My beauty journey began like most girls when I was a teenager. I had a lot of problems with my skin which led me to have low confidence and self-esteem. Eventually I had enough and wanted to change things, so I took a few short courses in facials and skin care. I was very impressed with the results I saw, my confidence grew, and my passion developed. I realised that this was the direction I wanted to go in my life, and I could help others feel better about themselves just like I’d helped myself. The next step was to enrol in cosmetology school, I studied hard whilst being a mum and working full time, saving every penny I could to be able to buy the machines and products I would need to start a new career. After a while my clients started to ask me if I could do additional treatments, this gave me the idea to go back to school and study beauty therapy. I had many happy clients and things were going well, however I still had to work in a regular job and could not yet make my passion my full-time career. After a death in the family my partner and I had a long talk and we decided we wanted to be closer to his family. This move would also give me the opportunity to finally work full time within the beauty industry.
I found a job in a small beauty salon, it was hard going to start with as I didn’t have a client base, I even had to work night shifts in Tesco just to keep us going. Eventually after a couple of months I build a client base and could quit Tesco, in six months my diary was completely full. My most popular treatments were facials, nail and eyelash extensions, I was run off my feet working 16 hour days sometimes but at least I was doing what I loved.
After a couple of years, I fell pregnant with my second child, this was a big turning point for me. I made the decision to work for myself and started working from home, this gave me the flexibility to choose my own hours and be there for both of my children. It may not of seemed like it at the time, but it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Approximately half of my clients came with me but as I saved on salon fees it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. It took time but even working out of a tiny spare room I built back up my client base.
After years of thinking my work was not quite up to scratch, I finally took a chance and entered my first competition. Not only did I place in the contest, but I ended up winning the whole thing. I couldn’t believe it I was over the moon; this proved the catalyst for my competition career, it’s not all been plain sailing, but I’ve worked hard and never given up, and finally became a multi-international award winning artist.
Then came the idea for the IM Cosmetics Academy with so many clients and friends enjoying my work and some even wanting to learn how to do it too. Why not create a centre, where people can be trained properly, given detailed practical knowledge, guided through step by step and supported not only during their training but as they start their new businesses too. After a lot of hard work and effort I created different training programmes that I believe will develop and inspire some of the best beauty therapist in the industry.
There have been many obstacles in my path, this journey has not been easy, but no matter how hard it has been I put one foot in front of the other and kept going never losing faith in myself. If you take nothing else away from this blog, take that, you need to believe in yourself even if nobody else does.
Whether you’re starting your career or looking to learn new techniques IM Cosmetics is the place where you can learn new skills and be given all the help and support you need. Feel free to contact us with any questions and we will do our best to help you in any way we can.