Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannara Rasmussen.
Shannara, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ever since I was young, I had a crazy love for art, drawing, creating, and manipulating things with my hands! That love grew into more of alternative form of creativity – tattoos & body alterations. As a young kid, I remember always looking at my Papa’s tattoos, and always thinking, I want to do that when I grow up! The way people can change how they look, get piercings, body modifications, body art is insane!
Being able to make permanent art on someone’s BODY?! How amazing is that? The idea of changing someone’s entire look, adding to their life, maybe CHANGING their life, was something I always wanted to strive to do. I ended up going starting SDSU, finishing with a bachelor’s in graphic design and photography. Even though I had so much fun in THAT art world, I would always come back to tattoos and skin. In 2018 I started my future career as an esthetician and body art practitioner!
Ever since that day, I have never looked back, and I LOVE what I do – permanent makeup and skin revision. This is my passion, and the fact that I get to go to work, give someone brows, change their skin, give them the confidence they were lacking and basically change their world, is the greatest feeling and the biggest form of success I can imagine.
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?
Nothing is ever a smooth road. I think that if nothing goes wrong if you don’t ever experience struggle and failure, you will never grow. It takes making mistakes, to LEARN and GROW from those mistakes, and become better. I have definitely made mistakes on the way – a lot of misjudgments, a lot of tries and fail, and a lot of crying.
Learning something completely new and coming into a new industry has a lot of obstacles, learning curves and setbacks, but if you don’t have the fire to keep going and push yourself, you cant expect to reach the stars. There have been plenty of times I second-guessed and doubted myself. I would struggle with the choice of struggling to grow my own business, or going back to having an easy 9-5; whether I was good enough, or if I was kidding myself. Sometimes I got tired, frustrated, and just wanted to quit. BUT… I knew this was my dream, and it was a dream worth all the tears, and something worth fighting for! So I told myself to suck it up and kick ass!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the SAWR Belles story. Tell us more about the business.
My business’ name is SAWR Belles. I cover all the basics of being an esthetician – but my PASSION is skin revision and permanent makeup!
Making a change in people’s lives is my biggest reward as a business owner. Transforming someone’s face, whether it be with brows, or with skin treatments, can literally change that person’s life. Being able to be that channel, having – basically a stranger – trust you to make that much of a difference in their world, is just an honor. I am proud that my business is not just a business. I get to meet new people, get to know them as clients, build a relationship with them, and they become my extended family. This career is very personal, and every interaction with a client is personal. If my client is having a bad day, I get to make it better, if they have an event, I get to help them get ready! It’s the best feeling in the world.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I like to think I have some luck on my side, but what it actually is, is that I am so so blessed. I don’t really believe in bad luck, I think YOU have the power make the good things happen!
I take all of the bad experiences and setbacks as a positive thing in my life. Even though it can be frustrating as heck to go through, when you get to the other side… it’s such a badass place! You make it through smarter, tougher, better, and READY! Seeing each struggle as a blessing gives you a chance to not only learn something new about your craft but to learn something about yourself. One thing that has been a HUGE blessing in my life and business is God, my friends and family. I couldn’t have done this without them. When I wanted to quit, they were there to get me back up. They were always my cheer squad, my supporters, and the ones who told me I could conquer my dreams. If luck had anything to do with it, that was it, having them in my corner.
Pricing:
- Skin Revision ranges between $75-200
- Powder Brows (PMU) $299
- Lash Services range between $99-165
Contact Info:
- Address: Zen Derma Studios
15708 Pomerado Road, Suite N209
Poway, CA 92064 - Phone: 858.254.9608
- Email: sawrbelles@gmail.com
- Instagram: @sawr_belles
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