Where It All Began: From Painting My Lola's Nails to The Parlor

Artists ask me all the time how I ended up running my own bridal beauty business, and the honest answer starts long before any license or salon suite. It starts with an eight-year-old girl in the Philippines, a bottle of polish, and her grandmother's hands.

A little girl and a bottle of polish

I used to paint my Lola's nails when I was eight years old. When I finished, she would admire her hands and tell me it was as if she'd had her manicure done at the parlor. She probably had no idea what she was planting in me. That word — parlor — stayed with me so deeply that when I finally opened my own business, it went right into the name. If you're wondering where your own brand story lives, it's often hiding in a memory like that.

The long way around

• •At twelve, I immigrated to the United States, chasing the American Dream alongside all the usual adolescent doubts about where I fit.
• •At seventeen, I enrolled in esthetics night school — my first real step toward the industry, taken while life was still very much in motion.
• •I worked behind a salon chair through big personal seasons, including marriage and motherhood.
• •I even pursued nursing for a while before admitting to myself that beauty was the work I was actually meant to do.

Turning a passion into a business

• •Specializing changed everything for me — I focused on bridal hair and makeup, and my clientele grew through word-of-mouth referrals rather than chasing every kind of client.
• •My cosmetology license became a foundation, not a ceiling. It opened the door to multiple income streams within the beauty industry, and I'd encourage any artist to think about their license the same way.
• •Owning my schedule gave me room to be present as a wife and mom — the flexibility of entrepreneurship is a real benefit, not just a slogan.
• •Community carried me. Connecting and collaborating with other beauty and wedding professionals has been one of the most rewarding parts of this career.

There's a thought I come back to often: if the younger version of me could see herself now, she'd be proud. Not because of any single milestone, but because the journey itself did the work. If you're an artist in the messy middle of building something, that's my encouragement to you — this career is less about arriving somewhere and more about who you become on the way. Confident looks good on you, too.