We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Johanlee Perez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Johanlee below.
Johanlee , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I started as a self taught makeup artist on the side. always had a love for beauty growing up but instead pursued what I thought at the moment was a more reliable career which was nursing. I was always known for the eyebrows whenever it came to the makeup application and I truly always looked forward to that part of the makeup application. I was working for 3 years as a registered nurse and found myself to be burned out from the stress of the hospital setting. I needed an outfit and took a permanent makeup course for eyebrows. I started gaining clientele pretty quickly. Then the pandemic hit and I was laid off from my nursing job at the hospital. I took that as my sign to finally pursue my beauty business full-time and that’s exactly what I did. There weren’t any brow artists or permanent makeup artists established around my area so I took that as my opportunity to bring on these type it services to Connecticut!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am full Puerto Rican, I was born there but have been living in Connecticut most of my life. Working as a registered nurse for 3+ years even during the pandemic led me to look into other creative avenues of income. I have always been a very visual learner and into the arts so I knew that eventually I would be led back into something that would fuel my artistic side. I was laid off during the pandemic and took on brow artistry instead. I took the leap of faith but truly believed in my work that I could take this further. I now offer many different brow and makeup services and have transitioned into a brow educator to train other artists in Connecticut and surrounding towns. One thing I have always strived for is to help others gain that knowledge and confidence within themselves so they too are able to build their own business. One thing I will always like to show within my work is my passion and my focus on detail to make sure that every client leaves content and feeling more confident about themselves. I strive to provide a space that makes them feel at home and comfortable to see me every time.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Apart from word of mouth my business has flourished tremendously off of social media. I have taken several social media and marketing classes in order to set myself apart from other competitors. I wanted my business to show the great work I put into my clients but also be able to portray that professionally through video and picture forms. I put a lot of work into forming mostly videos for clients to see for themselves the work that they can expect from me. In a world of photoshop and filters I strive to show the natural state of each work to stay authentic to who I am and my brand. One advice I can give the next artist would be to be your authentic and true self. Through social media the viewers like to see who you really are and show your personality as much as you can on there. Posting before and afters consistently had really advanced my following so much.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I have always been my authentic self and strive to provide each and every client a great customer service experience. Being a registered nurse myself I believe has helped me gain clients confidence in my work. Another thing that has helped me is showing videos and unedited photos of my work. I always wanted my clients to not have any surprises when they come in and what they see is what they get.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://slayjaybeauty.as.me/
- Instagram: Slayjaybeauty
Image Credits
Photographer: @mike_rawlings Mike Rivera instagram Makeup artist/brow artist: Johan Lee Perez @slayjaybeauty instagram