My Sister Talks About My Lash Journey… This Made Me Cry

I didn’t expect to cry during this episode… but hearing what my sister and mum said about my journey completely got me.

This episode is sponsored by London Lash. A brand supporting lash artists with professional products, education, and tools.

Enjoy an exclusive listener discount: 20% off with code KARIS20
*T&Cs apply.

https://www.londonlashpro.com/?utm_source=podcastsponsorship&utm_medium=videos&utm_campaign=behindthetweezers&utm_content=episode6

In this episode, my sister joins me to talk about my journey from the very beginning of becoming a lash artist.

She was there from the start -
from when I first qualified, to being my model for competitions, and watching my confidence and skills grow over time. We reflect on those moments together and she shares what it was really like seeing my journey from the outside. We also talk about how she helped me create my beauty room and supported me behind the scenes while I was building my business.

During the episode, we also play a voice note from my mum where she shares what she’s proud of me for and how she’s seen my journey unfold. Hearing it was such an emotional moment and it completely sent me over the edge and made me cry!

This episode is a really personal one about growth, family support, and the people who believed in me from the very beginning.

If you're building something you love or chasing your own goals, this episode is a reminder of how important the people around you can be on that journey.

This episode is sponsored by London Lash. A brand supporting lash artists with professional products, education, and tools.

Enjoy an exclusive listener discount: 20% off with code KARIS20
*T&Cs apply.

https://www.londonlashpro.com/?utm_source=podcastsponsorship&utm_medium=videos&utm_campaign=behindthetweezers&utm_content=episode6

Thank you for pressing play and joining me! If you would love to connect - follow and DM me. I would love to hear your stories.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondthetweezers?igsh=MmN1dTVlYTA3N2Zo&utm_source=qr

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You get really stuck into routine really quickly. I didn't understand that actually it was massive. During competitions, did you ever feel nervous for me? You were really stressed and I could feel you getting really stressed. Insurance broken sounds extremely boring, but it's not. It is broken. I like things to look not only beautiful but to make them look as natural as possible. I started in that when I was 19, so straight out of school. I really want to train with her. Like I need to. This episode of Beyond the Tweezers is sponsored by London Lash, the brand behind some of the best performing lash adhesives and retention boosting products on the market. As a lash artist and trainer who specialises in retention, I'm extremely intentional about the products I trust and I recommend. Retention is everything in my work, and London Lash is a brand that's well known for supporting strong, consistent results through both their glues and their pre-treatment products. Hey my lovelies, welcome back to Be on the Tweezers. I have such a special guest in today. She is a huge part of my life. She isn't in the lash industry. She's been there from the very beginning, and she's my bestest friend, my biggest supporter, someone who's believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. And today's guest is my beautiful sister, Jodie, and it is a little bit different this guest episode because it's not someone in the industry, but you'll be see you'll be surprised how much Jodie knows about lashes. She's been my model, she's been my guinea pig for all sorts. She's helped me build my lash room. Like honestly, she has been there, of course, from day one, and we're so close as sisters. We're only 14 months apart, so she's literally my bestest friend in the whole entire world. And this episode, I feel like you're gonna be connecting with me a little bit more, knowing what I am like, what I was like at the very beginning, and hearing it from someone who has been there from the start. So yeah, I'm so excited for this episode. I really hope you enjoy it, and I'd love you to get to know my favourite person in the world as well. Let's jump in. Jody, yes, welcome to be on the tweezers. You're not a lash artist, but you're in I am the lash model. You are. But I wanted to start with getting to know you a little bit. The listeners to get to know you because you know I am. But you know what I mean. Who are you? Who are you in this chair? Um who is she? So how are you feeling? A little bit nervous, but I think I'll get comfy in a minute. Why do you feel nervous? Tonight it's just too uncomfortable, isn't it, with a with a microphone in your face? All this. So I thought it'd be fun to do a little bit of like a get-to-know get to know you. It's like a sister intro. I thought it'd be something fun. Okay, okay. So I thought it'd be fun that we flip it and I'll ask you questions and then you're gonna ask me the questions back. Okay, how would you describe me as a sister? Positive. Supportive. Oh, that's a nice one. And smiley. Smiley. What's something I'm good at and bad at? What's something you're good at? Oh I was gonna say lashes, but obviously that's like a given because you do it every day. But I was trying to be a little bit outside the box because obviously everyone knows you're good at that. Okay. Um what's something you're good at? Um You're good at making a positive spin on everything. Sometimes you say I'm do positive. Annoyingly so. Um something you're bad at. You worry before it happens, sometimes I think. So then you worry twice. Fair, but I could say the same to you. 100% worrier. What's something people wouldn't expect to know about me? They wouldn't expect to know about you. I don't know, you tell quite a lot now, don't you? Um Yeah, you don't you're never used to like walking. Never liked any form of exercise, really. Hate hated to move. I actually was a little fat, chubby, good, weren't I? You were that cat a bit out of bug slides. Do you know what? I need to find a picture. And on this bit, I should just put the picture of me in the swing.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I would be a Buddha bless.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I was ugly. I was. You were soft. I was little chubstar. Yeah, but you were baby. Little chubby person, you spray the sins. Um okay, so the question's back to me. Do you want the iPad so you can see? No, that's okay. Got him. Three words you would use to describe me as a sister. So I would say you're definitely positive. What's the word where you're like you think of others before yourself? Like you're very compassionate. Yeah, like I feel like you put yourself, um you put others before yourself a lot of the time, I feel like you always um you think about everyone, you always want to do you've got a kind and a big heart. And my last one would be you are really supportive, you've always supported me. I'm trying to think of something different because you said that to me, but that's okay. We can be as complimentary to each other. We're basically like twins anyway. Um the next one. Something I'm good at and bad at. Hurt for you know what I do. Um something you're good at and bad at. You're really good at making pasta and making a really good cup of tea. I don't know what she does. Jody pasta is unreal. Or the jacket, chicken, bacon, jack and potato. Now that you're so good at that. I don't know how you do that. But if I was other than actual, would you say it's like a materialistic thing that you can do? No, that's a good thing. I think you can use that. Good cup of tea. Um, what am I bad? What are you bad at? Likewise, you do worry a lot. You stress over the tiniest little things that you have no reason to stress at. Like for anyone who's listening, she will ring me and worry about what she's doing after work if she should go to the gym or eat dinner first. I mean, she at least she has like that to worry about. It's the only thing in her life that she worries about. My life is so simple, they are my daily worries. Um and your last one? I can't remember what it was. It was what's something people would expect to know about me. Would not expect me. Wouldn't expect to know about me. Yeah, that. I think because you're so kind and supportive, I think people wouldn't expect that you actually have a very strong mind. You're very like, if you don't agree with something, you stand your ground. But I don't think people, when they see you, because you are so positive, kind, soft, I think they so maybe sometimes people think they can push the boundary, but actually you're very strong on boundaries. I don't think people would expect that from you. That is a good one, yeah. I thought that was quite a good one too. Okay, so now we've got that out of the way. Do you feel a little bit more comfy? Yeah. Because sometimes I feel like you need a little icebreaker to get into it. So I want the listeners to know your story before we dive into how you helped me and supported me with my journey. So if you want to start off with, I know you're not working now, but you can tell the listeners now. It's not that she's not that she's lazy.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

