EP 7: Jill Kindall on The Evolution of Lash Bomb
Welcome to Ready Set glow, a podcast where I interview the person behind the brand. We're gonna talk about what it took to get started, the lessons learned along the way, and the advice they have for you on your own journey. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt, founder and CEO of Cosmo globe. Today, we're talking to Jill from lash balm. She has a really inspirational story. At the age of 50, she decided to enroll in beauty school, and thank God she did. It was the obsession and the drive of learning how to do lashes, her entrepreneurial spirit took over and she wanted to improve these products. And it became obsessive to her the hours learning how to lash creating products and now building a strong brand. It takes a lot of work, and it takes a lot of hours. But it doesn't matter when you start. It's a pleasure to have Jill on the show today. Phil, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. You are founder and owner lash balm. I know last month very well excuse that in our salon when I had my last one in Los Angeles. Um, I can't wait to talk to you. There's so much to cover. But how did lash balm get started?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:I was 50 years old, going through a divorce feeling pretty low about life, you know, and I all like I could think of at the time is what am I going to do the rest of my life because I've been very successful in the things that I had done. But I was kind of starting over I had moved from Idaho to Utah. I was working for an elderly couple taking care of them. I just thought you know, I want to go back to school and do something that is in the beauty industry. I just I didn't know I had an affinity to go towards that. And I thought I was gonna go and become a nurse and do injections and stuff like that. But I heard that it takes you can't work more than 20 hours a week and make it through nursing school because it was pretty intense. I was taking care of an elderly couple and this this lady that I took care of she was in her 90s and she had polio when she was a little girl and it rebounded on her as an adult chair bound. You know, she she slept in her chair, she lived in her chair and she loved getting facials, and I didn't know how to do facials. I tried to get somebody come in and do facials for her. That was so hard to get somebody to come in the house and do facials and I thought you know what, I'll go and become an aesthetician. And I can do that on the timing that works for me while I go through nursing school. So one day I'm we're driving down the road and Papa is was the gentlemen portion of the couple. He said, Joe, what are you going to do when nanny and I, you know, pass away we're getting old, you know, I said, you know, pop, I've been thinking about that. Think I'm going to go back to school and he says do it go back to school. I enrolled in school, November 2, January 5, Papa died. And I was like, Oh my gosh, he the way he came and asked me he must have there was something inside him. You know. So I'm telling you this because the whole the whole thing has just been a God thing. To me. It wasn't something out of the clear blue. It was something that I was being pushed to do. And people were being motivated to ask me the right questions and push me in the right direction. Anyway, I went through school, I continued to do facials for nanny. And when I was in class in school, you get all your theory classes right up front, and we got to eyelash proportion of it. And I think this was back. I believe it's back 2010 2011 Because I started November of 10. And, you know, my my stuff went through 2011. And I literally got up from that class. There's about 14 of us in an arena type class. It was dark in there. You know how eyelash extensions are. You can't do them in the dark. And I'm a 50 year old woman who needs magnifying glasses. And I'm sitting there going, oh my gosh, they brought this little paper towel. They pulled up a bunch of loose lashes and just just dropped them on the paper towel. And I was like, What the heck is that? You know, they hand us these tweezers. A lot of them were bent and you know how bent tweezers work. They don't. They had a little glass. The nail techs work use the little glass cups. They turned it upside down and they put a drop of glue one glue that was already dried. And if once you're in the lash industry, you realize that dry glue will dry the wet glue faster than anything else. But you know hey, I didn't know anything. That was first time I'd ever seen all this stuff. By the time we were done with a theory class. I got up and my my model happened to be this the student teacher and I had gotten 40 lashes on each eye. There was another girl that needed a model so she would come in and put a couple on then she's like, Okay, I'm done with that. You know, and I got really into it. I got up at the end of the class. And I stood up all excited, like, I had found something that in my heart, I knew I was going to do the rest of my life, ideas of being a nurse were gone. I stood up in front of the class, and I said to all the girls that were in there, I was like, Hey, what did you do? How did you guys feel about this? Not one of them had anything positive to say. And there was one in particular, that stood out to me, she goes, I think that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life, and I will never do it again. And I don't even know why we had to learn it. And they were like, Well, how did you feel Jill and I said, I'm going to do this the rest of my life, this is going to be something. And they were like, it'll never go anywhere. And I said, No, this is going somewhere. I said, this is what I'm going to do the rest of my life. By the time I got out that class, in my mind, I had a vision of the palette that we know. So took me a year and a half to create it, find the right material and create it. But I literally was on a quest. I sat there and my daughter who is Laotian artist at for all those of you that are out there, and she's an amazing girl. She's got, you know, some amazing ideas. But she was in college, and I said, Hey, do you think your your friends will let me practice on? And she goes, Well, I don't know. It's kind of weird mom, you know, like, whatever. And anyway, I ended up practicing on them. And I would just like charging 20 bucks for my supplies so that I could figure out really how to do it. Because schools really didn't know how to do it. Like, all I could think of is if the lashes were lined up, and they were in order. And if you had a palette of some sort where your glue was right there with your lashes and everything was organized, just how great this could be, and snappy and really great. My mind was reeling in going crazy. So I remember, this is the funniest thing. I remember sitting there one night, it's one o'clock in the morning, I got to get up really early to go and take care of nanny. And then when I got off from taking care of nanny, I have to rush right into school. And I was going to be in school till nine o'clock at night. After that I do a fill on one of my daughter's friends. Like, because I wasn't out of school and didn't have my license. I could not charge for it. But I'd be like, you can donate. And I was having the roughest time trying to get done. And I remember just kind of leaning back and I had tears running down my eyes going, how am I ever going to earn a living with this? If it takes me 20 minutes because I could never figure out how to put the iPads on without everything getting stuck together and the lashes coming up from underneath. So I would I started just taping and I thought how are you ever going to earn a living with this when it takes me 20 minutes to tape someone up, I kept thinking there's got to be a better setup, there's got to be better this there's got you know, my mind's just going crazy with all the ideas. And I thought, I've got to get this master down to an hour, hour and a half. It can't take me three hours. This is you can't make a living out of it. Anyway, I've gone from those days there to where I'm at today. And I'll let you just ask whatever questions you want. Got. Well, it's
