I started Essential Beauty, back then just known as Nicola Atkinson - Beauty Therapy on 1st December 1988. Having spent some time working at Ragdale Hall I decided as there was nothing offering beauty therapy in the Ryedale area, to set up my own business. 



Premises were hard to find and backing from a bank for such a risky enterprise even harder, so I embarked on a mobile beauty service, offering a wide range of treatments to clients in the comfort of their own home. This was meant to be a temporary starting point which carried on for seven years during which time I carried on advancing my training by attending many courses in London, then adding a teacher training qualification and teaching part time in the beauty therapy department at Kirby College in Middlesbrough, alongside my mobile business. Back then it was always a seven day week and long days.



By 1995 I was so busy and permanently had a full diary so eventually moved into premises in Kirkbymoorside, a small modest salon, which instantly was fully booked a year in advance. So after three years bursting at the seams, in 1998 I bought my first premises and renovated them into a small boutique spa with sauna and steam facilities alongside the three treatment rooms and employed two beauty therapists. Again, we outgrew this very quickly and I was once more on the quest to find larger premises.



Taking over an old gift shop in 2002 I embarked on a major renovation at 3 Market Place, we opened there in February 2003, taking on the new name of Essential Beauty offering a large luxurious space over six treatment rooms and a nail spa.



We now have a team of five consisting of a receptionists and four therapists. We are constantly being innovative in our treatments and training, updating constantly.