I'm a bum.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

No. Um what was you doing? Why are you not doing it? You know easy bum. Tell your story. Like, what is it that because you also did nails at one point, so you actually are somewhat in the industry, but you don't do that anymore. But tell us like a little bit about your story. Um so what do you do for work? Insurance broken sounds extremely boring, but it's not. It is boring. It's not as boring as it sounds. The social aspect is definitely a plus side of the job. The people make the job. Yeah, it's one of them. The people definitely make the job. I mean, it pays well, so people tend to stay in it longer than they probably should, so that's probably why. Um but I started in that when I was 19, so straight out of school, didn't want to go to uni, didn't know what I wanted to do, got a job in an office locally in Burnham. Enjoyed that, met some really lovely people, stayed there for five years, five or six years. Um you have been there a long time actually. Yeah, moved into a commercial team, so I ended up doing businesses, which was much more exciting. Um, did that for about 18 months and then went on a trip to Thailand for three weeks and decided that I would prefer to see the world while I can before I end up sitting behind a desk for the rest of my life. Well, no, because you actually, before you went to Thailand, you bought your first house all on your own. I did, yeah. I bought a flat, so I bought So you're very like independent. Yeah, I've done a lot, but I did all the things I wanted to do by myself. Yeah. And then I think I hit 25 and thought, is this my life now? Yeah, I think you don't know if this is like everyone gets like that, don't they? Yeah, and then I did probably slightly out of the norm. I met somebody new, was really exciting, went to Thailand on holiday, and then decided that actually before I just settled down and sit behind a desk for the rest of my life that I would quit my job, put my rent my house out and disappear for a little while. Yeah, but I think that was probably the best thing you ever did because Yeah, it was. The person that Jodie's with, George, he went to Australia and Jodie went, you went out there in the you went out there for New Year's Eve? Yeah, I went out there for New Year in the January, and then I came home, sat on it for a month, and then thought yeah, why not? And then I packed everything up and left in the April. And then how long have you been about now? Home? Six months. It's quick innit? Really fast, yeah. And when do you leave again? Two weeks. And where are you off to? Vietnam. Flying to Vietnam. I mean hopefully I can fly into Vietnam. Why would you not be able to? Because the world's at war. Oh yeah. We're not there though. No, it should be fine. I land in China as a stopgap. So I think it may be just a it should be fine. But we fly into Vietnam in we land there on the 19th of March, and then we're gonna go to Thailand. Maybe Laos, because Laos is next door, and then we go to New Zealand. We got working holiday visas for New Zealand for a couple of years. So how long are you gonna be in Asia for? Do you reckon? A couple of months minimum. And then fly to New Zealand and then stay there for a yeah for however time we fancy, yeah. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Are you excited or you nervous? Both. Excited and nervous. It's been lovely being home, but you it's you get really stuck into routine really quickly. I've loved having her home and then she's leaving me. I feel like I don't feel sad that you're going. Because my clients say to me, Oh, is you sad Joe's going? They don't even know you, but they really know you for me. And I'm just like, Do you know what? I don't feel sad. I feel like I'm excited for you because I think it's gonna be like I've always think like memories are everything. Yeah, exactly. When you look back at your life, like even though you've gone become home, you went back into insurance buff for six months, yeah. You're going, you're going away again, and you you know you've always got like a you do know you can come back and do it again, like you can have this whole experience and know that you're gonna be alright, and you can have your house when you get back. Yeah, and I've had a great six months. I went back up, worked in London for six months, met some amazing people, had a great time. Yeah, spent Christmas, New Year, birthday with all my family. It's been lovely. I know, but you're just not gonna be here if you're 30th. Maybe I'm gonna have to come out and meet you somewhere. Yeah, but you've got until October to do that, so you'll be fine. Maybe you might still be in um like Thailand or something like that. Maybe, or I'll meet you in the middle for my birthday. Might be the best way to do it. Yeah, we'll do something like that. While you were away doing all of that, I was just sitting there isolating a lash for the rest of my life. I know. So new models in. I know, because you've literally been my model forever for absolutely everything. And that's what I wanted to get into because you've not only just been like my person, and like in the beginning of when I introduced you, but you wasn't here, this is what I did this morning. I um said about how you've always been like my guinea pig and you're like my like one of my bestest friends, and then I had to sit there and try and then figure out who to like what model to have and all this. Like now I feel like some people might recognise you because you were once all over my Instagram page of just your face. I think my eyes are like well known. I'm pretty sure that when I did competitions, people would just know it was my work because you were my model every single time. The one eyeball. So I want to talk about those moments specifically, okay? So do you remember the first time being my model when I qualified like college? Do you remember them times of being like obviously I wasn't that great at it, but do you remember the first time me doing your eyelashes? I remember the early days, you would it would take a long time. Specify a long not not it took a long time, and I think I've never really been a very girly girl, especially at that age. I mean I started to be a little bit more girly, but then you were doing a lot more beauty and you needed somebody to practice on. And I think the only person that was around that would comfortably sit for that long period of time was me, which is fine. So I ended up having these really lovely lashes, which isn't a bad thing. Um, but it was the classics originally, wasn't it? And yeah, I remember it taking like a good few hours of just laying still. I remember doing it on your bed, like on your like you laying in your actual bed in your bedroom and me kneeling on the floor. Yeah, we did that in mum's room as well once because mum had slightly better light. I didn't even have a ring light, nothing, did I? No, but mum made a really good the big window by the bed. So natural light and it made it really easy. That's why sometimes I sit there and think when people say, Oh, I ain't got a bed to practice on. I mean, I was doing it anywhere. I remember doing it on the um sofa, you know, in the lounge, and I think I remember doing one of my friends, and she was she was laying like her head on the legs. Armrest, yeah, and then I was behind on my knees or sitting on like a kitchen chair doing it. I feel like you can you can do it however, you could do it anywhere. I've done it in a hotel room on a bed before, but we just had to make do because you didn't have anywhere set up at home to do it, did you? So it was just practice wherever you could practice. Yeah. So we just we just did, we just made do. And when you used to lay down for that long period of time, what goes through your head? Like, you must lose the will delete. It gets to around hour three, and I'm like, Do you ever want to just say to me, Cowis, can you just stop? No, because it's not helpful. Because you're not gonna stop. So what's the point? You might I might as well just lay there and put up and shut up for as long as I need to, and then eventually you'll be done, and then I'll get up and it'll be you can take your photos and it'll be fine. I agreed to do it, so I can't moan the whole way through. Yeah, that's true. If you agree to be a model, I guess you can. Yeah, and it's you, so it's comfortable, so I just sleep. So it just in the end, I just fall asleep and I'm gone for two hours, and then it doesn't matter anymore. So it's comfy. I mean, sometimes in the photos I used to say to you, can you can you look happy? Yeah, hour five, and I'm like, You're like, please do positive. I'm like, please let me eat something first. Do you remember when I did Jack's? And he went to me, do you even know how to do your job? And I was like, I would have been laying down for four hours and I wanted to take photos, and he was like, Do you even know what you're doing? And I was just like, I will kill you. I told George about this and he was like, He had his lashes done. I was like, honestly, Carrie said he was the world's worst model because he moaned the entire way. He actually went, Can I get up now? I need to go to the dual lift. He went to a door. I cannot do one eye opener up. I was like, no, no, you cannot. Shut your eyes. Oh, he's so impatient anyway, and he. Yeah, you just do. You just the time goes in the end. Was there ever a set that I did and you thought, what the hell are those? Be honest. No, there wasn't, but there was one set where I thought, oh my fucking god, is this gonna be terrible? Oh my god, what were they? It was when you were like, I've got these blue lashes, and I'd really like to try them on you. And I was like, coloured lashes, and you were like, Yeah, but we'll just put blue on the outside and it'll look really nice. And I was sitting there thinking, oh my god, I'm gonna look like some kind of weird butterfly. Like, I'm gonna open these big lashes and they're gonna be all fluttery and blue. I remember they look like some kind of drag queen. And they were just on the outer corners, yeah. That was the only time I had sort of a little bit of fear, and I thought, oh god. And then I opened them and they were actually really nice, they were really subtle, you didn't see it. And then every time someone did clock it, they were like, Oh, I really love that. You can imagine your eyes. It's like a stripe of blue, weren't it? The more lashes I did, did you ever think that I was gonna make the career I have now out of it? No, probably not. So, what was your thoughts when I became because it's not something you go, oh, I want to become a lash art like at that time. You do now because it's actually a career. But I remember when I first took the course and not many people were doing it. Did you sit there and think, oh, she's only gonna specialise in lashes? Like, what did you think I was? No, but I I I didn't understand them. I think because I'd never been involved in like beauty industries or anything to do with makeup or I don't know, anything like that. Any all of that sort of went straight over my head. No, not at all. And then you started doing lashes and started doing mine, and they looked lovely, and everyone used to compliment them, and I used to think it was really nice. And then I just used to think, you know, it's gonna take off, but will it only be sort of an Essex-based thing, you know, sort of a very a certain type of clientele, the very girly, let's have beautiful lashes, rather than wearing strip lashes on the weekend, you could just do it all the time. And I thought it would stay quite streamlined in one place. But I think that was just because I was narrow-minded and I didn't understand that actually it was massive. Like a big industry, yeah. It was just in my mind, it was just you got your lashes done and you went about your business, whereas it was actually huge and it gave everyone this massive amount of confidence. And I think the more I learnt laying there and listening to you be taught by other people and at competitions and seeing feedback and seeing all of these people, I think then I was really shocked at how massive it was. Yeah, because if you're listening, Jodie is someone who's been to a lot of the competition. Like, she's done a lot of the online with me, but we've done quite a few live competitions, so you've seen how others react. Yeah, um, which we'll tell that story in a minute. How nervous I get, how stressed I get. Yeah, she's also like she's she sees every single side of me, but she's someone who stays very quiet, yeah, quiet and composed. Like she, you you won't stress with me. You kind of go, like Joe's someone who, if I'm stressed, she'll be like, what can I do to help? Do you need to do this? Do you need to do that? Like, even if that sometimes annoys me because she's my sister and I can be like, that won't work.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Don't say that.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

