Check Out Natalie Nicole’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Nicole.

Hi Natalie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When covid began, I was looking for a job as an aesthetician, but everywhere was shut down. Even as places started to open back up, they were on a 25% capacity and weren’t hiring. I finally decided that if they could have a 25% capacity in spas that I would just open up my own business. I was determined to work and if I had to do it on my own, I would. I started my business in my living room. I owned ten towels, I had a crock-pot to heat them in and only products that I had leftover from when I was in school. I started my business by letting my friends know that I was doing facials from my house, of course in the middle of covid, a lot of people were interested in getting facials because wait lists were long at spas and many businesses had in fact gone out of business. My tiny little living room spa grew like wildfire. I started off with friends and then friends of friends, and then friends of those friends.

In a short nine months, I was so busy and having so many strangers book appointments with me that I knew I had to look for another place to open my business. In May of 2021, I opened my first location. I worked as many appointments as I could take, sometimes more than 12-hour days, 6 to7 days a week. However, all of that time invested into my clients and into my business really helped me to expand. I took advanced medical aesthetician courses and started working with a medical director so that I could offer medical procedures. Dr. Michael Kofford, owner of SoCo Smiles, has really helped to make me the aesthetician I am today. After I finished my medical schooling he continued to train me, he spent a lot of time quizzing me and making sure I knew all of my anatomy. Today I have moved my office into his office so that I can work directly with him when needed. We now offer lasers, botox, filler, microneedling, chemical peels, and all types of spa facials. I am very happy with where I am, Lux n’ Lavish Esthetics has really taken off in the last year and a half and I can only wait to see what the future holds.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. When I originally opened, I didn’t have many supplies to work, but I never spent any of my money that I made on myself, I always invested it back into my business. Then once I finally did open my own brick-and-mortar location, I experienced three floods in my building in the first two months of being there. The building that I rented for offered no help or discount on rent. Instead, I was out of business until they were able to get the ceiling, walls and floors fixed and then once I did get back into the building the AC was out for over two weeks, right in the middle of summer. It was a very trying first few months, being a new business owner and then being put out of business. My business was my only income, so it really hit me hard. However, I just kept promoting on social media and scheduling people as far out as I could so that when I did finally get back to work, I had a super full schedule.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At my business, I specialize in helping people getting rid of their acne and acne scars. Before I was an aesthetician I struggled with terrible acne for years and was left with really bad scarring from it. I started to see aestheticians myself and it really changed my life, they helped me get rid of my acne scarring and gain back my confidence. It was at that point that I became really interested in all things skin and figured it would be something I would enjoy studying. Nowadays I treat a lot of people in my office for acne and acne scarring.

My proudest moments have been when I see a client go from grade 4 acne, crying in my office because they felt no hope, to now having perfectly clear skin that you can’t even tell ever had acne on it. It takes a lot of time and dedication from my clients and it is a long journey, but to see the change in their demeanor and attitude, it just makes me feel like my whole job is worth it.

I believe that what sets me a little bit apart from other aestheticians is that one, I have continued to study and take continuing education credits every few months since graduating regular esthetician school. I believe that there is ALWAYS more to learn and I will continue to study as long as there are courses out there for me to take. It’s very important to me to be well-rounded and well-versed in my career. I want to be able to help all people; skin of all backgrounds, all different skin conditions, colors, and textures when they walk into my office. Skincare is for everyone and I strive to provide that.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I really am keeping my eye on expanding even further in the next few years, I want to open a spa where I can house 5 or 6 other estheticians and also help them to grow and learn more in their careers. It might not be next year or even the year after, it takes a lot of building, planning and growing before making that leap, but this year I have hired an employee and that’s step number one in expanding. For now, there are just two of us, but one day I hope I have a whole team of people who have the same vision of continuing their education while helping people along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.luxnlavishesthetics.com
• Instagram: @luxnlavishesthetics
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/luxnlavishesthetics
• Other: TikTok: @luxnlavishesthetics