A slice of pie, a burning desire and a whole lot of hustle. That’s how a beauty maven is made. Here is our interview with KrisTEN Wood, Creator and CEO of THE TEN SPOT Beauty Bars.

Instagram: @kris10spot

krisTEN wood
ceo + creator, the ten spot beauty bars
The Ten Spot  | Toronto – Ottawa  +

The 10 Spot is an anti beauty bar specializing in manicures, pedicures, waxing and facials. Define “anti-spa” for us.

Anti Spa is a term we kind of created for ourselves, we have built a niche in the beauty world where we fit in perfectly. We wanted people to know that even though we do manis/pedis/facials and waxing – we aren’t into the white fluffy robes, whale music or chakra balancing – we’re all about upscale yet efficient services done in an ultra-clean environment.

I love, love, love the vintage/old school look of your logo. How did you come up with the design?

Thank you! We’ve always had a little retro feel to us (we love those 1950’s script fonts in contrast with the modern/bold typefaces). THE TEN SPOT font and treatment has always remained the same but I like to have fun with the placement of it (on a slant, up and down, dead center) and I always like to play with what font I used for the ‘beauty bar’ tag.

If you could design your own custom nail polish, what colour would it be and what would it be called?

THE TEN SPOT actually carries it’s own line of polish, scrubs and lotions called GET NAILED®! As you can guess, the names are a bit cheeky. My favourite shade from our collection is called ‘Shhhh, You’ll Wake My Dad’. It’s a light pink.

Instagram: @kris10spot

I read “Top 10 Reason Why THE TEN SPOT is Better Than the Others” is this sort of like THE TEN SPOT mission statement?

Those top ten reasons are not our mission statement but they are some great key points about THE TEN SPOT that we want our guest to know about. Our full mission statement (ie: what we strive to be behind closed doors) is pretty straight forward:

To blow our guests away with our sleek style and savvy service with a fun and friendly upscale ‘anti-spa’ beauty bar experience; delivering efficient yet impeccably executed services while maintaining the utmost in hygiene standards.

Instagram: @kris10spot

You were named one of PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 top Canadian female entrepreneurs for 2014. Congratulations! What did that mean to you professionally and personally?

Thanks, it has been a great honor both personally and professionally to even be considered amongst 99 other Canadian female entrepreneurs. When I first started THE TEN SPOT I never dreamt it could be this big, and I have had great pleasure in watching it grow. Being recognized as one of our PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 is not just a recognition for myself it is a recognition for all the women who run a 10Spot because without them I wouldn’t be here today.

I know I was only supposed to keep it to 5 questions – but I really wanted to know the answer to this. On the website it says THE TEN SPOT concept was created over a slice of pie you were sharing with your friend Craggie one night in 2006. Now when you say pie do you mean the dessert kind or pie as in NYC style pizza?

It was definitely the dessert kind! It was probably Strawberry Rhubarb and we were at little place on Queen West called Tequila Bookworm, but I don’t think it is there anymore. Sad face.

Instagram: @kris10spot