Today we’d like to introduce you to Monina Wright.
Hi Monina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Monina N Wright is a licensed Esthetician and Professional Makeup Artist. Speaker, beauty trainer and one of the top-ranked Bridal makeup teams in the Bay Area, and mother of two. As the Founder + CEO of Moderne Beauty Studio and LG Waxing & Esthetics, she has worked and mentored many aspiring and seasoned makeup artists, while offering her makeup and skincare expertise to help prepare woman entrepreneurs to look and feel their best on camera and in live presentations. Monina’s passion for makeup and skincare came out of necessity. At 10 years old, she developed cystic acne. Her mother had beautiful skin, so the only thing she could do was take Monina to see dermatologists. But unfortunately, all the doctors could offer was 1 drug after another. This continued for years and led to many gut issues that perpetuated Monina’s acne skin condition. Her skin was so bad that Monina no longer wanted to leave her home. So at the age of 14 her mother allowed her to start wearing makeup to help cover up her inflamed and scarred face. By the time she got to College, her talents with makeup made her the go to beauty guru for all her friends and sorority sisters.
Then a breakthrough happened when she met her first Esthetician. After several months of documenting everything she ate, Monina and her esthetician figured out her food triggers, and began to eliminate them from her diet. Within 3 months, 90% of her acne cleared up. And now realized the direct correlation between good gut health and good skin health.
After college, all of Monina’s friends started getting married and she began to offer her expertise as a bridal makeup artist. Soon her hobby turned into a regular weekend side hustle, which has now grown into a full time makeup agency and a bustling skincare studio.
But prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she spent 4 years in education, and 3 years in Corporate America. She is a frequent speaker to women’s groups on proper makeup techniques for film and video, as well as how to maintain healthy, glowing skin.
As a sought after esthetician and makeup artist, Monina’s work has been featured on TV and Movies, as well as in Magazines, and several wedding blog posts and publications such as the New York Times, and Greatist.
She’s passionate about helping female entrepreneurs embrace their natural beauty and feel confident in their own skin on and off camera, and her bridal team services brides throughout the Bay Area, Monterey and Tahoe area.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting my business was a little overwhelming and quite intimidating because I wasn’t sure what steps needed to happen in the order they needed to happen in order to open up my on location makeup and styling business for brides.
There were no classes on how to start your business in the beauty industry in the Bay Area. Most of my makeup skills came from attending makeup shows and watching hours and hours of videos. Learning my craft was the easy part, figuring out how to get a business license and how to set up my sole proprietorship business on the other hand, was a hard and long road for me because very few people had a thriving beauty business that I could turn to for guidance or use as a blueprint to starting my business.
Even applying for a business license at city hall was a headache because they didn’t know how to categorize a business that offered on location beauty services at that time.
Eventually, after many long hours and tons of mistakes later, I was able to start and thrive as a beauty business owner here in the Bay Area.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We offer skincare and makeup services to busy entrepreneurs who want to show up confident on camera, in business, in life and who want to care for the health of their skin.
Our skincare studio offers results-oriented skincare services that help skin conditions like pigmentation, acne, rosacea and aging.
We are known for our in-depth consultations so we can best customize everything from facial protocols to customizing our clean foundations and mineral makeup line.
We also have a team of professional makeup artists and hair stylists who provide on location services for weddings, branding shoots, editorial shoots, boudoirs, and TV or Film
Moderne Beauty Studios is your one stop shop for All Things Skincare & Beauty
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Our industry already saw a major shift during the pandemic. As licensed estheticians, cosmetologists, and makeup artists, we are already practicing sanitation protocols, but in the wake of covid-19, that wasn’t enough to keep the doors open. Many studios and salons that had large overhead and many employees could not survive the two-year-long shutdown we experienced.
I myself was a sole proprietor, but many of my colleagues who had larger salons and studios could no longer maintain the overhead and were forced to shut down permanently. I believe I was able to reopen because I had a much smaller overhead and it was easier for me to regroup and reopen.
As my industry recovers and salons and studios start to reopen, the biggest shift I see is that businesses are becoming more of a smaller more intimate boutique style businesses.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Modernebeauty.com
- Instagram: @modernebeauty
- Facebook: Moderne Beauty
- Yelp: Moderne Beauty
- Other: https://modernebeauty.mastermind.com/opt_in/1603
Image Credits
Mike Lloyd Photography
Jen Vazquez Photography
Emily Kim Photography
Sarah Eichstedt Photography
