We were lucky to catch up with Margarita Padilla recently and have shared our conversation below.

Margarita , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?

Quality over quantity ALWAYS. No matter what I will always maintain my quality of both products and service. It’s what I strive and represent.

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.

It all happened unexpectedly, I love trying new things and discovering new talents. From a very young age I was always that child looking to make my money and I loved the idea of it. I didn’t come from an abundance of things but I had what was necessary. I remember being in daycare around age 7-9. I would make pronta les and color them in to sell them in the daycare right before the ice cream truck would get there. My goal was to make $1 to get my ice cream. Of course… after a few times doing that I did get caught. Then I started selling bracelets made by me to my friends in school to compensate for that haha. I was always seeking time and financial freedom, I craved it from a very young age. In 2019, I decided to save up to get my esthetics license.. at the time I was in nursing school and working a full time job to then go to esthetics school at night. I was determined and made it work. I was tired and exhausted spent months without doing my nails, facials, hair, just to pay for my tuition but the end goal was what’s important. My original idea was to provide skincare services since at the time, I was working with a dermatologist and plastic surgeon. I’ve always loved skincare. On my lunch hour at work, I would jot down ideas on how I want my services to be like, my business name, my location, my decor, everything to the nitty grit. In 2020, I decided to take a lash course even though I’ve always said I didn’t like the craft nor had the patience for it but I did it anyways because WHO KNOWS?! You’ll never know until you try it. Money comes and goes so mind as well try to see if this is something that I will really like. I took the course and wow I loved it. I’m very precise and I would say OCD about everything so this was just perfect for me. The instructor had asked me if I had lashes before but little did she know that it was my very first time picking up a lash tweezer. That to me was the fire to my flame and I said to myself “ what if I kept going?”

Fast track to my first year, I was fully booked on my very first holiday season and got so many recommendations. God knows how much I’ve prayed for that. Word of mouth went around and my books were full. Within my first year I moved into a bigger space which is my current space in Miami Lakes! In 2022, I entered a worldwide lash artist competition and was awarded 2022 finalist.

Now I teach others how to do the same with my courses, make others feel even more beautiful and provide quality and affordable lash supplies to lash artists all around the country.

I was always the person that wouldn’t understand how lash artist would sit there for hours to create a lash set and I once said “I could never”, the irony in that!! Here I am 2 years later loving what I do and growing my lash business day by day. All thanks to God and my amazing clients for making this the best journey yet!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Word of mouth and recommendation is the most effective for my business. The ones that come in know the work I offer and quality of my work. It’s the most genuine form of growing.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I’ve always wanted to manufacture my own product line. When I started lashing, I didn’t have the money to spend on big known brands because they were so pricy. I want to provide products for both beginner and advanced artists without the need to break their bank. It took me 2 years to find the perfect quality of products and I know what it feels like to want to get good quality and not be able to afford it.     

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.lashmusex.com
• Instagram: @_musex
• Tiktok: @yourlashmuse_
• Bookings: musex.as.me