You can like sometimes I think that's maybe because we're so comfy. If I get stressed, I maybe allow my stress to bubble out because it's you. Yeah, whereas someone I didn't know, I can tame it a bit more because you don't want them them to stress. I know if I stress. You won't be like a headless chicken with me. Do you know what I mean? So you suffer in silence and it's someone else. In silence. I'm about to explode. Yeah. You're always someone who's very quiet and like will allow me to have a moment, but then yeah, I just feel like I've laid there and listened to so many people give you so many lessons on so many different things that even though I've never picked up a pair of tweezers, I could probably tell you word for word how to do it. I reckon you could do it. Possibly, but I know how. Is it in theory I know exactly how to do it? Has there ever been a part that you ever thought you would want to train in lashes? Because of because of me doing it. Because you're creative. Like if I've never I don't think I've really spoken about you on the podcast, but I have obviously on my Instagram. But you're very creative, like Jod does paintings, drawings. Like you if you follow me on my personal page, you would have seen the drawing of Tucks that you did for was it my birthday or was that Christmas? I think it was my birthday you sent that from Australia, didn't you? No, I just drew him. I was I wasn't working in Australia at the time and I was just sitting around in the sun. Yeah, like you're really artistic. So lashes is an artistic job. So but you did do nails, didn't you? Yeah, I did, because I went through a phase of really enjoying nail a lot. Like I really loved it, and I used to do it a lot on other people, and then I thought I would do a three-day course in Cheltsford, I think. So I took three days off work, went and did this course, and it was acrylics, hard gels, and just manicures and pedicures, and then after the three days, you got you could buy a kit from them. So I think I did that, or I got half of it, and then I bought the rest after I'd researched a little bit. Um I did it for a little while. I did a few people for like case studies and stuff and practice, but I did it for a while and then I just it didn't stick. It didn't feel like I actually think this is a good one. I've never actually asked you this of why you're not sure. I couldn't stand the smell, but the acrylic smell dumbed me in. I hated it so much. I can't stand that smell. Oh yeah, because I uh spoke about this in one of the episodes that I did solo. Nails and lashes and all instant transformations. Do you find it it's actually yeah, it can look nice, but you can see mistakes so yeah. Was that a factor of you being like, it's just it was hard as well. It was really hard, and I think I really enjoyed certain techniques more than others, but the techniques that I preferred weren't the more weren't the popular techniques in the market at the minute. So it was all tips and shaping them, and you'd build the a pits and you would use a plastic tip. Whereas I really enjoyed the foils where you would build it from um from nothing, really, make it a little bit. Yeah, you would stick the foil underneath and turn it into that cone and you would build the structure by hand. I really enjoyed that, but that wasn't the in the thing, and it wasn't a common way to do it. And it would take an advantage. And it takes ten times longer, which isn't what people want, and then people wanted it in a certain style and a certain way. And I think I like things to look not only beautiful, but to make them look as natural as possible, to make them look you can have long, beautiful nails, but they don't need to be, you know, ghastly to a certain extent. Do you know what I mean? So I think I found I didn't I liked to do it, wasn't for me because I liked to do what I wanted to do, and nails don't let you do that, you do what other people want you to do. If I could be a nail technique, yeah, but I feel like you would have to have got speedier with that. Yeah, and I just didn't have the time either. I did it while I was still at work and I'd work nine to five. And you didn't hate your job. No, I loved it. I was only what early 20s, we'd go out quite a bit, everyone else in my team was the same age as me, we'd have a great time. Because I think people often change their jolges because they're not actually enjoying the job they're in. No, I just saw it more as a uh that's what I mean. Part-time thing, make a little bit of extra money. Maybe that's why you didn't pursue it completely. No, because you still did enjoy it. But you can have that qualification for life, can't you? Yeah, I'd probably have to refresh everything because everything's so different now, and I'd probably just not do acrylics ever again. I don't think anyone does acrylics anyway. No, they stink, they smell so bad. They're not your favourite thing in the world. No, they really smell. So let's talk about the competitions then of us going. Let's talk about the first ever competition I did live. Do you remember the one in London? Oh, we slept over the night before. Is this the one where we slept on Josh's floor? Yeah. So me and Jod went to London's. Yeah, it was Shepherd's Bush. We went to London and we stayed at my brother's house. And we were doing the first live. I've never done a competition in my life. Like, I had never done online, and the first one I thought I'd go and do was a live one at Olympia Beauty. And I remember waking up that morning and I had my tunic, like the the dress code was very like dressed like you're going to work, blah blah blah. We got there, didn't we? No one was in tunics. I was so overdressed. Yeah, I had my loafers on, I was literally like, it looked like I was going away, and everyone was looked like they were in their car. But it wasn't even that, was it? We'd gone up the night before on the train with this, like No, because I was there before you met me and you had to bring quite a lot of my stuff. Yeah, I had to bring this carnage amount of stuff on the train, like bags and bags and bags, like the original bag lady. At this point, I was terrified of going into London at the best of times. And then we had to get to Shepherd's Bush as well. And Josh not only lived in Shepherd's Bush, but he lived on one of the busiest streets in Shepherd's Bush I've ever experienced in my life. And coming from living in a field to Shepherd's Bush, I'm sure he lived between a hospital at one end of the road, a fire station at the other end, and then a hospital at the other end. So the whole street was just consistent sirens the whole evening. We didn't sleep with it. And you, them two were in the back bedroom with like a fan on and a white noise machine. And me and you were in the front room, and he was like, Oh, do you want me to leave something out? And me and you were like, Oh no, we can't sleep with noise. And then we laid on the floor on this blow-up mattress, and it was my god! We couldn't open the window because it was so loud, but then it was just was we didn't sleep very well, did we? Then we got up and you were really nervous, and then we had to walk down the road to the Olympia, didn't we? It was about a 10-minute walk. I think I was about everything 22. Yeah, it was all in a suitcase when it we were wheeling it down the road. You were paranoid about your tweezers being in this suitcase and bumping around while they were bumping down the road on the path. We were using brown lashes on you as well, weren't we? Oh, I don't remember that bit. I just remember turning up and it being everyone queuing outside. So we got in, so we got in there, and then there was loads of loads of people in this like one room, but no one would speak to each other, would they? It's like you walked in and like everyone was against you. And I was like, Brandon, me and Jodie were very similar. So we were like, we talked to anyone, we're like smiling. Went in there, it was like it was like the hunger game, wasn't it? Like it was still the death. Yeah, it was pictures. I was like, what have I walked into? So bearing in mind, I'm nervous, but my nervous has just gone like through the roof. Because it was just everyone was really unpro like unapproachable, and then I could feel like the nerves get into me. And then what are you what we you do, you'd go into the place where it is, and the the competition was upstairs, weren't it? So if you've ever been to Olympia Beauty, it is downstairs is like the expedition, and then upstairs you have us lash exhibition expedition is a is a tour out. You know what I mean. For God's sake, she's shaming me now. Yeah, it's downstairs, isn't it? Like stone bar art. Stone bar art. Yeah, it's downstairs, it's like the stalls and stuff, isn't it? Yeah, so then you come upstairs, you have the lash artists, and then even across there, people were doing the massage competition. Yeah, that was so weird, wasn't it? And you walk past, and there was all these people with like towels just covering their bums, being like rubbed with oil and their legs in the air and being carries were like, what is going on? And not only was it, you know, like a half-naked people getting massaged at one end and then a lash competition at another end, it was absolutely freezing. Oh, it was. It was Arctic, and then they gave you not only was it freezing cold, I remember this now. Oh my god, this is horrendous. And we went in. This isn't where the the elephants ran in, is it? This is a different elephant one, is it? Oh my god, I remember. And we were upstairs. This is the elephant one.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

