Penelope Gomes: How She Built a Beauty Clinic in Malta

In short

• Penelope Gomes is the founder of Penelope Gomes Beauty, a clinic in San Ġwann, Malta, built on a natural approach to brows and semi-permanent makeup.
• Five years ago she was earning €5 an hour. According to the episode, 22 people now work with her.
• She says her real product is confidence, and she will tell a client when a treatment is not what she needs.
• With her business partner Samir Mdalla, she also mentors other service businesses on branding and paid advertising.

Penelope Gomes runs a beauty clinic with an unusual sales argument: you may not need what you came in for. In this episode of On The Rock, recorded at CastMe, our podcast studio in Malta, she explains how that idea grew out of a very hard start, and why honesty has turned out to be good business.

Her story is not a tale of overnight success. It is a set of decisions that any service business owner can examine: when to spend, when to hire, when to let go of control, and when to say no.

Who is Penelope Gomes, the Malta beauty clinic founder?

Originally from Brazil, Penelope describes herself five years ago as a very shy girl with zero confidence. She had debts to clear and no experience in the field when she came across the story of a woman who had rebuilt her finances through semi-permanent makeup.

She started practising eyebrows on fake skin, late at night, and held on to one simple calculation: if she studied and trained three hours a day, at some point she would become good at it. Her first step was not even a course, because she could not afford one. It was finding a job surrounded by women, so that she could learn what they really wanted.

Her advice today follows the same logic. Build a clear picture of the life you want, then take one small step towards it, even if that step seems unrelated to the goal.

What does a beauty clinic really sell?

On day one, Penelope says, she was a technician looking to give beauty to a client. Today she describes her work differently. Clients who lose their eyebrows every time they swim, or who hide their feet at the beach, are not really buying a treatment. They are trying to get rid of a feeling.

That is why she considers beauty far less superficial than people assume. Clients share things in consultations that they cannot share with friends, and the clinic is built to make them feel safe doing so. Her stated goal is simple:

“I want them to feel that exactly as they are, they are great.”

In practice, this can sound odd coming from a clinic. If a client seems unable to set boundaries, Penelope says she may tell her directly that she needs to learn to say no. If a treatment does not look like the answer, she sends the client elsewhere first. Her reasoning is commercial as well as human: the relationship compounds, and a client who was told the truth comes back.

She also uses her own story openly in the brand, ups and downs included. Her summary of why that works is one of the best lines of the episode:

“Beauty attracts but the imperfect connects.”

The €3,000 marketing meeting that changed her thinking

The first meeting Penelope took to open her business was with a marketing company. The price was €3,000, money she did not have, and Samir, who was guiding her at the time and later became her business partner, agreed to the deal on the spot.

She remembers being stunned. She also remembers the lesson, which she still carries:

“It’s not about the amount of money you spend, it’s about the money that you’re going to get back.”

Spending before she felt ready forced the rest of the business into shape. Once leads were arriving and she knew what each one cost, she says, every client had to be looked after properly. Within about five months she also realised she could not contact clients, run consultations and perform treatments alone, so she brought in someone to call the leads.

Her reason for hiring before the money is there comes down to time. Work out what an hour of your time can earn, she says, then compare it with the cost of someone taking the tasks off your hands. A video that brings in new clients, in her view, can be worth more than one more procedure.

How does Penelope Gomes hire her team?

The clinic sorts candidates into A, B, C and D players. A players combine high motivation with high skill. B players have the motivation but not yet the skill, which Penelope considers workable because skill can be taught. The trait she looks for across both is humility: being open to learning and knowing you do not know it all.

The process can be slow and expensive. She says she sometimes recruits from abroad, watches how a professional works for up to a year, then brings them over for a test before deciding. Her reasoning is that a costly hire is better than a mistake on a client’s face. Anyone recruiting from overseas should also check the local rules: Malta’s Health Care Standards Directorate publishes a licence application for guest semi-permanent tattooists working temporarily in licensed premises.

Leadership was a harder change. Penelope admits she was once a controlling boss who told everyone what to do. Now she says that if she keeps controlling every decision, she cannot have the freedom she built the company for. Her team needs room to make mistakes.

How can a small service business grow in Malta?

The clinic’s experience has become a second activity. Penelope and Samir now help other clinics and spas, as well as service businesses such as designers and furniture shops, with their brand and paid advertising. Clients learn to read their own numbers, because she sees marketing as the engine of the business.

Her message to owners who feel like impostors is to show up anyway. No service is ever perfect on the first day, and she believes the fear of rejection stops many people from doing the work. Competitors, in her view, are worth learning from rather than resenting. Even a bad review can reveal a process that needs fixing.

Asked what Malta rewards, she gives a one-word answer: consistency. On a small island, she says, consistent work brings results much faster. And for a woman watching with €200 in the bank, her advice is blunt: drop the ego, take any job that gives you stability, then knock on the doors of people who are already where you want to be.

About the guest

Penelope Gomes is the founder of Penelope Gomes Beauty in Malta and mentors service business owners alongside Samir Mdalla. You can follow her on Instagram. She was interviewed by Thomas Giraud, co-founder of CastMe, for On The Rock, the interview series recorded and edited by CastMe in Sliema.

Key moments from the interview

• 00:48 Who is Penelope Gomes?
• 01:51 Believing in yourself when you have nothing
• 09:37 From controlling boss to trusting her team
• 11:49 The first hire
• 13:05 The €3,000 marketing meeting
• 18:03 Accepting yourself vs. fixing yourself
• 22:55 A, B, C and D players: how she hires
• 27:06 Pushing visibility and learning from competitors
• 31:15 Imposter syndrome and the fear of rejection
• 32:36 Her advice for someone in her shoes
• 36:34 Quickfire game
• 45:21 A woman with €200 in the bank: where to start

FAQ about Penelope Gomes and her Malta clinic

Where is Penelope Gomes Beauty?

Penelope Gomes Beauty is a beauty clinic in San Ġwann, Malta, according to its website.

What does Penelope Gomes mean by a natural approach?

She describes it as a different approach to beauty that favours natural results, with the aim of helping clients feel confident as they are.

What are A and B players in her hiring system?

A players have high motivation and high skill, while B players have high motivation but still need to build their skill.

Does Penelope Gomes work with other businesses?

Yes. She says she and Samir Mdalla help clinics, spas and other service businesses with branding and paid advertising.

Have a story worth telling?

This episode was recorded and edited at CastMe in Sliema. Discover podcasts and videos recorded in our studio, read where to record your next episode in Malta, then book a recording session by the hour or choose our full production service.