wants better regulation for the beauty industry. She says news reports about salons using dangerous chemicals or offering poor working conditions damage the reputation of the entire sector.

Blue Lagoon uses a franchise model, in which independent entrepreneurs receive the use of an established concept and brand in return for compensation.