Mary Harcourt:great to hear that because I think so many people can relate and you came into lashes when lashes really didn't have it figured out. And I say that knowing that we still have so much growth ahead of us. I think we're just tapping into the start of this blow up of lashes. I think everything that we have now is incredible. But we are like 10% of what it's gonna be in the future. And you are in I mean loose pots. I actually learned on loose pots as well and loose lashes and it's a nightmare. I mean, a night marriage trying to pick up those lashes, get them to sit correctly. You're already uncomfortable with tweezers, you don't quite know how the process works. And then if they are all out with the glue they provide you that is always not the best. I mean, it's like half dried half watery. It's whatever they found. Or, yeah, it's awful and you're supposed to learn and now you're mentioning like bent tweezers. This is Beauty School. I mean, I don't I've never heard of anyone having a different experience you got to fumble through but I agree with you on I don't know what it was I had my license since I was 18. And like learning how to do hair and learning how to do waxing and learn how to do facials and I thought I was done with the industry. I was like I'm kind of burnout. I'm a little diamond look at something else. And on one last ditch effort thought let me just take a class and lashes before I hang up my license. And it was like this internal drive that I had finally aligned with what I was meant to do. Right? Just this like driving factor of Oh my god. This is everything I'm into and I love it with lashes. They're so hard and so frustrating the beginning I think you either kind of either have it or you don't. It's so hard and so frustrating and so discouraging. I mean you spend three hours doing somebody lashes that fall off in Florida How you get back up and say I'm gonna try again, I'm gonna master this, it's really impressive.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Necessity is the mother of invention. When I sat there in that class, all I could think of is better tweezers, better lash setup, better glue, and then better glue, dispensing all of that, I sat there, and I thought, this gives you such an end result that is so driving to the lash artists and the receiver of the lashes. The system to get that there is just not there and all I could think of his possibilities. And I mean, by the time I left that class, my palette was developed in my head. I knew what I wanted, I could see it, I could feel it, I produced it, and it took me it took me a long time to find the right material. I didn't stop till I got it done. It was insane. It was insane. My Drive.
Mary Harcourt:And that is the drive. So your first product was the palette didn't have the lashes on it as well.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Well, the palette, the material that I ended up choosing was the material that NASA developed for the space shuttle for heat regulation. And nothing nothing can be printed on it. Nothing can destroy it. We have dropped it off a three story building we've had trucks and cars run over. We've We've hit it with hammers, we've tried lighting it on fire, nothing destroys it. But so we had to develop the sticker to put on it. reformulate that sticker, multiple different ways. But the material we have a little dividend it where we put the glue, so that you can dip it in, but it's below the air grades, so it stays really fresh to your your whole appointment. You know. So it's really kind of neat. What we've what we've got going on that but that was a game changer for me
Mary Harcourt:lately, and you built a whole empire. I can't wait to talk about everything. But isn't it interesting how you were crying one day thinking how could you ever do this? And it was just maybe this is where you were meant to be the whole time with the alignment of Papaji telling you go to school? Maybe this was all destined to be and where would we be if we didn't have you in school going through rough times data till what am I get such a great story that you never know, kind of what's behind the next turn. But if you're willing to take it and take a risk and say okay, I don't really know what the plan is, but I'm gonna do it sometimes all aligned that this is where you were perfectly placed in meant to be from the start. We have a question from Instagram. The question was, What is your favorite product that you sell and why?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Oh my gosh, that's hard because I couldn't we have a we have a basic system. Like I love my pillow that I use because it keeps my palate right where I need it. I love my glasses. I could not do lashes without the glasses. But then again, my goal is so phenomenal. But then again, I've got the retail products that I have my own cosmetic cabinets that that developed him. We just developed and started selling this cleanser that I have the most sensitive skin i It's a cleanser. It's at my cellar Tex cleanser. I used it on my lashes and my skin. I've never had a cleanser work for me like this one works for me. It is amazing. So I couldn't say one. But I could say our basic system. I can't imagine lashing without it. And it's been so long in the development that you take out one of those and I'm kind of crippled. I really it slows me down. And if you know me, my daughter calls me an anomaly. Nobody can do lashes as fast and as accurate and perfected as I do. And that's kind of my trademark basically are. We call Jill's the time tamer.
Mary Harcourt:I love that well I used your adhesive, aren't we our retention changed overnight, and we were huge fans, so I know that's a big part of it. Every time you do a real on Instagram people go crazy for them because it is such a struggle. I mean, I'm going through it I've already had LASIK one time but my eyes are kind of degenerating again and you start to think what's next? How do I do all this stuff? How do I get perfect lighting? How do I do a great job? How what are the glasses that I need? Can I even wear glasses with everything else and bla bla bla bla and you found that and they're wildly popular?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yeah, they're amazing. I love those glasses. I couldn't I'm guys I'm 61 years old. I do not see up close at all you know it's fuzzy. So without those glasses it all stops.
