Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Olivas
Cindy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Cindy Olivas, I am licensed esthetician specializing in lash artistry.
As a little girl my playtime always envolved getting my dolls to be pretty, doing my mom’s hair, learning how to braid my cousins hair, playing with those beautiful 90s little girls makeup kits. I even did my own eyeshadow mutiple times and lie straight to my parents face and said i had nothing on with blue eyeshadow on my face.
I remember going to my moms all in one girl, Ruth, that lady was a cosmetologist but she did everything, hair,nails,makeup,pedicures and we would spend the whole day there and I remember how much I would admire her and I knew I wanted to be the same.
When I was in my early 20s life just got to me, I had worked in fast food and many other weird jobs I found just to pay rent. I got laid off by one of my jobs I got my last paycheck looked at it as was sitting in the car and I thought to myself, what the heck am I doing?
That day I made a promise to myself to walk into what I always dreamed off. I summited aplications to be hired at salons/beauty shops or beauty studios only while I figured what I needed to get myself into beauty school and never looked back.
I got hired as a makeup artist/receptionist at a lash extension salon. I thought that was a good start since I needed salon experience and I already had taken a tour at certain beauty schools.
Little did I know that was the start of my lash career.
I was a makeup artist so I really only cared about doing that and facials at the begining so the esthetician license seemed suitable to me. Later on I found out I only liked doing makeup on myself and not so much on others.
Just like everyone (at the time) else I thought lashes were something you should be careful with because they ruin your natural lashes. I tried them myself, learned they don’t and started thinking how I was interested in offering that service once I became a licensed esthetician.
I took a lash course and had about 3 months of practice before I started beauty school.
Once I became a licensed esthetician I had been doing lashes on models for about 9 months so I felt confident to start my career as a lash artist right away, at the 12m mark I decided to be a lash instructor.
As a lash instructor I noticed everyone learning skills are different and to become a good teacher I needed to have polished skills too for my diferent students. I started taking advanced lash classes where I learned so many things about lash extensions and the lash business itself.
In 2020 I decided to partways with the lash salon where it all started to spread my wings further and opened up my own suite in spring valley.
I know teach students from all over san diego, LA, Inland empire and even had a students from canada and mexico.
I love teaching the skill of lashing specially custom lash enchancements for individual face and lash shapes. I have so many more dreams for myself and other girls in the future lash industry has to offer for us.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, I do think the bigger you dream the harder it can get sometimes BUT certainly not impossible.
When I first started lashing I seriously for the life of me could not get those lashes on straight.
They were always going all directions but never where I wanted them. I would come home defeated after having a model for 3-4 hrs and I wanted to do my best and my best was only what my skill set would allow me at the time. It took me 4 months to finally see a set I liked.
In 2019 my husbands family was going through a tough time my husbands mom had a cancer that had been in remission for more than 10 years and 2020 was not a year to open my own salon suite but I knew I could not possibly keep working under someone and still have time to help out.
Now I am so glad I did because I do not see myself working under someone again for obvious reasons like my own PTO but let me tell you the hardest time in my career.
In October 2023 my mom was severly ill, she had a stroke followed by a rare lukemia diagnosis. Guess who had a job that was flexible enough? Me I could pay my bills but also took care of my mom until she went into hospice care. I never knew that would be a part of my life so soon but I looked back and assured myself the decisions I had made in the past were for the best as I was able to be there not only for my mom but also my dad and brother.
My clients never left my side they were there for all my schedule changes and harships which is what I am most grateful for
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
It’s funny to think that I stay so creative. In the last 4 years I’ve change the way my studio looks about 4-5 times just to keep the creativity flowing.
I enjoy making creative lash extension sets. I have girls who want to change their looks often and it’s my job to ensure they will look good with any lash set they have on. I am proud to know they feel confident in my skills and I will do them no wrong when it comes to their eyeshape, faceshape or even the curl of their lashes
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Yes, I don’t mind taking risks I feel like they are necessary for growth.
As it is everything is a little riskey, learning something new to changing career paths.
I believe it is all part of a journey. Learning lashes was riskey I had no idea what I was doing and it went well. Opening my studio was riskey I learned a lot along the way, from managing my website to bookeeping but I would do it all again.
I did open my own line of lash product and sold out the first round and didn’t the second round but it lead me to know so much about owning a brand. It’s something I would like to try again but with a little more knowledge… that was also riskey but I rather had taken the risk vs knowing I didn’t
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gorgeousbeautybar.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gorgeous.beauty.bar/
