Sometimes in life we may not like the things and situations that occur. Sometimes they are so traumatic that we choose to not speak about them for years trying to forget they even happened.
As hard as we try though it did happen and it won’t go away. It’s always going to be there shaping who you now are. Deal with it. There is something to be learned in every moment in life big or small. This moment of my career was definitely no exception.
What I’ve learned though is things happen for a reason, every moment in life IS connected in some way, and all shatters windows and closed doors lead to positive new horizons in the future. That’s where I finally am at. The beginning of my future and I’m excited. How I got her though was not always so amazing.
So I worked at a spa inside an athletic club. I managed it. When I started it was just skin, nails, and massage. I added hair services brought in L’Oréal professional and an awesome stylist.
I later left to help open a spa with my friend I worked with prior at Sephora. She had been working downtown at the most popular skin spa in town and would do fun things like shoots for Abercrombie, Express, and even Victoria’s Secret.
We brought in Kerstin Florian and we were the first boutique spa they allowed to carry the line. It’s typically only in 4 and 5 star resort spas and high-end places like that. It’s phenomenal I still use it. We also carried Becca Cosmetics and specialized in airbrush makeup and skin services no one else in town did.
We were kind of the dream team. The elite of Columbus came to us. My friends fiancée was the one that funded the spa. He was part owner in an investment company on Long Island so his company invested.
Long story short she started she doing whatever she wanted and was running the spa like a sorority. It was completely unprofessional all the time. The employees followed her example and did whatever they wanted. She was even so bad at managing money that if we were out of a product for a service but had a client we needed it for, she would say to use something else and pretend and just charge the same. Ummmm no? Wtf like really. That’s not the first time either that I’ve been told that by a salon/spa owner. How foul am I right? So stuff started getting really tense when we got the makeup job for the couture runway show for Highball Halloween.
We had to do preview look once a month. Well I’m a planner, organized, I create looks on face-charts ahead of time. She did not, so when the first time came my model got so many compliments and hers looked well, amateur. She got really jealous, so from then on she made me do all the models while she took clients and made commission. Which was fine because Highball is like my dream since I couldn’t move to New York City and work Fashion Week.
So next thing I know she puts me in charge of creative direction and the team for highball. I think she thought I was going to fall on my ass and she was going to swoop in. So I get a bunch of face-charts done, I start putting together a call sheet for artists that can do airbrush, and plan some practice time as this is a big deal. Next thing I know I find this letter out on the table in the break room from the investment company and being the manager I picked it up. It said “Confidential, do not leave laying out” some shit like that.
It stated that the company not only was going to be giving her the 50 % commission on clients but that they are now giving her a $60k a year salary! Bitch for what. For going to her home that’s paid for by her fiancée, furnished bye her fiancée, in her Mercedes SUV that’s paid for by her fiancée, everyday to take a nap for 3-4 hours while I sit there from 8:30am-9pm making commission only, doing all office work, managing employees, and taking clients. Is this shit for real? All this while I’m struggling at home to take care of my daughter. I mean I know you must be think the same thing as me. Her va j must be made of gold and flawless diamonds because wtf. We got into it a few days after that. It was really ugly. I left.
This was a month before highball. At one point I was looking on TheKnot.com and saw that she had used the pic above advertising her busines. It was taken when I managed a previous salon with a model who I actually worked with at that time the photo was taken. She stole my photo. Of course I was cropped out. The worst park the model had tragically passed away not long before I found my phote being used by someone that didn’t own the work to advertise. When I found the face-charts I started missing people. My friend was supposed to be in my wedding that year. Never spoke to her again. Our receptionist I brought from the salon. She was 20 and in nursing school. No industry background. She used to babysit my oldest child. My husband is still friends with her on social media so when I thought about her I looked her up. That’s when I found out they were so desperate for Highball they had the receptionist doing makeup for couture runway show. That is the only year you can only find like 4 photos from the runway show. The makeup was so bad it was embarrassing.
That literally crushed me though. How unprofessional. How embarrassing and unprofessional that you use a 20-year-old nursing student with no professional background in our industry in a major industry production like that. Even if it is Columbus Ohio. You should be appreciative to even have that job being in your first year of business.
To me, having a receptionist with no license or background work as a makeup artist for a show like that is a slap in the face to not only that show, the designers, the people who gave you that job, and your whole industry, but you just completely discounted your own career that puts an income in your pocket. That’s probably why that spa is no longer open. Karma can suck. I learned a lot from that. I learned how strong I am. I learned my talent. I learned business. I learned morals. Most of all I learned my reputation and integrity in my industry is everything to me.
I’m finally at the end of my broken road and the beginning of my future. We are working on some really exciting fun projects behind the scenes I can’t wait to shake with everyone! For now though you just have to follow my blog and my Instagram. I am going to attach my old face-charts I had started for Highball Halloween below along with some other old photos!
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*pieces of some photos may have been taken out or change to remove any names or to take out spa recognition*
Revitalizing Beauty Columbus 