Alice is hoping it’s ‘third time lucky’ at National Awards

Borders College employee Alice Mackay will once again be leading the charge at next year’s Scottish Retail Business Awards Grand Final after winning in the Best Beauty Treatments category at the recent Borders Retail Business Awards for the third year running.

Alice, who works as a Beauty Therapy Instructor at Borders College, is no stranger to success at regional level and hopes that this time around she can go one step further and win at the national finals, taking place in March 2022 at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel.

The recent Business Awards took place at Selkirk’s Philipburn Hotel and the nominees were selected based on visits to the businesses by judges, mystery shoppers and client votes.

Alice commented:

“I am extremely grateful to all my clients, friends and family for voting for me and supporting my business and I’m truly overwhelmed to have made it this far.”

On the days she is not passing on her wealth of knowledge to the students, Alice runs her successful beauty business Beau Boutique from her Clovenfords premises, offering a wide range of beauty services to her clients.

Previously named course Student of the Year in 2012 and 2013 while studying at Borders College, Alice remains modest about her success.

Following her studies, Alice was awarded a scholarship at the Spa at La Manga Club, a five-star resort in Spain before returning home to build her business.

Since then, Beau Boutique has successfully been offering beauty therapies for hundreds of clients from the Scottish Borders and beyond.

Talking about her time as an Instructor at College, Alice said:

“It’s great to be working as an Instructor in the Beauty department. Having that industry experience helps with all the practical work involved and I love passing on my knowledge to the students.”

Alice’s former tutor and now work colleague, Liesa Hamilton, commented:

“As a student, Alice was awarded Student of the Year in my level 2 class. She proved to be an excellent therapist who had the drive and ambition to go on to open up her own business. I’m delighted to hear of her recent award and hope she can go all the way at the finals.”