No, it's not, this is a different one. The first ever one we went to in Beauty, Olympia Beauty, with everything downstairs when we went upstairs, and it was a water pillow.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yeah, the bed was the same one. No, the the elephant one. It wasn't. No, that the one I'm thinking of, the one with the elephants, that was the one where no, the water bed one was different. The one with the elephants was the one where you huffed on me because the light was terrible. Flat too. No, that wasn't the elephant one. Oh the elephant one was when we was so the elephant one. When everyone's probably sitting there wondering, what is elephants? So anyway, we went into this room and it was basically all set up and it was freezing cold, and the only thing they had to support you, this was before they realised that you should put a pillow under your knees to support your back and all of this stuff. Give you a blanket, you know, anything to make you comfortable. It was about minus five in this room, and they'd put a water pillow underneath you to give you back support. But it wasn't really a pillow, it was like it was like a tiny little circle. It was like them thin things you buy for the dog in the summer. You know, the cold pads. It was one of them, and they laid it underneath. So not only were you already cold, but then you laid on a freezing cold water pillow for the next three hours. Oh, but I've never been so cold in my life. Like every part of my my insides felt cold, like my room cage. Yeah, you did, so thankfully I had that. But every time I moved, it would disturb the the cold water in this water pillow, so I would get like another shock of cold water, so it was just best to just lay as perfectly still as I could, or that it wasn't freezing cold. But then before you laid down, so when we're talking about the elephant one, Jody's getting confused because we did Olympia, but we also did the lash battle in London, both in London, but diff it was different competitions. So when you got into Olympia, you were in that room where no one spoke to each other, and it was weird. I was fully overdressed because I didn't like I was going to work with big loafers on that borrowed of yours, thinking I'm all I was all I was all smart and professional. They were size too big, I'm sure. The battle was walking, everybody was honestly, you couldn't even write what I was like, and then and then no one was even in the dress code, and I thought I've taken this literally. So we then got to this um so you got to the entrance, and what it was divided was ropes. Do you remember? Rope, rope, rope, and Brit awards, and yeah, and we were standing by there. So me and Jodie are just like I mean, I'm in the novice category, like I'm a complete beginner, I have no idea what to expect. They unhook the rope, didn't they? Yeah, and I kid you not. So it was like a stampede of elephants. We were literally getting chucked away, weren't we? It was like, like you said, it was like the hunger games, like the weakest will die. Well, honestly. There's a there's a bed that's shit, like if you use that bed, you'll fail or something. It was thing is, what it was is maybe they knew what the heating was. No, what it is is that your trolley, so you had to share a trolley with the next person. So it depends how you work, and I think for people to have familiar to be a little bit more comfortable, having a bed where your products and everything are on I get it now, but I didn't and I thought my stress level I've gone I've completely bubbled over. And they they even called my name out, didn't they? When we were working, and I was already so stressed, and then they said sweaty, I think they said like my number or something like that, and I like turned around and I was like, that's me. And um, I think if they were just checking, I think maybe if I was there or if they were just checking something, I was on my stress being thrown about to try and get a bed. I thought, what have I walked into? And then we did the set. I was we went and stood by the weird massage parlour. I cried, didn't I? Yep, you cried. I thought I did, I've already spoke about this briefly in um in an episode, but I sobbed the whole I literally looked at your lashes and I was like, I can't believe I've done them. They looked horrible. I don't think you spoke to me the entire three hours either, but I could feel you getting more and more stressed. And I think we weren't allowed to speak, were you? It was meant to be quite quiet. And I was like, Are you okay? I think I could have literally just cried. And you didn't even speak to me, and I was like, right didn't you? Right. I won't say another word because she might start sobbing. And then you got up, looked at me, and then walked away, sobbed. Mum phoned me and was like, How are you getting on? And you wouldn't even speak to her on the phone. Then you spoke to her on the phone and kept crying. Yeah. Whenever you hear, like if I hear Jodie's voice or hear mum's voice, yeah, it makes you so I'm uh it's I'm gone, oh, I'm literally gone. If I hear any of your voices, yeah, I literally, if I'm not okay, and Jack. We're adding him to the you can just say you okay? And I'm like, no. Literally a right mess. But he rang me as well, didn't he, when I was there, and I just cried the whole entire time. And then it wasn't till we sat in that audience to see who won. Oh, yeah, you just about pulled yourself together. I think. I was so blotchy. I was so sat down and they called your name out and you were like, What me? And I just didn't caress you. I just didn't have any belief in myself. And I also think that I um That is also the first time we saw Mariola. Yeah. Do you know what? I said this to Mariola once. If if you don't know who Mariola with Mariola is, I think, well, I think you're probably clearly living under a rock, but she she is like she is like um content queen, lash lift queen. She's unreal, isn't she? She's like she had a few people competing, didn't she? There. Yeah, so I um I didn't even speak to considering me and Mariola are really good friends, I saw her from afar, didn't I? And I literally she had like a whole group with her, and then I remember then connecting with her when I became an educator for her, and it like all clicked. But how weird that our paths maybe she sussed you out there. No, I don't think she remembered me. Oh really? I don't think she remembered me. Oh, interesting. I haven't actually asked her that. I mean, if she's listening, did you did you remember? Do you remember the the English girl that wouldn't stop crying? The girl who was stressed, who hated a liar, who looked like she shouldn't have had that tree sobbed by the naked people in the corner. Oh, I was so upset. I think I just sat on the floor and cried the whole entire time. Before we carry on, I just wanted to say a big thank you to London Lash for sponsoring today's episode. Because retention is my specialty, prep is something I don't ever compromise on. And London Lash's pre-treatment range is something I use consistently in both my client appointments and my trainings. Pre-treatment plays a huge role in achieving the level of retention that I expect. London Lash also have an amazing range of lash adhesives designed to work different working speeds, experience levels, and room environments, which is so important because no two lash artists work the same. When you pair the right adhesive with the proper pre-treatment, a suitable room environment, and a solid technique, it can make the world of difference to the connection, the bond strength, and overall consistency of your sets. For me, great retention isn't about luck. It comes down to understanding your process, using the right products for your setup, and having a system you generally trust, and that's something London Lash does really, really well. If you are a newer lash artist trying to improve retention, or maybe you're an experienced artist looking for consistency you can rely on, London Lash is definitely the brand for you. You can get 20% off your next order with code Caris20, and I'll leave everything linked in the episode description. And thank you again for London Lash for supporting the podcast and to continuing to support lash artists with products designed for reliable, confident retention. So during competitions, did you ever feel nervous for me? Like, did you ever take on what I was feeling, or did you just let me We spend so much time together, I just let you work your way through it anyway. So, not all the time. There was only once where and it was that lash battle one where we were in that big hotel and it was really hot, and then they chuck chucked the aircon on, and then it was really cold, and then they chucked the heating back on, and they fluctuated the temperature constantly throughout the entire three hours that we were in there. I just your light didn't work. Every time I leaned forward, it casted a shadow on Jodie's face. So, like, even if I moved the light, because there was a light above us as well, and then this light here, yeah. Every time I was moving in, it was then blocking, but then the other light couldn't get through. It was just And everyone had their big lights as well, wasn't it? So if their light was in a certain position that was close to you, that cast a shadow on the person next to them's faces. The beds weren't very far apart where they you were sort of the competition that competition made me learn loads though, because I thought I'll make sure I bring my own all of my own stuff. Yeah, you didn't bring a lot, you used their light, didn't you? And it was one of them wiggly bend ones. Glam. I think it's like a it was like a pole, like yeah, it was like a it was um an LED like rod-looking thing. Then you can move the arms around, yeah, and it just didn't it didn't do what you wanted it to do, and then you were really stressed, and I could feel you getting really stressed, and you were really huffing on my head, like really breathing heavy on my head, and you were really like here, and I could feel you, and I could you you were getting more and more tense and more and more tense, and then somebody would go, I'm sure a lady was like, You've got 30 minutes left, and