Caci is celebrating thirty years of helping New Zealanders put their best face forward

With over 80 locations throughout New Zealand and offering a raft of treatment options depending on your needs, life stage and budget, the team at Caci is celebrating thirty years of helping New Zealanders put their best face forward, every day.

Passionate about delivering what they like to call 'Skin Confidence', Caci was founded by Jackie Smith and her husband David in 1994, after they returned from several years living on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands and were looking for a business they could work on together. “We came back to New Zealand with a piece of facial-toning technology called the computer-aided cosmetology instrument – or CACI,” she explains, “and what started as an idea to make a living, became a movement.”

Helping start and shape the aesthetics industry in New Zealand, Caci imported the first commercially available lasers for hair removal in the world, with Jackie explaining: “David was up in the middle of the night with our three-month-old daughter when he saw a UK science programme about them and knew instantly there would be a huge demand for permanent hair removal. The next day, he was in touch with the professor in Wales who had done the research. A couple of months later, we had our first laser operating in the Newmarket clinic”.

There are now over 70 franchisees across 80 plus clinics from Kerikeri to Invercargill, all operating under the Caci brand. “And these are all small businesses mostly owned by women,” says Jackie proudly. Another matter of pride that sets Caci apart from many other aesthetic clinics is that everything starts with the customer. “We don’t initially focus on the treatment, but on the customer's needs,” explains Jackie, “and then work our way towards the best treatment options for them.

The truth is that most good things take time and consistency. You don’t get fit by going to the gym once. The same is true for healthy skin. We also absolutely do not judge,” says the co-founder. “Every person has their own view on how they want to look and what is best for them, and we totally accept that. It’s not about achieving unrealistic beauty standards or perfect, flawless skin. We’re all about ageing on your terms, feeling fantastic at 40, 50, 60, 70 and beyond.”

When it comes to choosing which treatments to introduce at Caci, the focus isn’t just on what is newest, or most fashionable, or most popular on Tiktok. “We take a very disciplined and measured approach and think about things like safety, evidence for effectiveness, consistency of the results, affordability to the customer, and how combining treatments can be arranged to deliver a better outcome,” explains Jackie.

Over the course of the last three decades Caci has often been first to market with new treatment options for their customers, “but sometimes, we choose not to offer treatments that may have lots of hype, but that we don’t believe add any extra value. We always start our evaluation of new treatments with ‘what does the customer need to get the best result?’.

Our goal is to be able to personalise a clear and simple treatment plan for each customer with the most effective treatments available.”When asked what Jackie sees happening in the future for Caci, the longtime skin health expert says simply: “more of what we do best! Helping New Zealanders feel confident in their skin, educating kiwis about how best to take care of their skin health and to feel really great!”

Radio star Sharyn Casey from The Edge Afternoons has been regularly seeing the team at Caci Ponsonby for the last eight years, saying: “they always know exactly what my skin needs and that I like the time out .... I always fall asleep in my treatments because it's so relaxing! They really know their stuff, and are always striving to do the best thing for my skin”. 

Media personality Carolyn Taylor is another raving Caci fan, saying she loves her regular clinic visits “because of the ‘case by case, face by face’ approach they provide. I know that each time I walk into the clinic, my skin will be treated with what it needs at that time”. She adds that the long-term goals for her skin are always top of mind, “which is fantastic. I always walk away feeling like my skin has just hit the jackpot”. 

Freelance designer and stylist Lulu Wilcox says of her favourite treatments, “My absolute favourites are Profhilo and LED light therapy, along with Hydradermabrasion. They leave my skin feeling rejuvenated so hydrated and glowing. I also feel with these as my combo, confident that I am really doing as much as I can be for my skin - like a confidence that I’m on the right track!”

Jackie Smith, Founder of Caci Clinic

CACI.CO.NZ