Mary Harcourt:Why is the process like developing these products that she comes to you with ideas you go to her is a little bit of both.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Basically how I found her is she saw somebody and and this is the funniest thing is everybody says how to find your clients. My clients find me through my walking advertisements, which are the last on all of my clients, I've never, if you look at my Instagram, I have what 20 posts maybe for the last 10 years, and I have had a full clientele forever and I tried to, you know, titrate down my clientele in Utah when I moved to Arizona, in two years after I kept telling everybody you know, if you go off my schedule, you can't come back on. I'm, I'm weeding it down. And I lost 12 Girls, I was 65. And in two years, and finally I just had to write a text and call him and say, I can't do it anymore. That's a little clip to tell everybody what work you do is walking around advertising you.
Mary Harcourt:I was in the drive thru at Chick fil A the other day and the girls like your lashes. And I said, Oh my God, she's local. I'll give you the number. But it really is people do ask
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:I teach every girl new girl that I teach lashes on, I tell them be grateful for every girl out there that isn't so good. Because they will end up getting clients. And if they don't hone in their skills, they're only prepping a client to find you. Then they start looking at you know, it's like seeing the new car and then all of a sudden you see it everywhere. lashes are the same thing. You see you get lashes or you have a friend that gets lashes, then you start seeing lashes everywhere. And then if you go and get lashes and they're not the best you see, once you start looking, they're gonna come up to the lady because women will do that. Oh my gosh, I love your lashes. Where do you get them done? That's, I get all my clients that way, though. God,
Mary Harcourt:I'm so true. I mean, when I was doing lashes, I would remember sometimes I would finish the client, give them a mirror and they'd be like, Oh my god, they don't hurt. I was like, What do you mean, they don't hurt. Every time I've gotten my lashes done before, they would just be so painful, like, lashes should not hurt. Or you get up sometimes and come back in and go girl. I've been wearing lashes for four years. And my has never complimented my lashes. And I went home after my last lash appointment. And he was obsessed.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Hey, I want to back up just a little bit. Remember, when I stopped in, in, in the after the lash class and I says what do you guys think? And the one girl said, that is the most stupid thing I've ever done. And I'll never do it again. She ended up graduating a month early from school. And then I graduated two weeks early from school. And about three or four months after that I get this text said chill. I want to learn lashes and they say you're the one that I should learn from. And I was like, you know, you said you would never do lashes again. She goes I know. But I'm really having a hard time commuting to Park City and being on call. And she goes, I think wow, she has I think you were right lashes are going to do something. And I said sure I'll teach you and then she says and I need a roommate. Would you like to see my roommate? We ended up ruminating she been roommates and she rented one room in a basement and I rented the other room in the basement. And so we were little roomies for a while she's young, my daughter's age. And I'm this older person and everybody kept saying, don't you think it's weird living with an older lady? And she goes, No, Jill's always so busy. I never see her. And in the wintertime sometimes I would just sleep on my lash bed, or my last chair because I had a reclining chair at that time and a single sheet would fit on it just perfect. Don't get up in the morning. I take the sheet off and put a clean sheet on it. You know, I mean, we ended up being roommates for quite a while we lived at two or three different places together. Then when I moved to Arizona, she ended up moving to Arizona too. But yeah, you never know. You never know. Your life.
Mary Harcourt:So did your chemist come to you as a client?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yes. So she she had seen one of the gals that I went to school with. I had done my little girl's lashes that I went to school with. And she saw her one day at a I think it was somewhere she was getting a facial and she said Who did your lashes and she referred her over to me. And she came in and sat in my chair and we talked about what she did. And I was like dude, I there's some things I want to invent for lashes. And she goes well I'm I'm your girl. And so we have been working together now for 10 years.
Mary Harcourt:You have this idea. Let's say you wanted to create a cleanser. And you just go through and say I kind of want it to be as gentle as possible. I have skin irritations I know my clients do as well working around lashes. How can we make this as effective and gentle as we can and she does the rest of the work?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yes. So basically she started out with our sealers and our girl serum. And um, and then we went on to a cleanser. And it was really funny because we were trying to get this cleanser put out. cleansers came a little But after regular lashes in the system, all sudden, people became aware we need a good cleanser on the market. When it comes to retail products, I'm not one to find it in China or another country, and bring it in and label it when I have a cosmetic chemist. And let me tell you, I guess it's going to come up. It cost about $20,000 to bring on new products. However, when I formulate my own, the formulation is a $40,000 price tag. That's just for the formulation. Wow, everything that I have formulated for me, it's a minimum $40,000 Just for her to formulated. And they are such high quality. They're just, you know, no fillers, no, you know, vehicle ingredients. They are actual, all serums that's why they're so amazing.
Mary Harcourt:Yeah, and they sound amazing, and I can't wait to try them all. products you invested so much, you know that the top of the line to the best of the best or full quality? Do you offer like a wholesaling option if a black artist carrier
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:products? Yes, we do. Um, we have a wholesale program. But our retail products are naturally discounted for any lash artist, whether they're on our wholesale program or not. Does that make sense? So yeah, so we discount a certain amount for any any lash artist, any aesthetician that has their license, we discount it so that they can turn around retail to their people. But then we have a deeper discount. If you are one of our wholesale program. We have a wholesale program for lash artists, or estheticians, who want our product to resell. However, when you when you're talking about your sealers, your growth serum, your cleansers, those are all products that any lash artist can use and retail to their clients. Whereas lashes glue, tweezers are only things that the lash artist is going to use, but they're not resell. Now, if if you they're not going to resell to their clients, they can turn around and get on our wholesale program. They can buy in our wholesale program and turn around and sell them to other lash artists. But um, does that make sense? So they have like their own lash one store?
