Danish Dream

“I have been planning this business for four years now, as it’s been very much about the details. I wanted something a little bit hidden away and not on a main street, because I wanted it to feel relaxed. It took a really long time to find the perfect street, but I love Belgravia and the pretty houses here. The concept of Eccleston Yards as being a new destination for shopping, dining and wellbeing really fits with what we do, as we’re all about wellbeing and that healthy lifestyle.

I just love walking down Elizabeth Street and Pimlico Road to look at the antique shops and galleries. I love all the organic food at Daylesford and the coffee there is great. I hang out at Jones Family Kitchen a lot, they do really good cocktails. The La Vie En Rose, with real rose petals, is so pretty.

SMUK actually means beautiful in Danish. I really wanted a Danish name to represent me and my Scandinavian background. Everything I do is about beautiful things and making people feel beautiful.

I have been in the [beauty] industry for 15 years. I got my four-year hairdressing qualification in Copenhagen where I’m from, then I went to LA to become a makeup artist. I’ve worked at fashion shows for brands like Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana with models like Cara Delevingne, Georgia May Jagger and Suki Waterhouse. After a few years in London I wanted to translate all that fashion experience into something for consumers in a salon/studio environment.

Our space at SMUK is 1,400 square feet and it was very important for me to keep the space open so that it felt like a living room environment. I decorated it basically how I want my dream house to be.

Coming from a Danish family my mum’s always been into hygge and decorating. I was a bit tired of the standard hairdressers where you sit row by row. I wanted to inspire people because I personally get filled with energy when I’m in beautiful places. It’s actually scientifically proven that it’s good for your mind.

It was also very important to pick the right brands to use and stock here at the salon. I love to recommend products rather than sell products, and we stand behind and know what’s in every single product that we use.

Oribe is an American haircare brand, and I’m actually their lead UK educator and have been working with them for eight years now. The reason I decided to go on that journey with them is because I really love the brand – it looks amazing on the shelves, it is natural and also high performance.

Alongside Oribe we needed a skincare brand that fitted the luxury remit. I chose a Danish brand called Amazing Space, which has a big spa in Copenhagen, and this is the first time they are in the UK. Again, the products are organic, high performance and the bottles are white and look clean on the shelves.

The other brands we’ve chosen to work with are Vita Liberata for organic spray tans and Kjaer Weis for makeup. The latter was hard to find because it had to be luxury and it had to be products that I could work with professionally. Kjaer Weis is a Danish makeup artist living in New York, who was looking for cosmetics that were good to the skin for all these models with reactive skin. Her range is organic, sustainable and what I really like is that it is refillable.

To celebrate the Bompas & Parr wellbeing playground in the courtyard recently we launched a new nail polish that is non-toxic. It took us a long time to find the right company to work with because we wanted it to be really natural, as an alternative for people who didn’t want the long-lasting Shellac.

I would like to say when it comes to my own regime that I’m perfect all the time, but I’m not! I love my chilled mornings at home, and I’ll meditate or pray before I do anything else. I’m also a morning person when it comes to the gym, so I’ll do yoga or pilates, and I’m thinking about getting a bit more hardcore and trying Barry’s Bootcamp.

I just love healthy food and I’d describe myself as a flexitarian, as I sometimes eat chicken. But I do try to eat organic as much as I can. I basically eat healthily so that I can eat more cake. When it comes to beauty I’m quite minimalistic so I cleanse and use the Amazing Space overnight masks and serum in the morning. I go to church every Sunday and try to have downtime or a massage to look after myself. Remember beauty isn’t just about your hair and makeup; it’s about your mind and how you treat your body too.

SMUK, 20-21 Eccleston Yards. smuklondon.co.uk