I could feel you like and then it stopped, and that was the first time I had to go and be checked the first thing, the first there's a set of judges, and you have to lay on that bed. Um but this one there were more beds. I had to lay in it be faced with more judges in this one, and you get left in another room, and I get taken through, and because they don't want to see who the so that's just so that they don't see me, yeah, and then associate me with you. Yeah, so I'd go sent into this room and I'd be laid in front of all of these judges and you would give them a little bit of paper and they would do you take your card and they would sign it, and I'd have to lay on different beds or sit in front of a certain person or I actually thought to myself, I don't even think you should go up there and get jobs. Yeah, you said that you were like, don't go in. And I was like, well, I have to go in because you're you've paid the money to compete. I need to go in and do it. Because do you know what? I actually scored really well. Yeah, and it was I I I barely did a set because I couldn't every because I couldn't see every time I was leaning forward, I actually had to take off a lash because of the distance from the lid, because it was dark every time I went forward. I then had to like basically pull my body away to see to see if it's actually done it, and then I just thought to myself in that competition, do you know what? I'll try my best to make my fans beautiful, every tiny detail beautiful, but the coverage was never ever gonna be there. So I just started dotting them around just so you could actually have a shape. But I actually scored, I actually scored alright. Um so it made me also learn that coverage isn't the most important thing. Yes, you'll lose marks, but actually every other aspect of that criteria had to be was it the stickies? Was that the stickies one? It was, wasn't it? No, it you had to go in from another direction. No, that's you're thinking of the elephant elephant one again. All of that was the first competition we ever did. Because in that competition of the first one, she told that was the first time the judge told me before we even which helped me so who would have known? Yeah. I could have won first place if I had just gone. Yeah, because it was it was then, and it's that's the only two things I found really stressful is that you've been really stressed, and you've sent me into that judging room, and you can't see me, and you I can't tell you, and then I look at the score sheet, and it will give you like a eight out of ten or a nine out of ten, and you're nowhere to be seen for me to go, you've done really well doing really well. Yeah, it's a lot better than you expect it to be, and you are just like suffering outside for the next 15-20 minutes. Because some of them judges are thorough, like you will lay on that bed for a good it feels like a long time, but it might only be a few minutes, but they are going through everything, and this person that you don't know is like this close to you. I mean, I've never had I've never had my lashes done by anybody else, and I think I don't ever will have my lashes done by anyone else because you're the only person I'm very comfortable with. I'm not very good at people. Being in my space at the best of times, and you're the only person, you're the only person I'm very comfortable with you being here, really close to my face. And so I'm going in, there's all these strangers, they're all like up here, and you don't know how well you're doing, and I can't tell you because you can't see me. Yeah. And I all I want to do is be like, You've done it's going really well, or it's a lot better than you think, or and you can't see me, and you're just sitting out there, probably crying on the phone to mum in a corner, sobbing, rocking backwards and forwards. I have failed. Well, actually, it's gone really, really well. Why do you think I was really odd on myself? Because you didn't know anyone else that did it. You didn't come from none of your friends did it, nobody you knew did it, there was nobody that was a few years older than you that had already done what you'd done. You had nobody to go, what was that like? Because you hadn't quite put yourself in the industry yet. A lot of the girls there didn't talk to each other. It was very at the beginning it was a very it felt very clicky. And I actually not not many people were in like English. Yeah, that's yeah, so it was another thing as well. They'd always a lot of them would come from different countries. Same the same hometown or similar countries, all speak the same language. English wouldn't be their strongest language. Out here, nobody did the same job as you. You didn't have yes, you had people in salons in Lee and Binaricki or wherever else it was, Sheffield, but they didn't do lashes to the high standard of competing. No one was putting themselves out there, nobody was competing, no one was doing online competitions, nobody had any feedback to give you ahead of schedule. So you walked in completely blind, yeah, being 21 years old, the only English girl in the room. We didn't go to London a lot. I know we say it like it's a bit silly, but we didn't venture very far. We're proper country bump. Yeah, we didn't venture very far. We were mapping our way to all these hotels. It's because I was pushing myself so out of my comfort zone that maybe it was like to a point of where I was like, it was sending me over the edge. It had to be worth it. You were pushing yourself so far out of your comfort zone, you had to do well or or doing it weren't worth it. I just fit sitting here thinking about it. I've never really thought about it. I've never really thought of why. Like that just makes so much even though I wasn't feeling because I was so young, I think I maybe wasn't going, oh, I'm really going out of my comfort zone. That probably never really crossed my mind. No, and it just it's the unknown as well. It's just it's the it knew experiences. Yeah, and you just didn't know. It was just nobody knew what to expect. And I think it's the fear of the unknown that makes it you want to be good, so you put the pressure on yourself to not only have the confidence to do it, but to do it well while you're nervous. You had a tweezer problem one day, I remember. It was lucky you had a smear in your bag, yeah. But it it just you know what I mean. You didn't have your own light, you didn't have your own bed, the set the environment was different. It's like, you know, they literally took you out of one place and just plonked you into another and was like, do this. You have to adapt quit. Do it now. Yeah. And it hadn't been long that you'd been doing it. And we know now, after speaking to who was it? Was it Anastasia when we went to the because you took me, I had to meet you. I was in London at the time, and I came and met you. You did training with Anastasia, yeah. And I came and met you then, and I remember her saying, you know, Jodie's got beautiful lashes, they're really healthy, they're really long, they're really fair, so you're gonna the one problem you've got is that she's too blonde to be able to see with certain lights, so you're better off tinting them so that you can see her lashes, so it helps you. I really that training really helped me. She also said there was another thing she said that she was like, Jodie's got so many. She was like, You're doing your sister because it's comfortable, but she's not necessarily always gonna be the best person for you to do because time frame-wise, lash amount wise, you're never gonna give Jode 100% coverage in three hours' time. Jode was really good for online competitions, online, yeah. Because Jodie's lashes are very she's got so many. Like you will sp you could spend a day, I reckon, doing Jodie's eyelashes, which we have done. But it's more like she for a live competition, you only have like a set amount of time, you have to do it in three hours or two and a half hours. That is your limit, you've got to get so Jodie, even though I'm comfy, she's probably not the best model, but at the very beginning, who else was I gonna have? I needed someone who gave me a little bit of comfort, and there was and nobody turned around and said, You need to make sure you pick a model that allows you to work to the best of your ability in the time frame given. It was just pick a model and take them with you. So I you'd done my lashes hundreds of times by this point. You knew the shape of my lash, you knew the lash that worked best. I could do your lashes. The curl, yeah, the lengths, the lash map was like ingrained into your memory. So I just seemed like the best option, but I have a hundred billion lashes, so there's no way you're gonna give me a hundred percent coverage in three hours, so you're already gonna lose Mark's air. We had to make sure we tinted a few days before because I was so fair. You there were so many like factors to consider with me that it wasn't until somebody sat down and was like, Her lashes are beautiful, and she'll always have beautiful sets done on them, but in three hours' time, is she gonna be the best person for you to use? And me and you were like, Whoa, it's just something so small that so small that it can make the biggest difference. Yeah, but when I did win the award, what went through your mind? Like, because you saw how stressed I was, like, what did you think? I wasn't surprised, I don't think. No, no, I wasn't. Really? You don't you've never given yourself enough credit, I don't think. So when you won, I think I was I was really proud that you had because you needed that kick up the ass to be like, oh okay, I'm actually really good at this. Like I actually can place against all of these elephants bombarded to a room. Do you know what I mean? You needed that little like it didn't matter how many times me and mum and Ellie and Josh and everyone else, even dad to a certain extent, he has no idea what he's even looking at, were like, you're really good at this, these are really pretty. Oh my god, look at her lashes. Oh, look how beautiful she looks. Oh, they look lovely, you're really good at that. You're doing that in such a short space of time. We we couldn't have sung your praises anymore.