Mary Harcourt:A whole like little nugget you held on to? Yeah, so people can essentially be, I don't want to call them middleman, that's the wrong word. But we think of how to word this,
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:like having your own McDonald's franchise. It's allowed. It's kind of like a last one franchise. Whereas you can buy product from us. We have a gallon in Utah or Idaho. I'm sorry, we have a little gallon Idaho and I love to use her as an example. She's amazing girl, she came to us. He said I love your products. I want to sell them, I want to go hit the schools. So now she trains at the schools. She buys our product wholesale. And she has her own little store in Idaho. And I mean, she's brought upwards. Well, she's in the hundreds of 1000s from us. And if she's buying that from us and retailing it, she's making good money. And you know what, she just started out herself. And she just has a little studio there. But she had just markets it. And I don't know if she delivers or whatnot, but but she's right there for them.
Mary Harcourt:Well, what a great opportunity for lash artists. I mean, it's a struggle when you're looking to possibly open up your own line or bringing your own products. Because you do want a good source, you want to know that they're wholesome products, that it's not something coming from overseas that 1000 Other people are sticking their label on, it's actually really crappy ingredients. And so the facts, do the research. And you get these products, you launch them you make the investment and then you allow the lash artist to turn around and offer them to other lash artists and create kind of a whole nother stream of income is such a great opportunity. And they have such insurance knowing that their quality products and they use them also they know how good they are.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Right? I had learned when we developed our serums that you don't want to just put them in any bottle. Because we just grabbed the first bottles we could get till we could find the bottles that had the right amount to put in it. So we have bottles that were a little too big. And we couldn't you couldn't afford to fill up the whole bottle with it because a and we'd go back before you use it. Be we're not talking. These are just formulas. These are serums these are things that a little bit like a tiny bit will last three months. And if you filled that whole thing up, they would go bad before you can use it. But it would be the cost would be astronomical. But so we put the amount in the bottle though it was. And then people started realizing the bottom bottle wasn't filled all the way. And they were mad. They were mad. They were like you're giving us your this? And I'm like, No, you, you don't understand. We just don't have the right bottles. And I found out you don't, you don't release something unless you have a bottle. That's adequate, you know. And so I said, we've got the formula, we just don't have the bottles, you know, Allie. And finally she went out and she bought some cleanser from another company. And I walked into my studio one day, and I see somebody else's product, sir. And I was like, hey, what gets here, I'll you know, she goes, what? You're just taking too much time. I said, Okay. So I just happened to snapshot, a picture of the ingredients. And I sent it over to my chemist, and I said, Tell me about these ingredients, or these ingredients, the ingredients that we're going to, we have an RS. And she immediately within 20 minutes shot me back an email and said, No, those ingredients, some of them are banned out of some countries. She says this one's a non irritant to the ice, we do not have those ingredients in our cleanser.
Mary Harcourt:I think that's what's so important when you have a brand that you care about so much that you're willing to invest the money to research it. Because sometimes we just pick up whatever's on the shelf and how there's an eye irritant an eye cleanser, we're working on with lashes that are already kind of a little bit of a sensitive, there's more touching going on than normally, if you just wake up and wash your eyes, you want to make sure that your cleanser is 100% safe to around the eye area, especially with lashes. And I think it's so great that you guys do put the investment into finding quality ingredients.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yeah, it was it was crazy, because I ended up I didn't I never said anything to Ellie about it. Because, you know, I just some confrontations are some that you don't have to have didn't say a word. And then pretty soon, a couple weeks, three weeks went by. And she says when is that cleanser coming out? And I said, Well, I thought you found a different cleanser that you're using shows everybody's complaining about their eyes being irritated us like, oh, okay, you know, but I did learn if you don't have the right dispenser, it's
Mary Harcourt:junk. I agree with that. 100% Perception is everything. Don't ever want to cheapen your brand, even though you're doing everything. And I come from this side a lot, where I'm doing everything to make sure that we give you 100% quality product, which maybe means we can't really say international as fast as we wanted to. Or maybe I can't be everywhere I want to but it's because I'm so obsessed with making sure it's perfect, right? Because these are the lessons you learned along the way where you're so proud of your product, you release it the bottles have full you get backlash, backlash, you know, it's like, Okay, I'll wait. Find the perfect bottle, but the perfect bottle is gonna come along. And then you're gonna release these next five products. And you're gonna make the lash industry lash world that much greater with your wholesaling program that lash artists come in or have an extra income and extra stream of money. You know, it's great that they can have that extra stream of income to go along with lashes. And retail is so much for anyone that's not doing retail, you should bring in retail because the stuff literally sells itself, you can offer a gentle suggestion. But when people come invest the money in these lashes, they want to take care of them. They they asked you what cleanser Do do you recommend. And if you don't have recommend, they just go to the next grocery store and buy whatever's on the shelf. They want to buy what's proper for them. And so I think so much and even, I've always been a huge fan of recommending a lash serum to go along with lash extensions. And you don't have to don't use it every day because your lashes grow too fast. But usually, I didn't two times a week to really maintain and condition those lashes so you lash extensions can last longer is another retail product that always worked so good for us as you have your little whether you're a solo salon, or a small staff or even a large staff that extra retail income can really add up to make a huge impact in your business.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:It really does. And i i Everybody that I teach, I always tell them add to two of your products into the price of your full set. Then you've got them on your bed. If it takes you two hours to do a full set. It's got two hours say hey, with the price of your you know full set, I'm going to be giving you two products. Let me tell you about those two products, why I'm giving them to you how to use them and why you want to use them. So you're never advertising or selling. You're just educating them on what they're gonna get already. Then once they use them, they go home they use them whether it's the cleanser and the sealer, or the growth serum, you know, and the cleanser. I always give my older people the growth serum because our girls serums freakin amazing and it's like a mega nutrient. It's not it's not. It's not a hormone that causes them to grow all the time, like Latif does. It's a mega nutrient that actually makes the lashes healthy and they don't get these crazy grown out lashes, but they get more lashes, stronger lashes, healthier lashes. And I, I explained that to them. And so by the time they get up, they're like, oh, wow, I'm going to get this cleanser. And this is how I use it, why I use it, I'm going to get this growth serum or the sealer, which is sealer is very a nutrient also. But I've explained it to him in a in a really nice way that is not selling it. Then when they come back, I'm like how are you doing on your your, your, you know, product, you want me to answer any questions. So you're never selling it. And then pretty soon, they come back and they're like, um, either you say, Hey, do you are you out of your, you know, your serums? Or they say, Dude, I'm out of my serum, I gotta get one before I go.
