Beauty Parlor Night Kit: Female Bonding in a Can

You want to play spa but don’t have the money? You miss the fun with your girlfriends you had as a teenager?

The Beauty Parlor Night Kit--a paint can filled with beauty goodies--is the solution sisters Sara, Allison and Jennifer Jaqua offer women who want to mix facials and friendship. Selling for $35, the kit seems to have hit some sort of bonding nerve with women.

“As sisters, we always had our beauty nights together, even as adults,” says Sara, 36, a writer. (Allison, 37, is a graphic arts designer and Jennifer, 39, a photographer.) So when the sisters were searching for a product with which to launch their business, TomGirls, they “came up with something all women love--body pampering and talking,” Sara says.

“Men have this great thing where they can all come together and bond over a basketball or football. Women may have a little different take on the bonding process, but so what? It’s all about the same thing. It’s not about beauty, necessarily, but about giggling, getting together and having some fun.”

The Beauty Parlor Night Kit is a silver-colored tub filled with natural botanicals for facials, manicures and pedicures, enough for six people. Included are cherry facial scrub, herbal facial steam , French clay mud mask, aloe vera toner, jojoba moisturizing lotion, peppermint foot soak and manicure supplies. Each tub also contains invitations and instructions for how to make a party of beautifying.

“We wanted to do something that not only provided a service, but provided something meaningful to women’s lives,” says Allison. “We all know women are pulled in all sorts of directions, and taking care of one’s body and also taking the time to just get together with friends are often the first things to go.”

In business since December, TomGirls was chosen by New York’s Henri Bendel to be showcased at its annual Fall Beauty Press Breakfast with magazine beauty editors nationwide. Glamour and Jump magazines have done photo-spots.

Sara says Nordstrom, one of TomGirls’ first big accounts, bought the product after seeing the prototype. “We stopped by Nordstrom on a whim,” says Sara. “The buyer ordered on the spot for six stores, and we were in the Nordstrom shoe department jumping up and down hugging each other.” Jennifer went to the nearest pay phone to start calling their vendors so they’d have some products to ship.

Their success “has something to do with the fact that we’re sisters,” Allison says. “People seem to like the story of sisters getting along well enough to create and run a business. Kind of the Brady Bunch thing.”

Beauty Parlor Night Kit is the first in a planned line of Girl Gatherings Kits. A slimmed down version for young girls dubbed the Nail Voodoo Kit ($18) will be in stores in September. It will contain manicure and pedicure products for up to four people.

TomGirls has made donations of its products to women’s shelters and female juvenile detention centers, hoping the beauty kits “can help women both empower and nurture themselves,” says Allison. “Products don’t have to be earth-shattering. Sometimes it’s simple things that help good things come together.”