In fact, it’s become a salve for her heart and soul.

While the 46-year-old mother of three is objectively gorgeous, her obsession with aesthetics is not about how she looks, but how she can make others feel.

Launching her career as a make-up artist more than 20 years ago as a way to channel her passion for art, she soon built up a star-studded clientele – from model Miranda Kerr to A-list actor Naomi Watts to super-selling Kylie Minogue.

Then came the launch of her own skincare range, followed by her award-winning tanning products, and now her own make-up line - and just like her services with the beauty brush, her products have been snapped up by celebrities and salons both in Australia and overseas.

Yet while her story in the beauty business might read like a fairytale, with her own Instagram page boasting over 60,000 followers, Nikki said her own personal story has not always been so sweet, with her work becoming a lifeline during hard times.

That has especially been true over the last two years, which have been some of her most successful yet, as she said goodbye to her mother and her marriage ended.

“My father died when I was nine years old and I’m an only child so it was just Mum and I,” she said.

“She was always very independent, never needy, but she came to me one day and said she couldn’t remember how to put on her bra. I always think how scary that must have been for her.

“She was diagnosed with dementia and eventually I had to put her into care. She deteriorated rapidly to the point where she could no longer eat or drink and the centre she was in told me she would only last a couple more days.

“But she lasted for two whole weeks and she was in such awful pain and there was nothing I could do to help her, I couldn’t even explain to her what was happening.

“It was the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced and since then I’ve just thrown myself into work. I put all my trauma into the business.

“People see beauty and make-up as something superficial but it has been a saviour for me.”

Now juggling two older teen boys and a five-year-old son, as well as her always busy business, she said she was finally coming out the other side of a dark few years.

She said she was especially grateful for good friends, great clients and a continued passion for her industry.

“It’s taken me years of hard work and dedication to my brand, in between having children and lots of hard times personally, and it is all starting to pay off,” she said.

“I’m not necessarily a very confident person but each day I’m learning to love myself and to look at what I've created and I’m starting to become proud of what I have achieved all by myself.

“I take my hat off to all the working mums like myself who are doing their very best to get through life.

“Being a make-up artist has always been my main love, that’s how I started back in 2001. I always loved art in school but I couldn’t see how I could make a living being an artist, but this was a way to use my natural talent.

“Back then it was a six-month diploma, whereas these days it’s just a weekend course. But straight away I was being booked.

“I’m very lucky I’ve never really had to market myself. I have put in a lot of hard work, I always try to network with people and I think my success has been down to genuine word of mouth.

“I’m also friendly and easygoing, I try to make people feel welcome and comfortable, I want them to feel the way I would want to feel.”

While her friendly demeanour and natural talent certainly go a long way, basing her business on the Gold Coast has also been a key component of Nikki’s success.

With vanity in demand in a city filled with influencers, she has never struggled to fill her clientele list – but she’s also driven by her personal quest to create the best products.

“I always had troublesome skin and I couldn’t find anything on the market that would help. Then I realised so many of the models I worked with had the same issue, so I decided to create my own skin care range,” she said.

“I was so lucky that I bought a house here when I was young, back when you could work hard and afford to buy something central, so I used a line of credit from the equity in my house and invested in my brand.

“I’ve had people interested in investing, but I’ve always wanted to keep growth manageable and be in control of what I’m doing.”

Nikki followed that same recipe for her next range, tanning products that have become a favourite in Hollywood.

Once again, she said she was looking for the perfect tan for herself when she realised many others were searching for the same.

Working with an organic compounding chemist, she came up with a range that helped her find her true colours as an entrepreneur.

“I’m actually really pale and I would tan every week. I knew better than to go in the sun, but it was never really the right tone,” she said.

“It was always too orange or too green or too patchy. I was over it and decided I could do better. I also wanted to make something that was all Australian and after six months of going back and forth with the chemist over colours and smells, we found the right mix.

“That one-hour foam tan has won awards and is a real favourite, but then I decided I was sick of sitting around in my tan while it developed, so I wanted to make a super-fast product.”

That became Nikki Mitchell’s 15-minute tan, which not only made national news, but was soon in hot demand from upscale salons in the United States.

In fact, celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Mandy Moore are huge fans, as well as even more A-list stars that Nikki is not allowed to name.

Her at-home tanning range is stocked in Chempros around Australia, while the salon spray is used not just in this country but the US, New Zealand and even Ireland.

While she’s winning gold turning people bronze, Nikki said she was also excited to launch her own make-up products, with her goal to one day phase out of servicing clients – other than a few favourites.

“I am so grateful for the career that I’ve had in this industry, and the many hard times it has helped me through,” she said.

“But I’m hoping one day to be able to rely more on the products selling themselves rather than booking so many clients.

“It’s hard as a working mum to take your foot off the gas, you always want to make sure that your children have enough, but I also want to make sure that I have enough time for them.

“Whether that means I have to push myself to market the products even more, or open myself to investors, I’m not sure. Change is hard and so is trusting the process.

“I’ve been working with a life coach and I’m trying to build myself up so I can have that confidence to know that I’ve got this.

“All I ever wanted was Mum to be proud of me, and I’d like to think she would be.”