LONDON — Daisy Kalnina, the founder of The GelBottle Inc., has her nails in beauty and property.
She’s building a small and curated empire alongside her nail business through DKollection, a portfolio of properties. Her latest opening is TGBSpa in Brighton, an hour’s train ride away from London.
The full-service spa includes an expansive menu of treatments, from manicure and pedicure treatments; massages; facials; eyelash extensions; Lymphatic drainage; laser treatments; microneedling; IV drips, and Botox.
Kalnina designed the space herself using sleek surfaces and light oat hues with touches of marble and stone throughout.
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It’s a beauty cocoon that’s near and dear to the founder’s heart.
The Brighton opening is a personal one for her too — it’s where she started her career as a nail technician 11 years ago from her house as a single mother with three children.
“Then I had this crazy urge that told me not to give up on this. Luckily, I didn’t and I found a retail space in Brighton for 500 pounds a month on the high street. I had 200 customers waiting in the line for me to open,” she said in an interview.
Kalnina recently bought the building unit that houses the spa in central Brighton and it also serves as the flagship space for The GelBottle Inc.
Kalnina’s businesses are registered under her umbrella group DK Universe. According to Companies House, the British government’s business register, the business’ gross profit totaled 19.39 million pounds for the year ending March 31, 2023.
Her nail polish line is currently stocked in more than 30 countries across the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
The business has even been sponsored by the British government to expand into India.
The U.S. arm of the business is “slowly flourishing,” according to Kalnina. The business has set up its offices in Portland, Ore.
“We’re just trying to fill the gaps and every country has their own set of requirements. In Dubai, the focus is on halal nail polishes, so that our customers can pray while wearing nail polish,” she said.
Builder in a Bottle, or BIAB has become Kalnina’s bestseller, a gel product that comes in a thick consistency that’s applied to the nail to improve its strength and lasts up to four weeks.
Beyond just selling nail polishes, The GelBottle Inc. has set up its own academy to train nail technicians, from day courses for beginners to three-day courses that take place in Germany, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Singapore and more.
Kalnina’s work ethic is something that’s been instilled in her from a young age, she said. She was born in 1987 in Soviet Latvia. At 15 years old, she would accompany her mother, a hairdresser, and picked up hair cutting skills and administrative work for the salon. At 18, she set up a construction company.
“Business and art are my thing — creative people are not usually business minded, but I am,” she said.
Under DK Universe she also has another business venture, DKollection, a luxury private properties service. Kalnina has opened homes in Brighton, Tulum, Mexico, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, that are staffed with chefs, drivers, helicopters, 24-hour security and concierge services.
The villa in Mexico is a 20-minute drive from Tulum spans across 8,600 square feet with eight bedrooms. Kalnina bought the property for its excessive grandeur, she said. Meanwhile, the property in Dubrovnik is Mediterranean style, with stone walls and natural elements.
The Brighton home reflects the pared back aesthetic of the TGBSpa and stands out against the town’s kaleidoscope of colors. There are six bedrooms on site with a fully landscaped garden, and it’s only a two minute drive away from a 18-hole golf course.
“If you want to have a billionaire’s day in the U.K., you [now] can,” Kalnina said.