Mary Harcourt:Absolutely. So that one kind of lost my train of thought there. But that that one essential teaching moment telling clients and I love the phrase that you said, you will want to use. Let me tell you why you will want to use this because that's so much not it's so helpful not saying you need to use this, you must use this, you should use this robot. It's like, let me tell you why you'll want to because they're going to go okay, well, I want to tell me what it is you want to wash your lashes with proper cleansers. You want to have your lashes last longer with a proper last year and that's going to maintain your lashes and the clients want that too. They want to feel their best look their best they're already investing if you can make their lashes last longer they want that can I've had it happen to work, you walk them through the whole process and now our reoccurring client, new cell 11 Different cleansers to them over the next couple, you know year or two or sometimes they say hey, I have another house here. Let me go ahead and get one for that actually, I'll go ahead and get a serum for that house too. And it's like that came from one conversation, that you're just educating your clients retail is such a great way to add an extra
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:income you can only last so fast is so much and every one of those people that you are lashing on need to have products that keep their lashes healthy. Think if you went into a hairdresser, and she actually put an extension on every one of your hairs and never told you how to take care of them or give you product to make it last long and and keep the the health of your natural hair. We might be up a creek without a paddle. Well, our eyelashes are such that they need the same treatment they we are processing every lash, every time they come back to us every two to three weeks, they're being processed way more than our hair is being processed. And yet you will never see very many hair people that will not give you a treatment and say you should be doing this to make it look like this or feel like this or turn out like this or keep it healthy like this. Yet lash artists all over are processing people's eyelashes every two to three weeks, and not giving him anything to help them keep those lashes in there. tip top shape.
Mary Harcourt:Absolutely. I'll tag on to that with a hairstylist. I recently went to my girl and said I just have never been able to find a hairspray that works for me. What do you recommend? And she went and got one off the shelf and said it's not a hairspray texturizing spray, and you should definitely use this it comes out dry. And I was like ooh, I don't know. And she sprayed it for me. And I thought okay, cool, I'll get it. And it was more expensive than I would have normally paid. But I came home and my hair held its curl for the next two days, my hair, my hair will lose its curl in two hours. And it was a moment of like, well, girlfriend knew what she was talking about. And not only that, like I'm so committed to going back to her because she's been my stylist but I'm so committed going back to her I'm so thankful she referred me to that I will buy it forever. And I will enjoy it because I've never gotten these results. There's 1000s of serums out there. We don't you know, as consumers, sometimes you don't know what's good or bad. So if you do the research and finding these companies that have quality ingredients that actually invested in finding something, not just putting a sticker on it, your clients are going to get that result. And when they see that result, they're committed to staying with that product and staying with you because you are now seen as the perfect you gave them this product and you're gonna have a client for life, you're gonna have a product user for life and keep reaping those benefits. Alright, so now you've been around since 2011. Where did you get the name from?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Okay, so I was in school. And when I when I said I was going to do this the rest of my life I was in school. I didn't want to try to start a business while I was in school. So I talked to my ex husband. It which we're still really good friends. It's my children's father and myself. Son, and we kind of started it together. They started it. And then right after I got out of school, I jumped right in and went to the New York trade show had no idea what I was doing. And it was crazy because it was me, my friend and my ex husband, we went down there. And my son was helping me sell product. And eventually, Alison got involved in it. And she, one day comes in. She goes, Mom, I think you should change the name of the company. I was like, really? Because I mean, I wasn't 100% sold on girlfriend's beauty. I was looking for a better name. She said, I think it should be lash balm. That's like, do I like that? You know, so we looked and it was available. So we had girlfriends beauty. And when I started out, I wanted to do is do lashes, so I can earn a little bit of a living. And then I've wanted lash balm to be my main thing. I had no desire to have a studio. And I had no desire to do anything but train other girls to do it. But what happened is, all these girls started, like I said, the girlfriend school said, I want you to teach me and then someone else wanted me to teach them and then they wanted to just do you have room in your little studio for us to come and lash and I was like, no, like, I don't like it was just a little Hair Studio. I just didn't have enough room. So Ellie and I got together and we we decided to move to a bigger place. And we started Utah batch together. So at that point, girlfriend's beauty no longer insisted, and we broke it into lash balm. And you tell us so there was two companies, lash balm LLC and Utah lash LLC. And Ollie and I were partners on Utah lash. And lash balm became its own little company. And I pretty much ran it. And you know, it's a family business, I've been the only one on the LLC, but it's, it's got its operating agreement that, you know, the whole family owns it. As soon as I die or anything happens, you know, because everybody kind of had to go off and do their own thing to make a living, because it wasn't producing enough to support everybody. And so I did lashes to support lash balm while it kicked off. And so I never had an investor. I never had a partner in that one per se. And, um, but it was always still considered a family business. Now, as far as the studios went, Ellie and I were partners on the studios, and then Ali decided she wanted to go off and just do her own thing. And so her and a friend went off and start their own studio. And it's kind of crazy because the studio went gangbusters. And lash balm was just chugging along, you know, just doing its own little thing. But I'm 50 years old, and back then social media wasn't a big thing. And when it started gaining momentum, I was too busy working, and keeping these two businesses going to become a social media guru. So we grew out of word of mouth, and trade shows, because I did take time to go and do trade shows. That's all I knew. I believe trade shows are kind of old school. You might you might say, but it reaches a different crowd that social media doesn't reach. Because girls that are way in social media, you don't see them a whole lot at trade shows. You get a few big dabble. A lot of companies that started up within two years of me starting up went social media, and they actually grew a lot faster than I did. And that's why we're kind of playing catch up. Because now I've got a decent social media crew, you know, people but I tried having social media people back then. But
