Today we’d like to introduce you to Thuy Leung.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Thuy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
If people were to ask me what I want to do 20 years ago, being a lash extension artist would have never crossed my mind. Instead, I worked as a paralegal, a community organizer, a pharmaceutical sale rep and an oncology nurse… just to name a few jobs that I drifted through. It wasn’t until I gave birth to my first child, that my friend suspected that I might have suffered from post-partum depression. She invited me to her salon as a way to get me out of the house. Of all the things she could have taught me, she showed me how to glue single strands of lash extensions to her clients’ lashes. I immediately got hooked. The process of gluing one extension onto one natural lash was mesmerizing and making people look pretty was rewarding.
Weeks after that, I watched every available lash extension video on YouTube and went to bed dreaming how to do lash extensions. I daydreamed about it during my nursing classes and when I became a nurse, I took more pleasure in examining my patients’ eye shapes than providing nursing care. I traveled far and learned from the best lash trainers I could find. One of my teachers even taught me by communicating through a translator. When I continued to have more babies (I now have three), working as a nurse and doing lashes part-time became overwhelming. I decided to quit it all, focus on my pregnancy and put my family first. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about lashes and my clients wouldn’t go to the other referred lash salons. I went on Craig’s List and bought a $75 used facial bed in order to accommodate those clients in the meantime.
At first, I was nervous about bringing strangers to a house of kids and decided to strictly keep it referral-based only. My lash business journey started out in the attic of my home. The room was small, but big enough to fit a salon bed, two chairs for my clients to put their belongings on, and enough space for me to comfortably sit behind them. The close proximity was excellent for developing personal relationships with my first few clients. Some can even feel my babies kicking their heads while they were in my belly.
As time went on, word of my work traveled and more and more clients came to my house. When it came to a point that I could not accommodate the growing number of appointments, my next step was to move out of the house. I opened EYE LUSH in Quincy, about a 10-minute walk from my house in order to be near my children’s school and daycare. I opened the salon with two other artists, who joined me from their own perspective lashing journeys. Our shared commitment is to create master pieces while caring for our clients’ natural lashes.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to building my lash business was smooth, but the building of the actual salon was very difficult. I hired a contractor that took a lot of my savings and held my salon hostage for six months. He only finished half of the work. I learn that finding people you can trust in areas you are not familiar is very difficult, especially for women who don’t know much about the intricacies of building and construction. My advice for women is to work with people with integrity and honesty in all aspects, from hiring contractors to employees. It is easier to teach skills but it is harder to teach someone to be a good person.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with EYE LUSH – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
EYE LUSH specializes in only eye lash extensions. This degree of specialization allows us to be hyper-focused on designing the eyes and gives us an advantage edge over salons that provide multiple services. While our basic mission is to give our clients fuller lashes that don’t compromise the health of their natural lashes, our concentration is in creating beautiful lash designs to fit our clients’ facial features and lifestyles. We constantly strive to improve our work and continually test out the newest products, techniques and designs. For example, our salon carries 12 different lash lengths, 8 different lash curls, and 7 different lash thicknesses. This means we carry over 600 different combinations of lashes for each texture and it allows us to create the most dynamic lash designs. This sets us apart from most of the other salons.
However, most of the time, we are asked to fix bad lash jobs. It’s usually clients that have over damaged lashes from poor lashing techniques that come to us for help. We have helped numerous clients with gaps in their lash lines to achieve fuller lashes. Our mantra is that we need lashes in order to glue lashes. As a nurse, I also strongly encourage good lash hygiene in order to prevent clients from developing eye infections. Good hygiene also means healthier, stronger and fuller lashes; so, therefore, for every new client that comes to our salon, we supply them shampoos, brushes and instructions on how to care for their lashes.
Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
One of the biggest barriers to female leadership, especially in Quincy or even in Massachusetts is the lack of a network for beauticians, especially for lash artists. In the lash industry alone, access to quality education is limited and the opportunity for artists to share is non-existent. My dream is to bring a network of artists together so we can learn, share and even compete with each other. Collectively, we can set a standard for quality lashing services for the general public.
Pricing:
- New sets are from $150-$275
- Refills are from $50-$140.
Contact Info:
- Address: EYE LUSH
1564 Hancock Street
Quincy, MA 02169 - Website: www.eyelushsalon.com
- Phone: 617-697-2119
- Email: eyelushsalon@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram: @eyelushsalon
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/eyelushsalon
- Twitter: Twitter: @eyelushsalon
Image Credit:
@thuyhpham from Thuy Pham photographer
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