Wellness women offer skin care, massage services in downtown Burlington - Burlington Hawk Eye

[massage]

Kari Jo Patterson and Susan Falyar have been in business together less than one year, but KS Esthetics and Massage has taken off more quickly than they imagined.

“It’s exploded way past what we’d expected,” said Falyar, a licensed massage therapist. “We’d initially decided we’d share one room, but we wouldn’t have been able to do that after the first two weeks.”

Falyar runs her therapeutic massage business Susan Falyar, LMT from the downtown Burlington building she works from with Patterson, owner of Kari’s Esthetics LLC.

KS Esthetics and Massage, opened at 409 N. Fourth St. in April 2016, melds the two businesses. They offer a range of skin care and massage therapy services “crafted specifically for the Midwest climate,” serving about 45 clients a week.

Falyar and Patterson moved to Burlington from Richmond, Va., when their husbands accepted positions as nurse anesthetists at Great River Medical Center in West Burlington. They didn’t know each other when they both lived in Virginia, but their husbands were in the same nursing program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Not long after they met, Patterson pitched the idea of going into business together.

“At the time, I was just, like, saying it,” Patterson recalled. “I didn’t actually mean let’s open something together, but she took me serious.”

Neither woman had owned her own business, but they thought blending their brands would help each become more successful.

“I don’t think I would be as successful if I would have opened anywhere else,” Patterson said from her downtown office. “The Burlington community really supports you. Everybody wants you to succeed, so everyone tries to help you succeed. I like that about Burlington and I think that’s part of the reason my business does so well, is because of the community.”

“I feel like we would have been lost in Richmond,” Falyar added, dressed in light blue scrubs.

Falyar, 44, served 12 years as a medic in the United States Air Force before managing a massage therapy and acupuncture clinic in Richmond.

Soon after graduating massage therapy school, she moved with her family to Burlington in August 2015 and began looking for a job in her field, but no one was hiring.

“That really prompted me to do my own thing,” Falyar said.

Patterson, 33, earned her “master esthetician” license from Fran Brown College of Beauty in Layton, Utah. In Richmond she worked seven years at a plastic surgery clinic honing her clinical skills. Patterson went on to teach esthetics classes and work in a spa before relocating to southeast Iowa.

“Esthetics is like a skin care therapist,” Patterson said. “We treat the skin, we analyze the skin, we find products that can help” a variety of conditions like acne, aging skin and pigmentation.

Eyelash care — lash tinting, lash perm, full-set eyelash extensions and refill eyelash extensions — have been the most popular treatment lately, Patterson said.

“It just exploded,” she said. “Within less than four months I had to have another employee come on. And technically, I could hire another one just for eyelashes only.”

Patterson started out with herself as the sole employee, but has since expanded to include two other workers.

Eyelash extensions are meant to fill out the lashes and darker their color, thus requiring less makeup to enhance the eyes.

Some clients quit wearing makeup entirely when running everyday errands, Patterson said.

“That’s why I think they’re so popular, is that then you don’t have to get ready and you don’t have to spend all that time. But then on the other side, you have to take time to get the service done.”

Patterson charges $130 for full-set eyelash extensions and $50 for each refill. She recommends clients refill the extensions every two to four weeks.

Falyar works often with geriatric patients and athletes, but described her clientele as a “mixed bag.”

“Massage therapists end up gravitating toward different populations that they like to work with,” she said. “I love working with women. I think that as women, we’re mothers and we’re wives and we take so much care of other people that we forget to take care of ourselves.”

Falyar recommends stretching “for sure,” yoga and meditation for clients seeking a healthy work-life balance.

“I’m big into all of that,” she said.

KS Esthetics also offers botox procedures, administered by Patterson’s husband, Brandon Patterson.

Kari Jo Patterson said she has received preventative botox treatments since she was 20.

Skin care products are useful to help people “age well,” Patterson said, but they can’t change the muscles in a person’s skin that loosen over time and form wrinkles- that’s where botox can be helpful.

The bulk of clients seeking botox come in for preventive treatments, she said, rather than significant facial alterations.

Despite the “roller coaster” experience of being first-time small business owners, both women agreed the benefits outweighed the challenges.

“Overall, truly and honestly, if you ever wanted to start a business I couldn’t imagine a better town to start a business in,” Patterson said. “I really truly believe that part of the reason why I’ve gotten where I am is because of the town that I live in.”

Services can be scheduled through their online booking system at www.ksestheticsandmassage.com or by calling (319) 237-3099.

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