‘Glam’ is truly a ‘Fab’ story

Yes, this is a story about a skin clinic but the results of its treatments aren’t the only beautiful thing in this tale.

I was particularly touched by the history of this very young company called Glam & Fab, which started out in a small and humble space in Fairview, Quezon City and because of its beautiful raison de etre has flourished into multiple branches as far as the Visayas in so short a time.

Sat across me at the celebration of Glam & Fab’s fifth anniversary were its distinguished principals, husband and wife Dennis and Krystal Tecson-Garalde, respectively the company’s CEO and COO, and Dennis’ brother, Allan, who is vice president of Sales and Marketing.

“Five years ago, I was a public school teacher, my husband was a Grab driver and my brother-in-law was working in a call center,” Krystal surprisingly said.

(From left) Glam & Fab influencers Basha and Madeleine Red, VP of Marketing Sales Allan Garalde, COO Krystal Garalde and her husband and CEO Dennis Garalde 

“We decided to go into business together because we wanted to help each other improve our lives. What we wished would happen was for us to all grow together so that no one in the family is left behind,” added the former English teacher who is now a bonafide businesswoman.

“I never thought I’d be involved in anything related to beauty,” her husband laughed. “But since we’re a family, tulungan talaga (we just helped each other out) and we can’t be happier we took the risk.”

The “risk” they took, however, was carefully pursued. Krystal, being an educator, established the rule that they all had to study what they were getting into — in this case, the beauty business and what was still missing in the industry.

“We realized that there are many women of different ages men too, actually — who can’t afford the services of long-established beauty clinics but still long to improve their skin and body and boost their confidence,” Kathryn shared.

After attending several seminars on both the business side and how to deliver basic beauty treatments safely and effectively, the trio of partners got to work.

First, they hired a lead aesthetician who would gather and train a team of facialists and then source suppliers whom they learned are the trusted providers of quality skin products, instruments and machines for treatments, and everything else they needed to set up a small yet well-staffed and -equipped beauty clinic.

“Because we were new, we were able to keep our price points low, unlike the bigger clinics who can demand a premium for our services.”

Crunching the numbers while guaranteeing quality treatments, Glam & Fab opened with full facials unbelievably priced at P200.

Their whitening menu, including glutathione drips, wellness massages and other non-invasive treatments, are likewise priced in that neighborhood.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say, because the clinic quickly established a solid and returning client base as well as a reputation that spread like wildfire in similar communities.

“We never thought we would grow this quickly,” Allan chimed in. “Before we knew it, we were getting requests to open branches near them, and here we are today.”

From their seed money of P500,000, the partners are now running a multimillion company that has indeed bettered their lives and the rest of their family. But as Krystal revealed, “What is really fulfilling about what we’ve built is that it isn’t just our lives that Glam & Fab has made beautiful but the lives of so many others.

Friends we’ve been able to employ and our clients who say they are doing better in their careers, school and relationships because we’ve helped them feel good about themselves.

And so, in the company’s fifth year, they promise to keep the clinics as they are — an affordable but quality wellness and beauty destination that is indeed fabulous.

Glam & Fab’s branches are located at Fairview, Cubao, Pasig, Caloocan and Tacloban.