novalash newsflash

January 2011

Letter from Sophy merSzei Happy New Year NovaLash Family! Are you ready for 2011? We are! Lots of new and exciting endeavors are right around the corner for NovaLash. We have officially launched the International Academy of Eyelash Arts & Sciences in Houston, TX and are thrilled to have Bellus Academy as our first school enlisted in our program! If you haven’t already heard

about this program, we have been working very hard to incorporate the new NovaLash Eyelash Extension 30-day curriculum into beauty schools across the nation. We have opened the doors to the International Academy of Eyelash Arts & Sciences to provide the best training for our Master Lash Extension Instructors. Education has always been a main priority for NovaLash and we are thrilled with the opportunity to work with some of the best beauty educators in the nation. If you are inter-ested in learning more about our program please contact Heather Hughes at Heather@novalash.com.

NovaLash continues to increase our staff here at the No-vaLash corporate office! We have recently welcomed Alicia Alaniz as our new Master Trainer to train all of our Ulta Lash Artists and our NovaLash Trainers. She has a business degree from University of Houston and at-tended The Euro Institute of Skin Care in Beaverton, OR where she aquired her International Skin Care Certifi-cation in European and Naturopathic Skin Care as well as her Washington and Texas State Board Esthetician License. She has worked with amazing beauty brands including Chanel, Clinique, L’Occitane En Provence and Source Vital. We couldn’t be happier to have her on our team and I hope you all have the chance to work with her in the future!

I want to thank all of our NovaLash trainers for their tremendous support in our efforts to enhance our edu-cational programs. Each one of you positively represents NovaLash everyday and we are so grateful!

Best Lashes,

Sophy Merszei President of NovaLash, Inc.

EVENTS CALENDAR

Jan 5-7Ulta Training

Jan 10-14Bellus Academy Instructor Training

Jan 11 & 12NovaLash Trainers Training

Jan 17 & 18Utla Training

Jan 23Advanced Training in Las Vegas, NV

Jan 30Advanced Training in Houston, TX

March 20Advanced Training in Houston, TX

March 27Advanced Training in Las Vegas, NV

JANUARY SPECIAL

Offers only redeemable through phone orders.866-430-1261

Buy 10 or more sheets of under-eye stickers

save $2 per sheet Regular price $6 per sheet.

Discount price $4 per sheet.

LASH ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Kelsey Clay Beauty HeavenO r a n g e C o u n t y , C A

Kelsey Clay was raised in Or-ange County, California with 3 sisters who eagerly volun-teered to let Kelsey practice her budding hair and makeup skills. At 13, Kelsey realized she was born to be a stylist and she began building a cli-entele of neighborhood girls who needed to glam up for school formals.

After graduating high school Kelsey attended Paul Mitch-ell The School in Costa Mesa with Beauty Heaven owner, Ann Merin, who immediately bonded with Kelsey over their shared love of hair color and updo design. During their training, Ann noticed that Kelsey already had the rare combination of artistry and communications skills that would make her a

great stylist and hand selected her to be part of the future Beauty Heaven salon team she was putting together.

While at Paul Mitchell, Kelsey and Ann pursued additional training in makeup artistry – another pas-sion they shared - and received their certifications in 2006. The pair immediately began lending their services to weddings, photo shoots, fashion shows and any other forum that would allow them to fine tune their vision and showcase their work.

In 2007, Beauty Heaven opened and Kelsey Clay instantly became

one of its most popular stylists and eyelash exten-sionists. In 2009 she took on the additional role of Beauty Director which allowed her to work more closely with Ann on defining and refining the creative vision of Beauty Heaven’s work. Kelsey is certified and/or licensed in several areas of hair and makeup artistry. She received her cosmetology license and makeup certification in 2006. She received her Great Lengths hair extension certification and Novalash Eyelash extension certifications in 2007. Her work as a hair stylist, makeup artist and Novalash eyelash extensionist has been seen in local magazines and on television. She currently co-stars with Beauty Heaven owner, Ann Merin, on their new TLC show, Wedding Day Makeover.

Thank you for representing the NovaLash family in such a beautiful way! Congratulations on being our first Lash Artist of the Month in 2011!

