Fort St. John businesses named Canadian Choice Award winners in 2026 revealed

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A Fort St. John body sugaring studio is among the businesses declared a Canadian Choice Award winner in 2026. 

The Lippy Lemon, a Fort St. John-based body sugaring studio, has won the Canadian Choice Award for the beauty salon category. 

It joins other Canadian Choice Award winners in Fort St. John, including Bean UpNorth Coffee in the cafes category, Beccalicious Cooking for its catering services, Freedom Cleaning and Organizing for its janitorial services, Get Up and Glow among aestheticians, Jen Blends Beauty for beauty spas and Studio 105 for hair salons.

Samantha Payette, owner and lead sugarist for The Lippy Lemon, told Energeticcity.ca she “assumes The Lippy Lemon was nominated by one of our clients.” 

“I was pretty excited to even just be nominated,” she said. 

According to the Canadian Choice Award website, a Canadian business is first nominated by the community and the more nominations it receives, the closer it gets to becoming an official nominee. 

Next, a panel of experts review the nominees and select the top three finalists in each category. 

Lastly, a winner is selected from each city through a review process which includes a questionnaire response, verified customer reviews, nominator feedback, notable achievements and contributions to the local community. 

Payette shared that all the staff at The Lippy Lemon are excited about the win. 

She noted: “[This] shows that we’re all doing our part and that we stand out. 

“There’s quite a few [beauty] salons in our area, so to be picked as the best, that says a lot, especially considering we deal with vulnerable stuff. 

“We do hair removal, so we’re working on intimate parts of the body.” 

Payette, who started The Lippy Lemon in 2020 from her home before moving into a studio in 2024, said her clientele has tripled. 

“I would just like them to know that we are a safe space,” she said. “We try to be as inclusive as possible. All of our employees are skilled to take on whatever hair type so there is no hair type that we can’t tackle and nobody that we would turn away. 

“I think hair removal can already be intimidating enough, so we try to make it really enjoyable and comfortable.” 

A date for a gala to celebrate the winners will be shared in due course.