Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Leal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kelsey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
The story behind Kelsium Beauty is actually pretty unique! The word “Kelsium” is a combination between my name Kelsey and the element Calcium.
The name originated when I was a freshman in high school and my science teacher was discussing the elements on the periodic table. After going through some of the elements, he got to Calcium, and he suddenly turns and points at me, saying “Kelsium!” to get my attention. It was just a spontaneous funny moment at first, but little did I know how long this would stick in my head. Thank you Mr. Ivanoff for planting the seed years before I knew the significance!
Diving a little deeper behind why I chose Kelsium as my business name. We all know Calcium is an essential mineral needed to build and maintain strong bones. Where this connects to me and my relationship to makeup and beauty is, growing up I fell in love with everything related to it. There are tons of pictures of me as a little girl reading and looking at the pictures in Vogue and other beauty magazines just soaking everything in, and it shaped how I grew up viewing the beauty industry. This early love and obsession served as the spark to believe in myself that I can make women just as beautiful, if not more, than the women I grew up marveling over. My desire to absorb all things beauty at a young age truly served as my “Calcium” by allowing me to build and maintain a strong passion for what I do over the course of my life.
Now I am able to take the confidence in my skill and artistry to build that strong, bold feeling in other women by doing what I love and allowing them to see themselves differently in the mirror. For this I am extremely blessed!
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.
I started Kelsium Beauty, with a deep-seated passion for makeup artistry and event hairstyling.
My journey in the industry began when I was 19 years old working for Chanel beauty with a certain end game goal in mind. I have always set my intentions on owning my own business and becoming a titan in the industry. Landing a job at Chanel was just the first move in a list of many I planned on making to get closer to my vision of truly doing what I love on my own terms. Working with a leading brand provided me with the foundation of years of experience serving customers with the highest standards and learning from leaders in beauty from Chanel sponsored training and educational courses. When I wasn’t learning from work provided education, I was seeking it out on my own. I made sure my hunger for knowledge was never eclipsed by the acknowledgement of my progress, I know there is always more to learn.
As you know, 2020 was a challenging year for many of us, but it also presented opportunities for growth and change. Like many others I was laid off due to the pandemic. In my downtime during the lockdown, I continued to move the needle and master my skillset and dive deeper into the possibility of really making the leap to have my own business. By the time I got the call to come back, my heart and mind were in alignment. I am no longer taking the safe route and allowing others to set my path, I am going to strike out on my own and be a successful business owner.
In the short time we have been offering services, Kelsium Beauty has become a trusted name in the industry and local community. We are proud to be known for our attention to detail and commitment to quality in every look we curate. What sets us apart from other companies, is our inclusive approach to beauty. This means that no matter who you are, or what your style is, there’s a place for you here! From natural looks to bold statements, we’re passionate about bringing your authentic you to life.
Reflecting on these past few years of expanding our team and our brand, I can really say I am extremely blessed. Not only for the opportunity to do what fills my heart for a living, but for all of the individuals we have come across while on this journey. I am so thankful for how everything has played out and beyond excited for the future of Kelsium Beauty!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
If anyone has remodeled a home or work space before, you know it comes with a need for thick skin. I was very new to this process when the opportunity first came about and had no idea how much work and time actually would have to go into updating my studio space. Well, let me tell you. Do you know when they say “When it rains, it pours?” Never have I resonated with that saying as much as I did through this process. Let me give you a bit of context.
About a little over a year ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to have a room in a larger suite that would be suitable for Hair and Makeup. That was such a huge step for me to have my own room to offer services out of, I was ecstatic! With the help of my boyfriend, I was able to fix up that room to be just how I envisioned it after doing a complete overhaul to the design of the current set up. After being in that space for a little over a year all while speaking about how one day I will have a bigger space and be able to offer more services and grow my team, that moment happened.
The other business I was sharing the suite with, decided to relocate their business back out of state. This left me with the option of allowing a separate business to come into the suite, or take over the entire space and make the whole studio Kelsium Beauty’s. With a growing team, and an even faster growing brand, the choice was evident. It was decided I was taking another leap and pushing forward closer to my dreams. All that was left was to get the keys and start working! Then the rest should be smooth sailing, right?
Well that was very optimistic of me to think, but it was not the reality of the situation. Having my Step Dad Jim fly out and him bringing over 20 years of expertise to this remodel and having my boyfriend Ben to assist him, I thought everything would be fine. Little did I know having Jim here for 6 days was not enough time and the rest of the work was left for Ben to complete while running his two businesses. Yikes, is the appropriate response to this when you find out we only had just under 2 months to finish all of this. Some of what the work included was building out new walls, running new electrical, installing new drywall, etc. and this is obviously before all of the paint, furniture, cabinets, and decor were to be done as well.
This moment is where, my team, my family’s, and my own resilience came into play. I cannot tell you how many nights we were in the studio well past midnight, completely drained working tirelessly to meet our deadline. I had no experience in anything with this type of work, but I still rolled up my sleeves and got dirty. I was assisting anywhere I could from putting together furniture, painting, taking out garbage, installing the wallpaper, or just making sure everyone was fed. There were moments I was worried we wouldn’t finish, but I put my faith in those around me and by the grace of God we got it done.
Coming to work everyday in my studio now that it has been finished, and seeing how beautiful it is and how much time and workmanship has gone into it, makes me proud of myself and everyone involved. We really gave my entire space a facelift in such a small amount of time with such an amazing result I can’t thank everyone enough who had a part to play in the success of it getting completed.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
At Kelsium, we believe that beauty is more than just skin deep. It’s about empowering you to feel confident, radiant, and ready to feel like the best version of yourself. This has been such a huge part to building our high end reputation. When you do not just make people look beautiful, but FEEL beautiful, you are doing something special. You can tell how much happiness is radiating from our clients in our before and after photos alone. Bringing out the beauty that naturally lives inside somebody and seeing them so confident with the woman they see in the mirror they have completely different body posture. We love to see our clients walk out of our studio, shoulders back and chest out feeling gorgeous and ready to take on the world. That type of energy is infectious and the exact reason why we stay so busy!
The positive changes we make in how a woman views herself encourages them to come back to us whenever they need to look and feel their best, as well as refer their friends to feel the same. I have come to find that just performing services at a high level is nowhere near as powerful as HOW you provide them as well. Mixing our professionalism and experience in the ever changing beauty landscape with our down to earth atmosphere allows us to relate on a better level to truly understand how to service you best.
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We believe it is this intense focus on creating an amazing experience to pair with your amazing look that has allowed us to build our reputation quickly in our market!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kelsiumbeauty.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsiumbeauty/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelsium.beauty/
- Other: https://www.weddingrule.com/wedding-hair-makeup/arizona/phoenix/ http://voyagephoenix.com/interview/inspiring-conversations-with-kelsey-leal-of-kelsium-beauty/ https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/kelsium-beauty-scottsdale-az-2043442
Image Credits
@edgecreative @Kelsiumbeauty