Mary Harcourt:it's not what it used to be. It is such a different. I don't want to say animal. It's just a different thing right now. And it has grown and turned into like something that now is such a powerful tool. But I don't know they always started as a powerful tool. That's just changed the algorithm. Everything changes. When you do trade shows, they're exhausting.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Oh my gosh, girl, we've done as many as 11 in a year. Yeah, go back and train. It's it's hard. We're down to about four trade shows and a couple other different shows, you know, just let me tell you it's it's expensive. I've never made a profit at a trade show. Not once. There's never never never make a profit, but you just get exposure. So our base, we when we go to a trade show, we figure it costs us about $25,000 to go to a trade show
Mary Harcourt:easily, and it's exhausting. But it is a different breed. It's so good. I feel like you kind of get to connect with people so much more than just a picture on social media is you get to real people behind this brand. I've been to trade shows, and I've watched you lash live. And so there's that, and I didn't know who you were at the time. But it's just fascinating to watch someone that's so good at their craft, when you're just learning and kind of stand there and all like, Wow, they're so fast and so good. And the lashes look so good. And it's like, I'm gonna buy these products, because wow, I'm just an off. And I don't think you'll always get that same thing off social media, sometimes you can get very close to it. But it is connecting with people and just hearing their story and where you're coming from and what you did. And having your hand held, you have so many different products, I'm sure talking to somebody, you can tell them what's going to be great for them in their salon versus if you're staring at a website, they all look the same.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yeah, it's so true. Trade Shows are fun, because you get to meet somebody, but I will tell you, they are an investment. And it's a big gamble. It's a big gamble. Because we've had people say to we went to the trade show, and they were handing out your bags. And I'm like, yeah, that adds another 4000 to that trade show. So trade shows aren't for every company. And in fact, a lot of companies walk away going, oh my gosh, what a waste of my time. And I've got I've walked away from some of them going, oh my gosh, what a waste of my time, we were invited to cosmic Prof. Oh my gosh, what a waste of my time, you know, like 5000 booths, who am I?
Mary Harcourt:Actually you and I met it last time. But if anyone hasn't been the last time yet go, it's all lash related speakers, the boosts the people in it. And it was such a really cool atmosphere. And I know they're gonna continue to grow and be just such the event to go to for lash artists. And I think that's one of the things is you have to weigh the odds are you going for the masses or more niche, and for last count, it was such a great success for us. And I'm sure you as well. So even though you guys don't maybe do as much show floor sales. If you can have someone come and watch you or do demonstrations or explain how your product works. And they take them home and try them. You've created a client for essentially, maybe not life if they don't say in the industry, but for a long time of repeated business. And I think that's really the essence of trade shows is you're not you're not going there for sales for the weekend. It's just not a thing. You're going there to get exposure to show how great your products are. Each repeat clients that thing go in and speak for you and build your brand. Yeah,
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:it's pretty cool in Tuscany with lash con, it's a I'll give them a plug right now. Love them. The conference is amazing. anybody listening to this, you really, really want to go to that.
Mary Harcourt:I fully agree. You have my support there, we actually just signed up to go again this year. So we will see everyone in November. It's worth the investment. I think they have payment plans. If you have a proper business, LLC S corp, whatever you have, is a write off, you're going to go and learn more in those two, what is it two days, you're going to go and learn more in those two days than you will if you start in your studio, doing clients it's worth taking a step away just to go get refreshed, and you're going to meet so many other lash artists and it's really cool. I used to think like in beauty school was super catty in a hair salon, a hair salon that I worked at not all of them, it was extremely catty. And I just thought that's how it was. And such a beautiful thing to walk into the lash industry since day one and see how much support there is from all women, men to men co but like in the Facebook forums, everyone supports each other. And I think it's so cool, especially at these lash conferences to just to get that support from everyone else that's doing the best that they can on their journey and hearing where they come from products they use what lack the classes are going to go to and you walk away with such a lifted spirit that you're in the right beauty feel that you're in the right industry that you're doing the right thing for your business. And I think you take home so much knowledge to then go back and like you powerhouse.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Well, and the beautiful thing about it is is the lash companies, we don't get along, you know, we don't bash each other. We all get along we support each other. We even host I used to I hosted it at my studio in Arizona. I just sold the building and kind of got out of it. But I hosted lash box la I posted all kinds of other lash companies coming through and you just do it it were it's a whole different
Mary Harcourt:breed. Why? Because we all have eyelashes, lashes and triple how many people doing it. We still have so many more clients, we don't have to fight for him. And I think that's a really cool thing when you hunker down into like the niche services, maybe it is a tighter thing and you get a little bit of that but the lash industry since day one has always been so supportive and a great group of women and men. Right. You're self funded. You have a remarkable story. I think it's so remarkable and so relatable that you We're able to take your story, go to school, learn off these loose pot lashes, have a struggle and realize that there's so much room for innovation in the industry, create these products and invest the money. And now give back between your clients who love you and will not leave you, as you've mentioned, and all of the teachings that you do you guys offer classes now we'll get into that in a second. And just being a staple in the lash industry. You've been around for so long, you're vetted, we know that your products are good your daughter's in the industry, as well as in our case, she's got her own great following, and she's a whole like joy to listen to her podcast and watch her on stage. She's very animated and super fun. But yeah, what a great story. Thank you so much for coming on here today. It is great that you've built this empire, what's in the plans for the future for lash balm?