SPEAKER_03 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

You needed a professional to turn around and go, Do you know what you're really good at that? Here's an award. Because it didn't matter who said you're really good at that, you were like, they're my family, they have to say I'm good. Oh, she's my sister, they have to say I'm really good. Oh, I'm doing their lashes and they're paying for it, they have to say it's really nice. I just think though, after every award I won, I don't think I it it helped a little bit of me getting better with believing, but it was it was the confidence boost you needed, I think, to start with. Needed that reassurance that it was going well. From somebody that's a professional as well, from someone that knows what they're talking about. Yeah, like obviously we can say how many times they look beautiful, but yeah, underneath it, all uh me and mum have never done a set of lashes in our entire life. Like we just know they look nice, but technically do you remember that time? So when I did my award in education, you know, when I had to get my I had to get my um I had to get my certificate to teach. It was in COVID, wasn't it? Um it was in COVID, yeah, and I thought, what a great time. I've got all this time off. I'm gonna become a trainer. What I'm gonna do in my essays, and there was a part where you had to micro-teach, and I had mum and Jodie. I had mum and Jodie in my little little room at my mum's, and it was so small, wasn't it, in that little room? And I had like yeah, the bed had like two stalls there, and I had well, I think we had to retake it about seven times because every time mum came in, she pretended that she didn't know who I was, and then I'd be like, Mum, I'm your daughter's not being like, I didn't, I know I'm the teacher, but she was like she was like, she was really encouraged. She was like really in character, and I just thought, oh my god, we had to do like seven takes, and then I taught you lash layers, didn't I? Yeah, but it was so funny because mum was like a naughty kid, like she couldn't even bring herself to look at me and she'd like glance up. And then they would then like Did you ever even put your little hand up to ask a question? But I just thought I can't do this with you two because it's weird when it's someone you know, or like family, you almost can't get into the role of what you want to be because mum was like nodding her head, and I was just thinking. She was oh, she's so lovely, but she really gets into gallery. She really took her part seriously. I know you can't follow it. And I think because it was COVID as well. I'd been working upstairs on the landing, you were doing your course downstairs, mum was on furlough for a little bit, so she was just butting around, and it was just it was we needed to do this thing, and it was one of the funniest things we'd done in months because we'd all been stuck inside for so long, and it was just hilariously funny. It was just so funny. And me and Mum just couldn't bring ourselves to do it, and then we thought maybe we should do it separately, but we ended up doing it in the end, thank god. We didn't have past, you did pass, thank god. I had that little weird little whiteboard. Did you remember it was like a square on a stand? Yeah, mum nicked it from nursery. Yeah, you can imagine little kids whiteboard. She sold it from nursery and you were doing these drawings, and me and mum were like, weren't we pretending like we already knew what we were doing as well? It was you were teaching us something as if we were already we were already lash artists by this point. So me and Mum had to ask questions like we knew what we were talking about. I know what you were talking about, yeah. But you'd given us like a little guide of a question, like in this type of situation, you'd ask this question about a layer. So me and Mum had almost practiced our questions beforehand, and you'd get to a certain point, and we'd be like, Oh, just while you're on that part, do you do that because of this? And we had no idea what we were regurgitating, but you were like, but yes, you would, but actually you would change it for this, and it me and mum just thought it was hilarious. I would never have done all the stuff if I didn't have you and mum.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

Yeah, we do throw ourselves in. I think we're just like getting ourselves in.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