Ann Merin, owner of Beauty Heaven, and Kelsey Clay, NovaLash lash artist

Novalash Loves You Kelsey!

Beauty was always a passion but never a profession for Ann Merin until 2005 when she decided to do the unthinkable – leave behind her Ivy League

business school education and a 6 figure consulting ca-reer to become a stylist and makeup artist and open her own salon.

While training at Paul Mitchell in Orange Couny, Cali-fornia, Ann discovered she had a flair for makeup art-istry and soon began styling photo shoots, weddings, and fashion shows with fellow Paul Mitchell alumna and future Beauty Heaven Beauty Director, Kelsey Clay. In 2007 Ann opened Beauty Heaven, a high end, full ser-vice salon in Orange County, California which is par-ticularly popular with brides who benefit from Ann’s expertise in wedding beauty and airbrush makeup.

While running the salon, Ann has continued to work on photo shoots and her work has appeared in magazines such DUB, Fairways and Greens, and Coast. She has also appeared as a Beauty Expert on E! and demon-strated her fresh perspective through articles she has written for local magazines and in her blog www.beau-tydaze.com.

She is also working on a book about her life chang-ing (and often hilarious) experiences in beauty school. Ann has an MBA from Columbia University and is a li-censed cosmetologist with special certification in Great Lengths hair extensions, updo design, makeup artistry and airbrush makeup.

TLC’s Wedding Day Makeover: A reality show where owner of Beauty Heaven, Ann Merin, and NovaLash exten-sionist, Kelsey Clay, along with the rest of the Beauty Heaven team help brides-to-be transform from their everyday looks to their wedding day fantasies!

Check out www.tlc.com for local listings!

Ann Merin, Owner of Beauty Heaven in Orange County, CA

Are your clients checking in?

What is foursquare?

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices. Users “check-in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” As of December 2010, the company reported it had 5 million registered users.

Business use of foursquare?

Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so. Foursquare combines friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanics — users earn points, win Mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.

As a business owner, you can use foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with foursquare “Spe-cials,” which are discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they check in on foursquare at your venue. Don’t forget to show extra love to your venue’s Mayor! Additionally, if you offer foursquare Specials to your customers, you will be able to track how your venue is performing over time thanks to our robust set of venue analytics — for free!

Real Life Scenario

I use foursquare as a consumer and a venue manager. When I check in to local venues including restaurants, boutiques, bars and salons it posts to all of my friends on foursquare (175 total). It is also linked to my facebook so the venue posts up on my wall and filters into the news-feed where my 2,923 friends are also informed. A tweet is sent as well informing my 200 followers. With just a couple clicks on my blackberry I can make well over 3,000 impressions for one business-- all viral. This doesn’t even include the comment threads on facebook after I check-in or the retweets on twitter.

Before this application, it was much more difficult to build active brand ambassadors. Now, first time customers can be a brand ambassador before even stepping in the door just by announcing to their social media world that they are at your business! Comments can be added to each check-in, so there is room for positive and nega-tive reviews. As a business owner or venue manager you can set up your business page so you can respond to the negative reviews (if there ever are any) and just like that, foursquare transforms into a customer service platform. You can now be recognized for your excellent customer service and appreciation by people who aren’t even cus-tomers yet.

A few months ago I checked in to one of my favorite restaurants in Miami. As soon as I checked in a notice saying “Special Nearby” popped up and it said that if I went to the champagne bar next door and checked-in then I would receive a round of champagne for me and my entire party. I would have never stopped by because we really didn’t have enough time, but who passes up free champagne? We of course stayed, spent money and are now returning customers.

Now how can this help your salon and lash service? If it’s not obvious already, you can “claim your venue” on foursquare, post up photos, info, etc. and set-up a special for anyone who checks-in. You can give a free touch-up for anyone who checks-in 10 times. You can also give a complimentary service to whoever claims Mayorship of your location (The Mayor is the customer who has the most check-ins). It’s basically free marketing that reaches, in my case, over 3,000 times farther and faster than word of mouth.

So, what are you waiting for? Go to www.foursquare.com to get started! If you already use foursquare please let me know how it has helped your business. There are even more options to enhance this application by adding widgets to your site and developing your own badge... but that’s for a later day! Hope you all take advantage of this free service!