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Lash bottle is probably we have our online time timber course. In the beginning, everybody kept saying, Oh mom, you know, like mom, or Joe or, you know, like, don't let anybody see how you do lashes. You know, so you you have no idea people go How can you stand to lash as long as you do, I am the only owner of a major company or I don't know if I'm a major company, but one of the companies that were you know, go go back to 2011. And that's still lash, I will continue to lash I love lashing. But it doesn't hurt me, I've learned how to sit, I've learned how to lash I learned how to hold my tweezer I've learned how to lash in a way that I'm not spending a lot of time I'm actually, you know, every hour, I'm popping in another 100 $120 You know, whatever. If it's not, if the reward doesn't, doesn't measure up to the time you have to put in, you get tired of it. It's like a job, you know, but when you're just sitting there going, I can go in for four hours and come home with $500 You know, who doesn't want to do that job, especially when you get to talk to people that you like, or you know, or listen, I listened to podcasts with my people, we listen to murder, but you know, I look forward to going into lashing. I really do. And I it, it hurts my soul to know that there's a lot of women that are hurting in pain, want to quit want to do something else, I'm like, You're not doing something, right. Because my longest last day was 18 clients. And those were all full fills. And that was the hardest thing I ever did. It made 16 and 15 a day, which was my normal, normal amount building my company look easy, it feels easy. And but I still didn't break down. You know, my body didn't break down. Before I started lashing. I had two back surgeries, and I'm lashing with a back that's had two back surgeries, there's a way to lash that's healthy, that's fun, that's effective, that is not so darn slow that you just want to kill yourself to try to get out of it for a minute, you know, take a break. So that's why all of a sudden, you know, I went I don't care what people think about how I lash how I lash is effective. It's good. I've taken two classes from two Russian masters. And both of them just said, Dude, how did you finish like you did? And your work is still good. You know? And I'm like, I just have my method. You know, they said, Did you use my method and I said, I use part yours part mine, because I wanted to learn their method. I don't care who you take a class from, you're going to learn something that that benefits you. And I don't care how amazing my lashing is, I can still learn something from someone else. So don't ever think that because you're a great lash artist, and you think you've got it made that there's nothing to learn. There's always something to learn, I can pick out 123, maybe 10 things to add to my repertoire that makes me a better last year. And I'm pretty damn good last year. And I I don't mean to say that, like, arrogantly, but when I've seen what's out there, I know I'm a good Lasher and I go to trade shows and I have people staring at my lashing going, I'm just gonna buy the kit, because I know I can do it. Because you know, a decent Lasher or good last year when they make washing look easy. And once they're done lashing it, it's it's flawless, you know? And I used to tell them, No, you can't buy a kit, you got to take a class. And finally I just said yeah, go ahead and buy a kit. But when you find out that you need a class, we'll just subtract up price of that kid out of your your training cost because you will have already got the kit. And they're like, but I can do it. It looks easy. And I'm like yes, a good lash artist will make it look easy. When we were doing our to date classes. At the end of the first day. We've always had one or two that say I don't want to do it anymore. And I said, Come back tomorrow because tomorrow I'm teaching you volume and you're going to I love it. And they come back the next day. And they're like, I'm so grateful that you didn't give me a refund. And you told me I needed to come back, because they fell in love with it. And, and I, I teach volume right off the chute. Because if you can do volume, you can do classic. But if I teach you classic, it is going to be a headache for me to teach you volume, after you've been grained yourself in, in a system of one on one. But if I can teach you volume, one on one dc, true
Mary Harcourt:that you say they they kind of leave defeated, but come back refreshed the next day is I think it's just normal. It's just, it's hard skill to learn. And it doesn't really make sense. If you break it down, we're putting little tiny pieces of synthetic hair on other people's individual pieces of eyelash, it's a weird thing, if you really break it down into what we do. It's also a beautiful work of art. And I think so many of us have this creative spirit, and it is a great outlet for us. It's very meditative, you get to talk to your clients, it's very socially good to get in on all your murder podcast like it is that there's something that takes over and just says I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna master it. And you do. And I always think like, you learn the basics, and you're so confused. And then one day it clicks, and you bought it. And from that point, you can understand where you're so bad, that still needs improvement, and you improve on those little things. And after that, girl, you are on a road to success because you do get better with each and every set. And every class. I mean, take multiple classes, listen to multiple podcasts, go to different conventions and trade shows and hear what they have to say because there is always something that you can learn. And as you are who the trainer is, like, there's always something I learned something from you today. I love the the Word, Word, verbiage of sitting there with your client going, let me tell you why you'll want to use this, that makes me use it.