Islington Makeup Artist & Academy: The One Stop Beauty Shop!
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With party season here in full glittering swing, I thought it was only right I fill you in on my go to hair & beauty spot and highlight some of their fantastic packages and services that I keep coming back for.
You’ve heard me rant and rave about the shop and the staff in previous post’s and all over my Instagram but I want to take you a little bit more in depth with the lovely business owner Georgie!
How did you get started in beauty and fillers and how was Islington Makeup Artist born?
“I was a specialist dental nurse for 13 years and that was my career and I absolutely loved doing it, but once I had Reggie and went back to work I felt like I was missing too much time with him, the job wasn’t working around being a mum and my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. I’ve always been really creative, I studied Art and Design, so one day I just decided you know what I’m going to start learning how to do make up, I watched random tutorials and decided to go and take a one day make up course with a local girl, so I booked that, and done that. After doing the make up course I absolutely loved it and the girl said I was a natural and really good so I knew I had the flair to build something really good!
After that I got all my friends and family involved, I just practiced and practiced and practiced! I set up an Instagram page, with the name Islington Makeup Artist, I wanted people in Islington to know I was local hence why I just called myself Islington Makeup Artist. When I felt confident and ready enough then I decided to start booking clients. I remember my first client and I was so nervous! But since then it just completely took off.
For 2 years I carried on working as a dental nurse and was doing makeup on the weekends, whilst my clientele built up and I started to build a name for myself. I went from working 3 and a half days as a dental nurse down to 2 days and then eventually down to one day. Whilst still working one day and doing make up from home and building up my clientele it got to the point where I needed to find a space to see my clients from. I was offered a room downstairs from the children’s book shop of where my shop is now, I rented one room for about a year and the opportunity came for me to take on another room downstairs so I took that on as well.
After 2 years, sometime in the summer, Mark who owned the book store faced some difficulties, sadly lost his dad and didn’t want to do it anymore, so instead of putting the shop up for rent he asked me “Georgie would you like to rent the whole shop?” I thought well that opportunity isn’t going to come round again I might as well go for it, I said to him give me 24 hours to really think about it because I knew it was such a big commitment!
That night, I thought you know what you just gotta go for it.
I remember standing there one day with this whole shop, thinking OMG all there is, is just me and Bailey. What am I to do now? Now I’ve gotta try and find girls to fill it, so I put ads on Gumtree and Instagram and I had so many responses from people wanting to come and work in the shop, it was amazing really! But I had to filter out who would be right for the shop and who wouldn’t be.
To be honest with you, I feel like now I finally have the best team! I finally got to break away from reception, I was doing reception and my clients and all the bookings, whereas now a year on, we’ve lasted through two pandemics and the shop is really starting to thrive! All my hard work and effort and everything I have put into the shop is now really starting to pay off which is amazing, because during the pandemic I had to close and there was the worry of the whole shop, the stress of being self employed, it was really stressful, but we’ve come out the other side and I am just really grateful!
With the fillers, I decided to learn those a couple of years ago, fillers were something I had always wanted to do and I knew if I wanted to up my game and move forward, but still do my make up which I massively love, it’s where my passion is, then I needed to learn. I always say ‘master one thing, before you go all guns blazing into another’ so I really, really threw myself into learning lips, and I ended up doing the lip filler course and I absolutely love doing lips, everyone always asks when are you going to do other courses? But I’ve reached a point now where I don’t feel like I need to, the shop offers everything anyway, and I am so happy doing makeup and lips. Where I was a specialist dentist nurse and already on the GDC register it was a no brainer to start doing lips!”
When I first came to Georgie I had booked in to visit with my cousin to get lvl lashes and I had no idea just how creative and business minded she was, the first time we met was just a normal conversation, getting to know a little bit about the shop, the services and just experiencing some beauty treatments that were right on my doorstep.
I came back obviously, mostly for make up, Georgie was great at matching foundation and choosing eye colours that would suit me and make the iris pop. As I spent a bit more time here, it became more than just having a treatment, Georgie, Sydney, Robyn, Kim and Jo would listen to me rant about any problems I was having, sometimes all that was needed was a listening ear, but other times Georgie would share any solutions she found that had helped her like using Get Lit Heal candles and crystals for guidance and tapping into when healing was actually required, diet tips and even if there were any disagreements she dealt with it not just professionally, but like a friend too. Georgie, the staff and the salon have helped me at my lowest, Sydney fixing my hair and Georgie on makeup for when I had the opportunity to cover the Ghetts London show and glamming me up for TOWIE invited guest appearances, and connecting me with Nelly’s Boutique for collaborations and support.
One thing I can say about Georgie is that she is ‘definitely one of your own and cares a lot about her clients, I always leave the shop feeling beautiful and at my best.’ especially on a Friday when the Prosecco’s out haha!
So let’s fast forward and stop at the present day, Islington Makeup Artist went from one room and one member of staff to the whole shop, a payroll, and a team of beauty technicians that do not play about the quality of the services they offer. This one stop beauty shop is now the go to for most Islingtonian’s, and is continuing to thrive regardless of 2 pandemics…
So what does the team look like now?
A group of Independent women, providing the best quality of beauty treatments, perfectly rocking pink daily, building their empires!
The only way to go now is onwards and upwards, keep an eye out for our video interview, Georgie goes way more in depth and we look at some of the treatments I have had done – coming very soon!
Stay safe, respect your beauty tech’s and take care,
Sammi xx
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*This website uses affiliate links. This wont cost you anything, clicking the links aids content monetisation and helps me manage the cost of running the site and acquire creative materials to provide you with the best reviews and content.
The use of affiliate links is to refer you to my recommendations. Any product or service promoted by the use of affiliate links is thoroughly reviewed. I will never promote a product or service that I haven’t tried or think you’ll benefit from.
If you do purchase through my affiliate links, thank you so much for your support!
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