Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacqueline Dombovy.
Hi Jacqueline, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I struggled with my skin as a young person and we did not have a ton of options in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Accutane was one of the options and because I was desperate enough and thought I had tried everything to clear my skin, I ended up taking it. Through my personal journey of acne and wellness, my approach to skincare is more holistic. I like to treat each client individually because although we are similar, we do also have unique constitutions or life situations that make our experience unique. I have been around plants and nature for most of my life. I have studied herbalism, have become a master naturalist, practicing herbalist, managed a nature park and ran a community garden in our town. I love the plant world and incorporating fresh herbs into my skincare and facials.
I love growing, creating and taking care of our community. I love sharing the plant world with the community and using these potent plants in services through deep herbal steams, herbal compresses, or powdered plants specific to your constitution or what you may need at that moment. Both internally and externally, I will create a plan to get your skin glowing from within. I have been in Esthetics since 2005. I graduated from Academy of Career Training, a local beauty school and attended the Aveda Institute of St. Petersburg, FL. I managed a spa for several years, freelanced skincare services while working at a local spiritual store and then a local nature park and community garden. Everything really came together when I started working at a small local spa called The Studio. I was able to take my years of past experiences and bring them together into the present. I am now able to bridge all these endeavors together to create a holistic skincare and wellness shop, providing services and knowledge to the community so they can live their best life and have glowing skin while doing it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It seems like I wanted to come into this world with a few challenges! I was double diapered when I was born for like the first year of my life and had to be carried on a hip to encourage things to set correctly. I’ve had much personal peaks and valleys since then to which I am so thankful for all of the lessons learned! It’s all led to where I am today. I just turned 40 and feel like I’m finally reaping what I’ve sowed. I also believe that I had to experience all that I have and to start from the bottom up to gain wisdom before I could jump to where I’m at currently. I know I’m not finished yet either, it’s definitely a journey.
We’ve been impressed with Cactus Jacq, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am the owner of Cactus Jacq, a holistic skincare, body sugaring, and wellness spa. I specialize in skin health, acne, inflammatory skin issues, hyperpigmentation, mature skin, etc. We take a holistic approach to skincare, providing you with a skincare protocol specific to your needs which usually includes internal and external preparations. We also provide sugar hair removal, a natural hair removal technique involving sugar paste, made of sugar, water, and citric acid. It extracts the hair from the root leading to less hair, softer/finer hair and exfoliated skin. Sugaring is a gentler approach to hair removal and requires only biodegradable sugar paste and gloves so it’s environmentally friendly as well!
For individuals grooming their body hair, sugaring is a wonderful option. The other service that we are proud of are brows! Shaping them and tinting them to give your eyes just the right frame.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Lessons learned through this experience is to be inventive. I am in a touch dominant field and so I had to learn quickly what direction I wanted to take my practice as we where going through this. I sold skincare kits, herbal wellness products, taught an online series, sold vegetable plants… I became diverse in how I made an income and assisted my clients in other ways. I also learned how important touch and human connection is and how much I missed it.
Contact Info:
- Email: Jacquie@cactusjacq.com
- Website: cactusjacq.com
- Instagram: @cactus_jacqfl
