Chairman of the Association of Medical Aestheticians AMK
Tiana Presolska has been the owner and manager of Dupissima Beauty Studios since 2007. They offer over 200 procedures and to date have served over 30,000 customers. The patented trademark has been awarded the Luxury Beauty Prize Salon 2016 and European Quality Award 2018 from the European Business Research Center, and currently there are already 4 salons in the chain.
Tiana is one of the new generation of Bulgaria's 'superwomen'. The president of the Association of Medical Cosmetics, she is currently studying for a Master's Degree in Health and Nutrition at the Medical University. She already holds various degrees from Hotel Management to Business Administration and Financial Management as well as professional qualifications related to cosmetics.
She speaks English, German, Spanish and Russian and is married with 3 wonderful children.
How did you start in the business of 'beauty'?
I started working in beauty as a hobby. I was a customer of beauty services and it seemed so interesting and easy - so I started with my girlfriend in the former garage of my grandfather in just 15 square meters. I started alone and doing the only body shaping treatment available then with a vacuum massager. 12 years later I have a chain of salons and around 40 people working in the beauty industry. My interests and never-ending ambition for knowledge and development made me go on all types of courses, even at the medical university. I understood that beauty and health are connected and technologies are developing so fast that if you do not understand exactly what you are doing you can do so much harm.
What was your biggest challenge then and is it different now?
The biggest challenge facing the beauty industry worldwide and especially in Bulgaria is that there is a huge profit potential. With the progress of technology and medicine we are using sophisticated and complex techniques that can give excellent results but they have their contra-indications. At the same time, the level of qualifications in Bulgaria can vary drastically from someone without any relevant qualifications to beauticians with master degrees for medical aesthetics. There are no clear regulations and no control whatever, so you can go to a very fancy place and pay a lot of money for a treatment that is performed by a girl who was a waitress the previous week. She may be informed how to work with devices, but she does not have the knowledge and competences to understand if this treatment is the best solution for the customer's needs.
At the Association we are working to introduce more control to assure that people employed in the Beauty sector have the necessary qualifications. Foreigners sometimes find it difficult to believe that in Bulgaria you can get a beautician certificate with as little as 1-2 weeks training whereas in the majority of European countries people study 3-4 years to become beauticians.
What are the most popular treatments you offer – is there a difference between Bulgarians and foreigners?
In Bulgaria we can offer the latest trends, very high-end technologies and treatments. Due to the difference in living standards such services are not as expensive as in the rest of Europe. So you can enjoy very good value quality ratio.
As there are no regulations, however, you can find a lot of treatments that are prohibited in other countries. An example is Cavitation treatment which is banned in France, and here you can find it in every second salon. Please be careful because we have nobody controlling the devices that are operating in the market and a lot of low quality and cheap devices are sold online often without training or education.
How can a customer be sure they are getting a safe and qualified treatment?
To make customers feel confident in the treatments they are undergoing, we created the Classification system at the AMK. Listed on the website you can see the stars rating of our members. This not only reflects the investment in the premises, comfort and marketing, but will also be based on the education of the people that are working there and the quality of the devices and cosmetics that are used. All of our members listed in the site obey a moral code and work in accordance with the law in Bulgaria. This should be a normal preposition when you run a business, but, as absurd as it may sound, it is very rare in the beauty industry here.
What is your own personal philosophy on beauty, health and ageing?
Our belief at the AMK is that the best way to maintain beauty and health is prevention.
We want to educate our customers how to change the little habits in their life and to take care of their skin before they see the signs of ageing. Every year we lose between 1-3% of our hyaluronic acid and collagen fibers, so we need to constantly do something to balance this. Genes are an important part of how we age, but the epigenetics and the everyday small things are much more important. Smoking, lack of exercise, not enough sleep, too little water, and the list goes on and on....
We all know about stress, but how we can control it? And here comes the beautician, one hour beauty therapy with massage and intensive hydration, positive emotions and time for relaxation. Everybody needs it. It should be mandatory😊
Nowadays the way we look and the way we feel are so interconnected and they are in direct correlation to how successful we are. Our skin, our biggest organ, is for life, so respect it and love it and take a good care of it.
What should people be aware of when choosing a beautician in Bulgaria?
You can always go on our site and check whether they are a member of the AMK and if they have a ranking. Our members are all over Bulgaria and they try to offer the best for the client, but above all not to do any harm.
The majority of people working in our industry are young girls. Unfortunately, not many speak a foreign language and with the number of foreigners in Bulgaria rising we still cannot offer the same quality services in English. We at the association are promoting studying foreign languages and this also gives points in the ranking. We hope that in a few years there will be more salons that can meet the language requirements of foreigners in the city.
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