EFFICIENT LUXURY

Eryn Kingsley grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and after getting her business degree at Arizona State University quickly established a successful career in the corporate world. But after 15 years she yearned to establish a more personal outlet for her passion to connect with and give back to her community.

In 2021, as the pandemic was sweeping the country, Kingsley opened Legendary Spa in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. It wasn’t the best timing to launch a business that provided in-person services, but she applied her business acumen and philosophy of relying on the long game to build her business.

It worked. In just under three years, Kingsley opened four more Legendary Spa locations in Chicago and the suburbs, the most recent in downtown Hinsdale this past October. The newly renovated Hinsdale spa offers not only top-notch spa services such as skin care, manicures and pedicures, eyebrow and eyelash treatments, and custom airbrush tanning, it is also designed to be a social gathering place for private parties.

“We saw that during the pandemic people were moving out of the city and clients from the Western Suburbs didn’t really love that drive in to see us anymore but wanted to continue to receive the services that we offer,” Kingsley says. “We wanted to make sure people could continue to receive our services and Hinsdale made the most sense because a lot of our clients are in the Hinsdale area.”

Kingsley attributes the company’s rapid growth to having a good team and maintaining a tight focus on quality of service. Legendary Spa offers a membership program that incentivizes clients to come back every month to maintain healthy skin.

“We’re really selective about how we build, hire, grow, and create a good culture. The same with our clients,” she says. “We’ve got clients that have been with us since the very beginning so that’s how we do it. It’s the long game with our team and long game with our clients.”

One value in particular provides the foundation for how Kingsley and her team operate Legendary Spa. They use the highest quality products for skin care and nails but keep their prices affordable. The idea, Kingsley says, is to develop a loyal base of clients that comes back each month. In the short-term, it may mean thinner profit margins, but having clients for life is the goal.

“We focus on high quality services that gets the clients in and keeps them coming back on a regular basis. We get them into a routine using great products where they actually start to see results,” she says. “They tell us they’ve been going to this other place for years and not been able to see an improvement. With us, you’re coming in every month and you’re seeing the progress.”

Another important value for Legendary Spa is to be involved in the communities in which it operates. It’s the reason Kingsley decided to leave corporate America and start the company. She wants her and her team to maintain personal connections with clients.

“One of the reason I left corporate was because my ability to make a difference in the world was limited. I figured I could make a greater impact with my own business and giving that way,” Kingsley says. “We work with chambers of commerce and local groups trying to find out where there are areas that we can donate, whether it’s time, money, or services. Through that we’ve had the ability to make personal connections with a lot of people and that’s what we’ve built our business on.”

Legendary Spa in Hinsdale is located at 43 South Washington Street, 630-672-7275, legendaryspa.com.