New skin spa opens in Cortez

Serenity Spa offers wide variety of beauty treatments

Thursday, Nov 9, 2017 5:17 PM

Serenity Spa offers wide variety of beauty treatments

The new business is set up in an old house at 1823 E. Main St.

Stephanie Alderton/The Journal

A new skin care business recently opened in Cortez.

Kerri White, who operated a spa in Arizona for several years, opened Serenity Skin Spa on Main Street with a grand opening event on Thursday. She, along with fellow skin specialists Tamara McCoy and Karen Maxwell, will offer a wide variety of beauty treatments, including spray tans, Botox injections and microdermabrasion. The spa is at 1823 E. Main St.

White has worked for hospitals in Durango and Cortez for about two years, but she said she wanted to run her own skin care business again. When she met McCoy and Maxwell, who have part-time spa jobs and full-time careers, they decided to start one.

“We decided to open a spa and basically get back to what I love to do,” White said.

She has spent several months renovating a house that her husband, Peter Singleton, originally used as a rental property. In August, it become one of the last residential properties in the area to be rezoned as a commercial building.

Now, the building has a fresh coat of paint on the outside and three rooms equipped with skin care machinery on the inside. The spa offers traditional facials, chemical peels and various injectable skin products, but eventually, White wants to expand to other services. She also offers acne treatments and moisturizing methods specifically designed for a high desert climate. She hopes to compete with similar businesses in town by offering “all-encompassing skin care,” she said.

White, McCoy and Maxwell hope to make the spa their only source of income eventually, but right now, they still have other jobs as well.

“Until I can make a living, I’ll have to stay there for a while,” McCoy said.

White plans to leave her other job in December, which she said will probably result in longer business hours at Serenity. Right now, the spa’s walk-in hours are 5-7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, with other times available by appointment.