May 8, 2017

Meet Leah Salinas of Your Beautiful Face Co. in Houston Heights

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Salinas.

Leah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am a born and raised Houstonian. I grew up attending Cy-Fair schools and living in the suburbs. For 6 years, 4 of which included college, I lived in small town upstate New York including the Rochester area, Ithaca, and Fort Drum. In 2003, I married and a year later had my first child. I could not get back to the warmth quick enough so my small family moved back to Texas and it will take a lot for me to leave again! I started in the beauty industry in 2004 and started my company in 2006. After 3 children, I suddenly found myself a single mom with my youngest child only 3 months old. Their father moved out of state so I was their caretaker full time. Being a business owner definitely had its benefits at the time while trying to raise three children on my own. It provided me with flexibility and control over my income and schedule. I met and fell quickly in love with the man my children now call Dad and married him in 2013. We added one more to our bunch and are a fun and active family of 6 now. We have lived in the Oak Forest Neighborhood for 12 years now and we absolutely love living in the city and off the 610 loop.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The roughest parts have been learning how to be a leader and separating my personal and professional life as an entrepreneur. I had to quickly learn about boundaries with clients and contracted employees. It was a hard lesson to learn for me because I become friends with everyone I meet! I have also had to have a tough lesson on learning what my time is worth and how to divide that into the different aspects of running a business. My other toughest adjustment is handling the demands of social media in order to continue to attract the under 30 year old crowd. Social media is great but is time consuming and an adjustment for me because of the distractions it can create.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in event styling hair and makeup. We are known for a more classic and timeless approach in the industry. While we stay on trend, we really attract women who are intimidated by makeup and the extreme “before and after” looks they see advertised. They tend to be simple and elegant and want to feel beautiful and special but still recognizable. We feel it is important to improve on our skill but to be consistent in our product.

My career and business is definitely is a story of a snowball effect and was completely unplanned! I became a wife and mother at the young age of 22. I had a degree in Art with a focus on Painting from Ithaca College and was searching for a way to earn money part time while being home with my baby. I stumbled into direct sales with a line that carried makeup. Clients started asking me if I could show them how to do their makeup the way I did my makeup. Eventually I was asked to do a few weddings. I really enjoyed it and decided to take some training classes in the event hair styling and makeup focus. In 2006, I took a shot at my first bridal show which resulted in about two dozen bookings. By the next year, we had so many bookings I had 6 contracted artists working for me regularly. At our largest size, YBF had 13 contracted artists. Your Beautiful Face has serviced over 3,000 brides and their bridal parties to date. Over the 10 years (and three more children!) I have now been able to diversify and expand beyond a focus of weddings. Our clients come to us for a variety of occasions: special events, galas, proms, homecomings, cotillion, birthdays, or a special date night out. In 2012, we started offering makeup lessons and now have two different makeup lines that we retail in our studio including The Perfect Face Cosmetics (also a Houston based company) that help support our makeup lessons.

What were you like growing up?
I absolutely loved sports, fishing, swimming, and the beach, but my mother insisted I be trained in how to be a “young lady”. I started violin at the age of 3, piano by 4, and continued on to play the Alto Saxophone thru middle and high school as well as the bassoon. One of the favorite activities my mother had me participate in were art classes at the Glassell School in the museum district. This is where I first got my passion for art and am so glad my parents provided me with the opportunity. Unfortunately, I underwent scoliosis surgery at age 13 and most sports were no longer an option for me so I pursued my passion in music and art. I always was eager to find the next thing in life. Always looking for the next project to get my hand on or activity to get involved. I could never let myself get bored or take a break, and I am still that way! As a result, I graduated high school early and left for upstate NY at the age of 17. I attended Ithaca College where I received a BA in Art with a focus on oil painting and drawing. I loved my time there and the experience of being away from Texas. After spending 6 years in the snow, I was ready to be back and never want to shovel snow again.

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