LPW the business

Since I was a little girl I always knew I wanted to be a hairdresser / beautician, well thats what I thought I always wanted to be until 2014! So I don't know if this comes to a surprise to you guys but I'm not very clever, I'm a little bit thick academically.. Not much common sense and quite dopey. How ever I know shit loads of facts and the stuff that I do know about, I know about it very well! So all through school I was pretty much middle set for everything, I think I got some C's, then mainly D's and E's in my GSCE's oh and a B in french.. Bonjour! But this was enough to get me into beauty college which is what I always wanted to do!

Beauty College;
So I left school in the summer of 2010 and then started college in the winter of 2010! I originally wanted to do hairdressing but my friend convinced me to do beauty therapy with her, so I did! College was fun, it was really fun actually! I done my 2 years at college; waxing, facials, spray tans, manicures, pedicures, tinting, massage, makeup, gel nails, microdermabrasion and this thing that I forgot what it was called, it was like this machine attached to you, it was to tone your muscles and reduce cellulite I believe, but we would just end up shocking each other it was funny doing it to someone else but if someone done it to you.. Well it was like an electric shock! Oh and another machine that would suck your skin up into this like glass bottle thing and we would just end up with suction marks on us! Anyway I got my NVQ Level 1, 2 and 3 and got distinctions in everything apart from mens facial.. because I done it on a woman. ( I really feel like I'm selling myself to you guys as if I'm writing a CV haha) Whilst I was at college I was working part time at Next. That was a fucking hell hole.

Now What;
College completed. Left Next because it was absolutely awful. And I was stuck!? What do I do now! I really enjoyed doing spray tans, waxing, nails and the makeup in college but I knew what I learnt was not enough to become a makeup artist because it was the very basics and I knew I didn't want to work in a beauty salon because I heard such bad things about them! So with the money that I had, all like £47.50 of it, I went to the wholesalers and bought myself a spray tan tent and machine, a wax pot, a whole gel nail kit and a tinting kit.. Let me rephrase that.. my mum and dad bought me a spray tan tent and machine, a wax pot, a whole gel nail kit and a tinting kit! They are angels and they supported me since day! On weekends I used to do my friends makeup for fun too, never a serious thing it was just fun! I enjoyed doing this but I was no where near where I needed to be to make it a full time job! I needed to do something else and I wanted to learn something else! 

Barbering Apprenticeship;
2013 I started my barbering apprenticeship! It was something different, and from a business point of view I was doing something that wasn't just aimed at girls! I loved it,  it was so much fun! Once that was completed I decided to stay at the barbershop I done my apprenticeship at.. However £2.50 an hour just wasn't making the cut. I was looking for somewhere else, and I found somewhere! 

Everything Happens For A Reason;
I found this fab new place and I was sold the dream! I was going to learn all these fab new things including afro hair and wet shaves with a cut throat razor! We were going to do magazine shoots and fashion shows! I could not wait! So a few months in and it wasn't quite what it seemed, the people were lovely, they were so sound. But I hadn't yet learnt anything and tbh it didn't look like I was going to either! I was still on £2.50 an hour.. I wasn't an apprentice any more, I was a qualified barber yet I was still on £2.50 an hour, I learnt nothing apart from that I was better than this. I was in a salon on my own doing about 3 haircuts a week. £24 a day I was making, I was 19 turning 20 and I was making £24 a day.. I had to leave! I had nothing lined up but I had nothing to loose, I just left!

LPW;
This was the start of LPWbeauty.. So those who don't know LPW is my initials Lacey Paige Wiltshire, however if your my dad its Lacey Piggy Wiltshire. I decided to go self employed and a mobile beauty therapist I was! I didn't drive, I wasn't even learning, my mum would drive me round to clients houses with my wax pot and spray tan kit in the boot of her car. She would help me set up then wait in her car whilst I done the treatment and then help me pack up my stuff to take me home! She is an angel! Then my mum and dad decided to let me have the spare bedroom, they bought me a nail table and I started working from home! It was just a spare bedroom, cream, brown and mint green wallpaper with a spare bed and my nail table in. Then I came back from a girls holiday and they had decorated it for me, they completely transformed it! It was the cutest little pink beauty room ever! It sounds stupid how a decorated room can give you motivation to do better but it

really did! It was way to small to set up my spray tan tent so I used to use our conservatory to do my spray tans! Slowly the nails and waxing started to die off and more and more people were asking me to do their makeup, it literally started from my friends asking me, to their friends asking me, to my cousins friends asking me and so on and so on! I had only ever been taught makeup from college and lets face it, that was crap! Youtube videos and online tutorials weren't as big back then either so I literally just taught myself practising and practising! I started off charging £10 for a full face of makeup including lashes!!!!! I fell in love with painting peoples faces! 18 months went by, I was getting busier slowly but surely. The cream conservatory turnt an orangey brown colour from the amount of tans I used to do. Then my dad, my hero, built me my very own makeup studio, with a spray tan hut inside!! My brother built it aswell to be fair, he probably done most of the work.. Your my hero to Clark, not that he would read this I think he hates me! So anyway, my makeup studio opened in February this year and it is perfect! I love it!!! I love that I do what I love in an environment that I love! Im still building up business, I am no where near where I want to be at yet but it takes time and hard work! I have started doing masterclasses and in the near future I'm going to start a youtube channel and online master classes! By 2020 I would like to of launched the start of my makeup collection or my own range of lashes! But we will see!!




 If I didn't get taken the piss out of by being paid £2.50 an hour, I would of    never quit work
and started my own business! Everyone has to start somewhere and some get their quicker than others. I know I was lucky enough to have parents to help me out but I still have to work hard and get my own clients! Your work shouldn't be a chore or a competition. Im not trying to be a preacher and all that but I just think if you have a dream you should pursue it no matter what, and yea, my dream is to have this massive empire like Emerald City off The Wizard of Oz!!!


I hope you enjoyed this post!!

Love Lacey!!! xx