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Right? It's, it's, it's pretty amazing. So yeah, the in the future, you know, I teach the time tamer course. And it's, it's, it's teaching you about products, it's teaching you about your setup, it teaches you about your technique and a mindset, those four things can shave off literally, when I when I, when I have my studio, I would have girls come in and do lashes for me. And then I would say, Okay, this is how I want you to do it. Okay. And I would give them the right tools, I would teach them a technique. And I'd give them like the right setup. And then I would talk to their mind and say this is kind of what you know, my theory, and and I said, go home. And you you practice this for a week and then come back and do another set for me. Every one of them come back and go instantly 30 minutes of my tiny, instantly, just with those four things described to them, giving them the right tools and stuff. And, you know, everybody wants to say that you can't do lashes fast and be good. Non the beginning you can't. And I always tell people, you're not worried about speed, you're worried about accuracy and perfection. Because a slow, sad job. Bad job is a slow bad job. But a fast one is a fast miss. Not slow miss. So you work on your techniques, your talent, you know, your perfection. Once you've learned how to put that lash on every time, then we're going to work on your speed. And that is a mindset. That is your tools that you're set up. And that is your process. And those are the things you've got to work on. There's so many lash artists out there that know how to put a lash on, they know this, but they don't have possibly the right product. They may be working with a glue that is hard to work with. And they don't even know they're working with it. Their setup is set up such that they're making unnecessary movements that cost them time. They're working with a technique that isn't optimal timing. And then they're working within a mindset that you can't do it passed. And their mind is tricking them out. I I had so many women say well, my chair is not high enough. It's not low enough. The bed is not this enough that this Isn't this enough. And I'm like it has nothing to do with any of those. Your mind is freaking out on you. I said at last Con last year, I gave an experiment or an example. My daughter had just moved down to Arizona where I was working. And she goes Mom, I don't know what's happening. my glutes not working all of a sudden I said I knew it was her mind freaking out on her. And I said I had that same experience. Ellie and you want to know what I did with it? And she said what? And I said well, I got up and I turned the fan on in the room. And it was a it was a not a ceiling fan but it was a fan that oscillated I said, you just need some air movement in the room. I knew in my head, the glue is fine. I go through that myself, I start freaking out and I blame it on everything but me, okay. And I said, Get up, turn the fan on, go back down, take a deep breath, let the air start moving in the room and start lashing again. She texts me back she goes, Oh, mom, that really worked. That was awesome. Thank you so much. Had nothing to do with fan, she needed to go back and give the blame to something else and get out of her head and get out of her own way. Because she's an amazing lash artist, you know, and the glue was working just fine. The glue always works just fine. The only thing that makes a glue out an acrylic glue not work. Or at least ours is if you have cold air dumping into your room, too cold, no acrylic is going to heat up. I don't care, the humidity. Okay, I lash in Georgia, which is 80% humidity or upwards of 100. I work I lash in Arizona 12%. And I lashed in, in Utah, which is normal 40 to 50%. My glue never changes for me. Unless it's too cold in the room.
Mary Harcourt:I have experienced that too. And I think sometimes people just don't use enough glue, they put this teeny tiny little drop on and then are mad when it comes off and blame the glue, where you can dip your your lashing in it your adhesive and it and it will make it work for you. But you know, last year is a skill in an art.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Yeah, and with our glue, we have a we have a primer, I guess you would say um, and a lot of people don't like that word we call it the equalizer. it equalizes because it is made with the same ingredients as a glue, which makes them gone together really nice, harmoniously, whereas a lot of your primers out there are alcohol based and that it kind of shatters the glue and makes it less effective. It makes your glue more brutal, you know, less effective, that doesn't last as long. So like I said, products, get your products, get the right products, get the right system down. That's my future is teaching and then we have it online. And we will probably start going out and and traveling and teaching that system. We got some amazing products coming up. I don't really want to let the cat out of the bag, because all we're looking for is the right dispenser the right container at this point. But yeah, we we've been having fun. We've just been starting to get into social media, we've been having fun. I'm I'm really out of my element in that. But you know, I just say no, just film it. I don't want to see it. Just film it. I'll do it. I don't want to.
Mary Harcourt:Well, it's so exciting. You guys have more products coming out. It's so exciting. You have the products that you currently have. If someone wants to try you out, maybe they've never heard of you before. And maybe they want to do the time chamber class, where do they go to find you online,
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:you know, go to www dot lash bomb.com. That's us. And we we have an app, download our app, we have sales and specials on our app that we don't have online, on our regular online, we do I think the gals have been doing a monthly special on the app that they don't do to other people sign up for our email, you'll get an email, we send out text messages, we don't bombard you because we have to pay every time we send those out. So we're gonna send them out when we're having to sell. Also, if you take one of our courses, whether it's online, or in person, you get a 15% discount for life.
Mary Harcourt:That's wonderful. And you offer wholesaling opportunities. And even if you don't want to do the wholesaling, you can still buy products with enough margin to resale in your own lash studio, which is such a cool thing as we talked about adding in an extra source of income. Phil, thank you so much for being on here today. I really appreciate your time and just getting to know the brand that much more and what it really took to get started and where it all started from and that you had an entrepreneur drive since day one in beauty school, and we're really thankful that you decided to take that journey and be a part of this industry with us.
Jill Kindall | LASH BOMB:Thank you. I have enjoyed being here and I really do appreciate your lights. I'm just going to give you a little plug here. We bought three at lash con in 2021 2021. Yeah, I'm getting I'm losing on my years here. Afro COVID kind of mixed us all up you know, but I have loved them love them and I can't say enough about them. And I can't wait till you start wholesaling them so we can sell them.
Mary Harcourt:Us too. We're almost there. I hope you really enjoyed today's show and got something from it. I think is just such a gem and it was great to have her on the show today. You can always find more information of them on lash bomb.com You can always find more information on me at Instagram at Mary Harcourt underscore and also at the cosmic law light. I hope you enjoyed this episode and many more to come. We always have extra information on our episodes tab on my website Mary Harcourt calm thanks for joining