We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyssa Allaire. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyssa below.
Alyssa, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I am extremely happy having a full-time job in the beauty community but I’m sure myself & others sometimes struggle with transitioning from working a regular 9-5pm job to creating your own hours/work days & becoming your own boss. My whole life I’ve worked under someone as an “employee” and never truly saw myself as someone who could be her own boss & make her own rules. My dad owns his own security company based out of Texas called Sunset Management Lake Patrol and living alongside him for years has made me realize that if you have the determination and motivation to create something for yourself- it’ll happen. When I lived in Fort Stockton, Texas right before I got into lashing I was working small jobs here and there to make ends meet and knew I wanted to find something I enjoy. I even enrolled at UTSA & thought my calling was to be a business major. Over time I realized that it wasn’t what I really wanted to do & knew I wanted to start doing eyelash extensions. Fast forward almost 3 years and I work full time as a lash artist and am able to afford to spend more time with my family and work as my own boss. So yes, there are times that I do miss working a regular job mainly for the socialization aspect of it but I honestly prefer being able to just socialize with my clients everyday instead & am able to make my own schedule based off of my preferred dates/times.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
For those of you who are not familiar with who I am my name is, Alyssa Allaire and I am a 20 year old lash artist based out of San Antonio, Texas. I started doing lash extensions as a way to get into the business world and find a way to express my creativity through my work. I have now been lashing for almost 3 years and feel as though I have come such a long way from when I first began this journey and have grown both as an individual and as a business. I have never really been good at drawing, paining or really any sort of “arts & crafts” but once I started learning to perform eyelash extensions I knew this would be my creative outlet. I offer 3 main styles of eyelash extensions starting off with my most natural set which are hybrids and this set is called, “The Cinderella Set”. My 2nd set is a volume set called, “The Divine Feminine Set” and consists of only handmade volume fans unlike my, “Cinderella Set” which includes both classic lashes & handmade volume fans. My 3rd main set are mega volumes called, “The Angel Dust Set” which is a super full set created with all handmade volumes fans that are more full than the previous set because of how wide the fans are, creating a more dark and dense look. These are my 3 main lash styles but my favorite lash set I offer is my freestyle sets called, “ The 2009 Set”. This lash set is my favorite because I hold full creative freedom and when booked my client is allowing me to use any color, decal ect that I want to add onto their set to make it unique & different. I definitely think this is one of the things that sets me apart from different lash artists. I offer all kinds of different lash sets/styles but promoting my colored sets has definitely become a client favorite. Another thing I think that is unique about my business is that all of my lash sets are named after a Mac Miller song. Starting with, “Cinderella, Divine Feminine, Angel Dust & 2009”. Mac Miller has always been my favorite singer/song writer and his songs spoke to me on such a deeper level that I wanted to incorporate this into my work.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started my instagram business page back in 2020 and only had around 50 followers to start off with. Same with tik tok, I started with only 10 followers and now have 2.4k on instagram and 2k on tik tok. In the beginning I did struggle with building a platform and just trying to get clientele in general. The most important thing to keep in mind when building your social media platoform is what you post is what you attract. If you’re posting that you’re constantly hosting deals & lowering your prices to try and get clients you are going to attract people who want your services at a discount price not because they like what you do. Charge your worth because I promise you with time and taking these next couple of tips into consideration you will gain clients/followers who love what you do! To anyone who is struggling with the same things I did my best advice for you is to look into your surrounding area and find public hotspots and follow other accounts that fit your, “desired” clientele. Most of the time they will follow you back and you’d be surprised at how many may have been actually looking for a service like yours for awhile! Another thing i noticed that helped my account grow was hosting/joining in on giveaways, raffles ect. This is the fastest way to grow your account in a short amount of time. I’ve hosted over 10 giveaways in the past wether for a service I’m offering or a goodie basket filled with items for the chosen winner. I recently hosted a giveaway with another local business account near me and each of us gained over 1k followers on our social media platform in a duration of just 3 weeks.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Last year I had once of the scariest times in my life happen. My dad ended up in the hospital from a stroke and I had to put my business to the side for once in my life and prioritize my family. I had to reschedule all of my clients for a week & a half straight and was helping out watching my baby brother and going back and forth from the hospital and home making sure everything with my dad was okay. I was frustrated for so many reasons, one being of course why my dad? Why did he have to go through this? Second was why now? Why did this have to happen to us now? I was worrying for a multitude of reasons and just wanted things to go back to normal. I was so scared that my clients would be upset with me for having to cancel so last minute & not knowing when everything would go back to normal to be able to give them a set date/time to reschedule. And of course I was nervous for my dads health and whether it was going to deteriorate or not. Eventually everything started slowly going back to normal and I bounced back into my business with more momentum than ever to get back on my feet. I did not let this scary moment interfere with my business for too long because I knew no matter what happened my dad would want me to stay strong & do good for myself. We’re now in 2023- almost 2024 and my dad is back to his healthy self and is still rooting me on and has continued to push me forward to be a better business woman. I actually still to this day have all of my clients that at the time had to work around the changed schedule with me. It just goes to show that you will form connections & relationships with these customers/clients and they will understand that you too- have a life outside of your job and cannot control everything that happens to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alyssaallaire.glossgenius.com/
- Instagram: @alynlashes
- Other: my tik tok is: @emobratz999