We throw yourselves in, but it's not even that, like you you all like support that supported me in like all of it. Like, even when I left that salon to have my own space at home to work from home, you even you bought me my my bin, you bought me my room, you decorated the entire room for me. It was like I was in such a stressed mind about leaving the salon that mum and jodie just was like, we're just gonna do this room up for Karis. I'm just gonna have everything be perfect, and then she Jodie was like, I bought you a trolley, I bought you this, and I was thinking, What's going on? But it wasn't far off from your birthday, I remember, because it was around your birthday, and then you had your like normal birthday presents, but me and mum said, Oh, we'll kick the room out so it's ready for around her birthday, and then yeah, we got James in, James did something, well, the floor in we had to take off, and then James laid the floor. James is our stepdad, by the way. Yeah, so he laid the floor, and then me and mum, we went to I remember we went to the Wicks and we bought the paint and we came back and we were decorating. We decided we were going to do like a chocolate back one, the rest was gonna be cream, and then we'd ordered everything off Amazon and we had to build the little wheelie trolley, and we'd bought this like weird collapsible bin, and then we had the bed up, and it was mum's wax old wax bed that she'd used for beauty, and then yeah, we just kicked it out, and then you were Umminar in about whether you wanted some artwork on the back. So me and Mum were like, Oh, well, we'll do this, and then we came up with the idea that we would do a big set of lashes on the back wall, and then mum had this. If you're one of my clients or you're someone who's been following me for a long time, you would have seen my old beauty room at my mum's. It had like it was like that creamy chocolate wool, weren't it? Like, I know it wasn't, it was like um a cappuccino, it was cappuccino colour, and then dark. Jodie did this set of lashes and it had like Diamontes. I would love to get a bat in the house. Yeah, and it's yeah, we done like a and then because we had sort of a sil like a few bits with silver, we kind of silvered up their eyelids with like Oh, I was like, Yeah, we all did Joey, considering you had the little room downstairs. It was perfect. It was lovely. You could shut the door and it could be you didn't look like you were in someone's downstairs. When so my mum, she used to work like till like 7pm, didn't she? Oh god, she'd come in. She used to come in. She used to come in. Forget herself, forget that I'm working. She and we had um two doggies at the time. Jugs and pudding. She'll have a girl go, hello doggy! And then Caris would be like, my client would be like, You mum home? And like Yeah, terrible. You're about to say about when pudding ate my client's shoe. Honestly, it's you have the most hilarious Paris thing, like pudding is our little Springer Spaniel who She was a puppy. She was a puppy at the time, and she had a thing for shoes and she had a thing for everything, flip-flops, especially especially flip-flops, anything with like a rubbery texture on it and the bottom of your trousers, and the we'd said, you know, every time Karis's clients come in, you because you had to take your shoes off at the door, and then they'd walk around the corner and go into the the side room. And we always said, take your shoes with you, always take them with you, because pudding is a terror at the minute, and she will eat everything. She'd eaten like four pairs of slippers by this point, hadn't she? James had not had had gone through like four pairs of sliders because she'd just eaten the whole bottom half of the foot. And this one day, Karis is going left, left her flip-flops at the door, and I came in all downstairs from working upstairs on the landing, and there was just like half a shredded flip-flop. All I got, no one used to knock on the door, like everyone would just leave me be, and I heard a knock, and I thought, I thought, oh my god, what's happened? And Jodie like peered open the door and just flip-flop ended. And I was like, Well, bearing in mind your client's eyes are closed on my face. I was like, Oh my god. And luckily, my client had been with me a long time, and she is like a childhood friend, wasn't it? We've known her forever, yeah. And I was like, I'm so sorry, pudding has eaten your flip-flop. And she was like, She went, Oh, she went, Oh, don't worry, they're even like them, yeah. They're prime, but she was just being really nice, and the worst thing is that she actually left with it on. She really liked half flip-flopped down the road, didn't she? With just like the toe bits coming. I was like, I will pay for some new ones. She's like, Carries don't be silly, it's like Play Mark, like two people. Oh my god, I was absolutely mortified. Yeah. But what made you when you bought all my equipment, and like I said, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you and mum. What made what made you believe in me in that moment? It's what you wanted to do. And you just in your mind you just went that's what you wanted to do. If you'd have wanted to do anything else, we probably would have kitted that room out to do what you're doing. Do you think in my you just saw in my mind that she is just like tunnel vision, like this is what she wants to do. You liked it. I loved it, didn't I? Yeah, and it worked. You didn't often find things where you stuck at them for like the pure enjoyment of doing it, and like you were that dedicated to doing it. You went to work and you enjoyed working and you liked like you went through a phase of really enjoying massages and you really liked doing this, and you really liked I don't know, you did some spray tans at some point. Do you know what I mean? You went to the salon and you liked doing all of it, but this was the one thing where you were like, I really love doing this, I could do this, and I can do that. And if you style it a certain way, you can make it look like this, and you just regurgitated all this information all the time, and then you you wanted to work from home, and that's what you wanted to do, so we just set the room up. It didn't I don't even think we thought about it, you just wanted to do it, so we just did it. Yeah, you could have done if you wanted to do all beauty, we got you a little there was a little nail desk in there just in case. Do you know what I mean? It was a collapsible one, yeah. So you could um take it mobile with you if you wanted to. That's what we thought. I think having a people to support you around, like you, mum and Jack have been I I don't think I would have been able to have built my business if I didn't have the support of you guys. I actually don't think it would have been possible. It would have taken me longer. Probably longer. But I think especially I think we're just really lucky. Mum's always been if you want to do that, just do that. If you want to do it, alright, well, how are you gonna get that to work? Alright, well, if you want to do that, we'll book that course and then you can do that later. She's always had that work hard, but it's always doable kind of attitude. So I think we were just like, alright, well, you want to work from home, we'll kick that room out. But I remember when I trained with Anastasia, Anastasia's the um trainer who I think she does still work with London Lash, but at the time she was the London Lash trainer, weren't she? Yeah. I remember saying to my mum, I really want to work with, like, I really want to train with her. Like, yeah, like a need to. She is, she is insane. This is just a one, a need to. And I remember mum going, all right, I'll pay for it. And I think at the time it was like£500 for a mentoring session. It was a lot of money. I didn't have, I was probably at 20, 20, I did not have that money. And I remember mum saying, like, Caris, just pay me back. Whenever. Whenever, like, we'll do a big payment plan, I'll pay for it. And I remember being in the car, like, oh my god, I'm gonna be bringing it. But she had like such a like that's a lot of money, just to be like, especially when you don't understand what you're paying for. Like, mum was like, go on then. Yeah, like she just because I think she saw how much you when you see someone love something so much, I think you generally go, she will put so much into that because it like it literally lit me up, didn't it? Like it still does. I I love it so much. Like it's something like if someone wants to talk to me about it, verbal diarrhea, literally, yeah, and then you get like verbal diarrhea, and then I can't stop. I have to say to people, Am I boring you? Do you want me to be quite? And everyone's like, No, no. Oh, I know. And then people go to me, what does your sister do? And I go, Oh, well, she's a lash technician. They go, Oh, what does that mean? And I go, Well, and then I find that I verbal diarrhea about it, and I'm like, Oh yeah, well, she does this, this, this. She's won like 22 awards now, like she's amazing. She does she trains. Was there moments that I didn't look like I knew what I was doing? Probably, yeah. Whenever you tried something new, really, the Korean lash lift took about 15 hours. Oh my god. So the reels that you see on my Instagram that are just like, ooh, they look good. Behind the scenes. Behind the scenes, it was about eight hours. We were here all day. Yeah. All day. I've never done say, Do you know what what something about me is, right? The first time I do something, I spend hours. I don't like once I've done it once, I can feel like, okay, I know that, I know that won't go wrong if I do this. But when it's the first time, I o that is my problem. I over-analyse every tiny movement, and then I'm like looking, and if something's not perfect, I'm like, I'm gonna have to wipe over that again or remove that. Like, I I actually probably make it more harder for myself because I'm I see every detail, and I sometimes think when I was younger or more of a beginner, you don't see them details, so you're not overthinking it. I think that sometimes is worse for me now because I see I feel like I see everything. Yeah, I'm very like I'm very in it. Like when we did that Korean lash lift, we actually had to go and have some lunch. Uh she had one eye done. I had to have some lunch. We was she was hangry. I was a horrible monster, I could feel it. I could she could feel me as well. And then she was a white. And I went, Oh, how are you getting on? She was like, Well, that's one eye, and I thought, no, it's not because feed me and give me a cup of tea before you. It's because I was doing all the videos. Oh that's why. I don't think people understand the level of time. I think I've wasted days of my life laying on your lashes. That does sometimes cross my mind, and then I think, well, she said, yeah. She said yeah. I was thinking, should I get you in before you go to go on holiday? I don't know, just something in my mind that I could do for you in a night. And then I thought to myself, she probably wants to spend it with people. She probably lay on the bed. Right, we're gonna play a little game. Go on. We're gonna rate it one to ten. Okay. Right. So one being terrible, obviously, ten being great, and then this is gonna be about me. Okay, okay. So rate one to ten, my worth ethic. Work ethic, ten. Ooh, thank you. Patience. Eight. Eight! Right. But if it don't go right, you ain't got no patience for that. With you, I haven't. With other people, I'm I'm like yeah, you're very professional, very patient with everyone else. Jody just unleashes the beast. Organisation. Nine. Scoring quite high. Memory. Choose your words wisely, Mrs. Goldfish. Eight. Jodie's is a four. Jodie forgets everything. I literally turn around and I've forgotten. My emotional stability. Oh, you're much better now. I would go, I would go maybe a seven. Or an eight now. What would you all have been before? Maybe a six. Oh, I still wear a high. I was gonna thought you were gonna expose me. Much better. I used to be called like 99% water, didn't I? Oh, she leaks constantly. Yeah. Yeah, she just leaks all the time. I like a good cry. You're you know what? You're probably the most cleansed person I've ever met. I know when they say Clark crying cleanses the soul. I feel like I used to cry and I'd be like, I feel much better now. I'd be like, why are you crying? I just felt like I needed one. I haven't actually cried. I think last month I cried. Anyway. Um, my overthinking seven? That's something I could be better on, I think. Yeah. I don't think it's too bad. I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle sometimes. Competition stress levels. We haven't competed in a while. So if we went back to when I used to compete, it's probably a seven. Now I'd probably go like five. Five's bad. Ten's high. Oh. So it'd be the other way around. Yeah. That's what I meant. My perfectionism. A yeah. I feel I think I've got better with perfectionism. I don't think I'm too bad on myself, but I do like things to be. Yeah, but not everyone's got the right base to make perfect. What do you mean? So like you will want a perfect set of lashes, but not everyone's got the perfect set of lashes for you to start with. Oh, but I think I've got better with that. That's what I mean. You've got much better with that. Like I want it to look a certain way, but they're just don't. The expectations is better. We're gonna flip it. What have we got? You can ask me any three questions you like. You've got any three questions that come to your mind? If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be? I'm trying to think of it in a way, would it be about like when I'm working with sets, or would it be anything? It could be anything. If you didn't have to do something, what would it be? Classics. No, I like classics. Um one thing about my job that I would change. Do you know what actually? It's not something about my job I'll change now because I think I have everything, everything's very how I like it. But I think when I first started, the one thing I would that could never change, but I would have loved to have changed is having to market yourself a lot. If that could be taken away, yeah. Like you you you really have to put yourself there. Like the heart is so it's like again doing something that you're not really familiar with, but you're really having to like you have to be a certain way with clients, you have to be well putting yourself out there. What do you mean? Well, I've spin some places and been shocked at how they are. No, I never then you would never go back.

unknown 1:09:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:18

But I mean, what it is is like I am who I am, and I get my clients because of who I am. But when you're young and you're first starting out, you have to learn all of that working with the public, um, being that type of person, having these higher standards, like I feel like you have to be there, but I wish it wasn't as hard to market yourself. I got another one. Is that a good one? Yeah. I got another good question. If you could sack off a curl, what one would it be? Sack off a curl. Like it just ceases to exist. I don't ever use it. D D. Who wants them curly lashes that go all the way back? They're just hideous. They are some people might like them. No, they are not nice. If you want big caterpillar slugs, yeah, maybe, but no, thanks. I feel like the curl doesn't even exist either. D D plus it's just so, it's so tight. That folds backward, it's just no. I don't even have it in my trolley for that reason. Well, there you go. Another question? One more. If you only had to do one set for the rest of your life, what would it be? One set for the rest of my life. These are hard questions. Um I know. Anyone would think I had hours to think about them.

