Cincinnati native working to become beauty business mogul

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A Cincinnati native is working on becoming a beauty business mogul specializing in permanent makeup.

Amber Harrison is the owner of Brow Envy, which currently has three locations in Ohio.

Her business all started when she was looking to get her eyebrows done. When she couldn’t find anyone in the area, she decided to create her own business.

The permanent makeup artist says making each person she works with feel beautiful is what made her fall in love with the trade.

She left her corporate job and capitalized on her tattooing skills.

“One of the things I was really craving was seeing that like instant transformation and I love a before and an after,” explains Harrison. “So, being able to be creative. It started with that. And then going above and beyond that, I realized I just like giving people confidence.”

It took her a while to find her own confidence as she transitioned into the beauty industry after working for an insurance company for several years.

“I was doing insurance claims litigation, and I just woke up one day and realized I don’t love this,” Harrison recalls. “I just woke up one day and realized I wanted to do something more creative.”

While on the journey of discovering what to do next, Harrison says she learned about microblading.

“First, I wanted my brows done, and I couldn’t find anyone near Cincinnati doing it back then, so that led me to finding a class and realizing, ‘Oh, I can maybe learn to do it myself,’” says Harrison. “I thought maybe I could stay home with my three kids and do it as a side hustle.”

It turned into much more than that after her calendar booked up and her phone continued to ring off the hook.

“Within a couple of months, I quit my day job and started doing this full time, and then slowly but surely, I started growing and hiring team members,” Harrison explains.

Harrison expanded Brow Envy from Cincinnati to Columbus and Liberty Township.

She even opened an academy where she teaches the art of microblading to bring in another generation of permanent makeup artists.

However, she says her journey to success didn’t come without some snags along the way.

“I didn’t have a fancy business plan or investors,” Harrison recalls. “It’s just kind of a matter of starting and figuring it out as you go. It’s going to be way harder than you think, so lean into that. If you kind of accept that when the bumps come, it’s less scary and jolting, you can just kind of roll with it.”

Rolling her into a space that she says brings her and her team joy every single day.

“Seeing people live out their dream and putting themselves first again because most of our clients are women,” says Harrison. “I find that in our community, we’re always taking care of everybody else, so it’s really exciting to see women coming in here and being this is something I want to do for me and I’m going to invest in myself, and the same for my team members. Just seeing them get up every day and doing something that they love. That’s definitely my bright spot.”

Harrison says when she was younger, she thought about being a teacher, so in a way, it has all come full circle.

While she’s enjoying the space she’s in right now, Harrison says there could be another new Brow Envy location in her future.

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