We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Wynn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I came up with the concept for Thee MakeUp Room, about 2 years ago when I returned back to Cincinnati after living in Atlanta for a few months. I was returning home, feeling lost, and not sure what I wanted to do next. In all honesty I was going to give up on building my beauty business and just focus on teaching and training. At this time I was a trainer for Sephora and actually thought I wanted open a school. I enjoyed training my peers, and found a true passion for it. I remember taking a day in the park and I had my notebook and just began writing. After filtering through my emotions, it literally just came to me. I remember thinking to myself, instead of another salon, why not do something different and creative for makeup and thus THEE MAKEUP ROOM was born. I knew the idea would be successful, as we didn’t have anything like this in Cincinnati. and I saw how this concept was being implemented in Atlanta with little to no success using kiosk in the mall, and I said, we need that here in Cincinnati. Our concept was simple yet effective. Create a space for clients to come get makeup services with or without an appointment, just like a nail salon and make it an on demand structure where clients don’t have to wait for service and can get serviced at their convenience, with no deposits, or last minute cancellations that cause frustration. Thee MakeUp Room sets the tone and standard for MakeUp luxury in our city, offering services, like our Lux Glam Services that bring a big city feel to our region. Todays women wants luxurious experiences even in their salon experience, and that is what we have been able to bring to our community.

Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a celebrity MakeUp Artist and Licensed Cosmetologist. I am a proud alumni of The School For Creative and Performing Arts which is where my love for MakeUp began. I come from a family of entertainers, I am a 2nd generation singer from the legendary local group The Hearn Sister, and of course MakeUp is apart of what we do, to prepare for shows. At 19 I officially started my freelance business called IMAGE BY RAI (ray) where I started doing weddings and family and friends. I finally decided to attend cosmetology after running my business for about 5 years. I graduated from The Western Hills School of Beauty and Hair Design in 2014, and started booth renting and eventually starting my first official business called IMAGE BEAUTY AND SALON. After moving to Atlanta in 2020 and returning home to Cincinnati in 2021, I accepted an Educator position with Aveda Fredrics Institute, where I taught esthetics and then became their MakeUp instructor for the last 2 years before rebranding and opening Thee MakeUp Room Llc in September of 2023. Thee MakeUp Room is truly my baby. We are such a unique experience and bring so much to the downtown area. We are a Walk In concept salon for MakeUp, Waxing and Facials. We have 4 standard services that we offer, our LUX GLAM, which is our most booked service, features a mini facial for skin prep and makeup application with your favorite luxury brands such as DIOR, GUCCI, TOM FORD, AND CHANEL products. We also have a FULL GLAM, SOFT/NATRUAL GLAM, and a QUICK FACE Glam service option. We also offer waxing services as well, just facial waxing is currently available, that includes Brows, Lip, Chin, and side burns. We also offer facials , including dermaplaning for our clients as well, and the best part is that all of these services are available on a Walk-In basis. Our ability to offer our services on a Walk-In basis is truly what sets us apart and makes us ideal for our clients. Our clients know that we are available for them at their convenience and that their service and their experience at Thee MakeUp Room will be amazing and the quality of work performed will be excellent. We also offer memberships for our clients, that help them save on all their services. We also offer makeup classes for consumers every first Saturday of every month at our studio, which clients are loving. We have partnered with local CPS Schools for prom and homecomings and local businesses for head shots and marketing photoshoots. We also have a training program called THEE MAKEUP ACADEMY where we help aspiring MakeUp Artist obtain their Boutique License through the State of Ohio without having to attend expensive beauty schools and take out expensive loans. We are truly here to change our industry and the community we serve through beauty and education.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I have an amazing cosmetic line called IMAGE Cosmetic. We have 3 products on our roster so far, HIGHGLAM Liquid LipStick HighGlam Finishing Gloss, and our Resurrection Beauty Oil. Through the years I have held multiple retail jobs where I was lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of brand creation, and startups. With this information I began to develop and manufacture my own cosmetic line. I research products that I loved and began to look at the ingredients and structures of these brands and what made them so great. With this information I began to research how I could do these things. I found the ingredients and began to make my own lipsticks, glosses and beauty oil. It actually took a while to find the perfect blend of ingredients as our brand is vegan and cruelty free. We truly wanted to focus on being as clean as we can be without compromising the product integrity. As we have grown the brand we have researched and found manufactures locally and internationally that help us with the growth of our brand. We are actually getting ready to rebrand and launch under a new name with lots of new products including complexion products. Were very excited about this as well as some new packaging for our original products. It is truly a lot of work and a labor of love. If I could give any advice, it would be to write down your complete ideas first and align yourself with manufactures that match. It is truly a long process and takes years to truly develop. Don’t settle for the first thing you come across that seems nice, and research ingredients with brands that you like. Alot of our brand has been developed by finding pieces that other brands are leaving out and filling the holes left by big beauty brands. We are constantly looking for what’s missing and what is trending so that we can create the next cosmetic brand.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think the biggest lesson I had to unlearn was that you have to have a niche! I struggled with this for years because I was good at multiple things. I can sing, I can do hair, nails, makeup etc, and for the longest I was told I had to choose and I truly had to learn that as a creative I am not one or the other, I am BOTH/AND. Now while I have chosen to focus on makeup, I still do the other things, just not as public with them as I am with makeup. I still service my clients and as a business were able to offer our clients more by still having these other skills.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theemakeuproom.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theemakeuproomcincy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095502784124
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7AT1_HwADXDdSFm80T3hA
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/thee-makeup-room-cincinnati

Image Credits
Rachel Wynn