unknown 1:10:54

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Well, I have to what do you think I think about when I'm laying for eight hours doing two hours? Oh, sorry, I was thinking you haven't had hours to think about them. Um I forgot the question. You call me a goldfish. Um if you could only do one set for the rest of your life, what would it be? I've can I do two? It's not the question, but yeah, actually I've got three. No, no, you can push to two. That's it. See, I love the lamy effect. Okay, next one. Be more decisive. Foxy. That foxy look. And hand texture. I like them all. You're allowed to. Okay. Right, your three questions are over. Okay. Looking back from when I first started practicing to where things are now, did you ever think it would or imagine it would turn into something like it is? Yeah, I always knew it would be, you'd be good at it and it would you'd make a good business out of it. I didn't know it would end up going this direction, you know, training, judging, podcasts, that kind of stuff. That's mad, isn't it really? Yeah, definitely. I didn't think it would end up here. I do I just thought maybe you'd get bigger and bigger and bigger, compete more, win a lot more competitions, speak at conferences because you were such a an amazing award-winning person. That seemed like the natural progression. Which you do have do, but I didn't think it would go this way as well. No. Is there a moment that sticks out that you would say you was at your proudest? Is there a moment that you were like, oh, I'm really proud of you like that? It's like that stands out from No, I mean I'm proud of you all the time. Um there was one. Did you do that speaking at that conference when I was in Australia? You did, didn't you? I think it was that. You did something. No. You were here, it was in September. No. Yeah, because you we had the wedding, didn't we? Oh yeah. What did you you did something? I remember because I was in South Australia at the time, and you sent it in the group chat. You sent it in the family group chat. Um I think I won an award for speaking. Was it that? You were in Australia. I can't remember. I was in South Australia at the time, I remember, and you sent it in the group chat for us all to watch. Maybe you were accepting an award at an event or something like that. I don't know. I just remember seeing it and I was watching it, and George was sitting next to it and I watched it, and then I was really proud of you, and then he turned round and he was like, Are you alright? And I was crying, and I was like, I'm just so proud of her. And he was like, Are you okay? And I was like, Yeah. Probably then. Makes a change, you blub me. Yeah, exactly. I did, I blubbed, yeah. Well, we've actually got a little voice note from Mum, haven't we? Oh god, yeah, but I've not listened to it yet. None so me and Jod haven't listened. So mum was meant to be here today, um, but she hasn't didn't come in the end, and instead she sent a little voice note, but we me and Jod haven't listened to it yet, so we we don't know what it's gonna say. And just for context, she sent one, deleted it, sent a second one, deleted that, and now we've got two. Three, three, three, yeah, three, and then she phoned after sending them to say she sent them. I've sent them, and I was like, Well, obviously, I've got them. So God knows what she's gonna say. Make sure you put it up to the mic. If you're watching this on YouTube, did you just see the way Jody looked at me? Okay, rude.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:56

Oh, Caris, what a beautiful soul you are. Kind, warm, caring, incredibly creative, and quietly determined. I think you're destined for great things, my darling. And now everyone's blubbering.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:19

Oh, your character's crying. Have we got your tissue?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:27

I don't have one. Now you've made me cry. I don't know whether I cried from laughing or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:33

Go on, things wrong. Uh, you ready?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

This one's a bit muffly.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:41

It's been such a privilege to watch you grow and become the woman you are today. When I think back to when you were just finished doing your GCSEs, even then you were determined to choose where you trained as a beautician and you knew exactly where you wanted to go and organised yourself to move into a high-end salon to do your apprenticeship in Sheinfield. Um I think that after that, you know, how you handled yourself. I know you had incredibly bad anxiety when once you'd had your issues in Lee with the salon owner there. But I think that that gave you a great lesson in life. And you kind of you it made you have a huge leap in your maturity to being in the workplace and understanding that workers work and people, they they are not your friends. Hard lesson to learn, and actually really difficult for those around you to watch.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:53

Oh, you used to phone me every morning. I don't want to go to work.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

Jack, yeah, you said cry my as that. Every day. I should not turn around, go on. Oh god, I'm gonna go to work. I couldn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:08

But you know, you persevered and you came out of it and you made that huge leap to start your own business, which has you've never ever looked back. And then, love you, you had all of that with COVID, and you had to get a job doing paperwork, but even so, you just but I hated, I actually hated it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:33

Was Jodie's insurance, nothing against the insurance company, but that it was very helpful for you at the time, wasn't it? I don't understand how anyone wants to do admin, I'm sorry. But you just keyed in data, didn't you? That's all you did for that message really made me cry, mum. I know, I just love her so much. She's the brand of you. Um you just had to key in data, I think, didn't you? It was all for months. I had no like screenshot on a map where someone lived. Oh, it was horrific.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

The time that you had to good use, and you trained to be an educator, and Jodie and I were your students, and we had to sit there and learn all the lessons that you were teaching. And uh we all we learnt a lot, didn't we, Jod? But uh, I'm so proud of you, darling. Even even your um determination to sort of be mentored by the top people in your in your field or yeah, in your field of lashes. You know, I can remember how excited you were to go and have a mentoring session with Anastasia.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

And um people might think you over exaggerate, but honestly, you're so excited you don't even understand.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:02

And just it was just such a wow moment for you. And I think I love that you still have all of these wow moments with um creating different looks on lashes and all your different styles and textures. I think it is absolutely brilliant that you're still so excited about creating new things and getting them online. I mean, that's another area that you've really excelled in, isn't it? You've kind of become this brilliant content creator. I love looking at all your stuff on the on the telly as I call it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:46

Yesterday I said to her, oh, have you taken care of. Wait, just for context, because sometimes you go up a mum, but anyone who is actually listening, because there's listeners, they're not gonna know. So my mum is a bit of a technophobe and she calls her phone the deli. She does, and she doesn't understand Instagram either, and she seems to think that I don't know, things have been posted and they've not been. I was I said to her yesterday, oh, have you seen have we seen Garris' new Lammy thing that she's done on Ellie? And mum was like, Oh, I've not been online yet today. I was like, Oh, I'll show you. And then I showed her the one, you know, Ellie's got all the knitted hands, gloves on, and she's doing all this. Um and mum was like, oh, I love it. She sent one more as well. Oh my god, that one's a minute long. What else has she possibly got to say? Oh, I love this, this has really hurt my heart.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:45

I really loved being part of your journey as well, Carrie, through being a model or being a student, or just listening to your ideas and all of your forward thinking. Um, I think for you, you know, you're you're just going from strength to strength. You're you're working in collaboration with London Lash and just your moments where you your models were chosen for their main advertising campaign. This wonderful podcast that you're now doing that will inspire young beauticians or young Lash artists to sort of strive and be their best. I mean, you really you really are a wonderful woman, Karis. I'm absolutely so proud of you. Um, I just just I just love everything that you do, but obviously I love you with all my heart. Love you, darling.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:45

Oh, we have the best mum in the world. Karis is crying again. I told you 99.9% water.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:57

You should do the bottled water adverse. Pull yourself together, woman. For anyone that wants to start a business, just find my mum. She would have sniffed. Welcome to beyond the teasers. Oh honestly, very good. We did that at the end because if that was midway through, I would I would have been absolutely uh absolutely gone. Oh I think it just goes to show though, doesn't it? Having a not we're very lucky with with the support network that we have, or you're very lucky with the support network that you have. Yeah, but you're also the same. I mean business, I was relating it to business. Oh, right, yeah. Oh, yeah, we're very, very lucky. Oh god. And for people that don't have it, you're welcome to borrow us. You can join our family if you want. My mum will give you a nice supportive message. Oh. She always makes me go like that. It's because your cup overflows. Oh you saw myself out. Now I can't stop leaking. Oh no, shall I wrap this up? Thanks for listening. Now I've got the grips of my knickers, bloody, she sent me over the edge. Do you know what it is about, mum? It's love. It's I've I don't want to cry again, but she's just like the best person. Don't do it. Skip over. Let's talk about something else. Okay. Are you done? No, because I can't talk about it. And on a separate note. On a separate note. Thank you for coming onto the podcast, Jod. Thanks. I've really enjoyed it. Honestly, did you see that? Thanks. Have you enjoyed yourself? Did you have fun? Yeah, I did actually. And I just wanted to say thank you as well, as well as mum, for being like my favourite person in the whole entire world to help me. You're welcome. Oh no. I will be your model forever. Until I'm too old, and then I won't be anymore. We won't be because you're leaving me. We've laughed.

unknown 1:24:24

We've cried, literally.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:26

And I you've cried. And I hope for anyone who's either listening or watching that you feel like you know me a little bit more, and also you know my family a little bit more and like the people I surround myself with. Thank you for listening, or thank you for watching. Goodbye. You don't gotta say anything you're gonna say bye. No. Ending there.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:55

I feel like comfortable now.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:58

Wow, what an emotional episode. Like the ending with my mum literally just sent me over the edge. I just want to say thank you so much for watching, listening, tuning into this episode. I hope that you feel like you have um more of an insight on who I am, a closer connection to me, and to who I surround myself with and what my family are like. Like without my mum, my sister, Jack, like my whole entire family, I would never have been able to build the career that I have. So having the support around you is so important, and I'm so lucky to have my family. Like my mum is honestly like my rock, and I use thought like as soon as I hear her, oh I'm gonna send me over the edge again, but as soon as I hear her voice, like she's been through so much, yeah, she just means she just means the world um to me. Anyway, don't want to cry anymore, but if you um if you can follow, subscribe, or press whatever button is in front of you so you never miss an episode. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for supporting me and being a part of this dream of mine. Honestly, it means the world. And yeah, I'll see you next week for another episode. Lots of love.