As I said goodbye to 27 and hello to 28, I found myself incredibly proud of my life and where I’m at for the first birthday in a long time. Our lord and savior Tinx always says that our twenties are mismarketed decade, and I totally agree. I was desperate to feel like I had my life figured out when I moved from Florida to California with my boyfriend (now husband) when I was 22, bringing along a bachelor's degree from FSU, a love and passion for makeup (I was working as a MAC girl when I moved), and my dog, Ruger. I wasn’t even nervous at the time- I was just excited to try out using my degree and hanging out with my best friend all the time.
Fast forward a few months, and I landed a job as an Account Executive at CBS. Not to be dramatic, but my excitement quickly turned into misery. I wasn’t running around in chic, all-black outfits with fun makeup, being creative all day everyday. I wanted so badly to feel like I was doing the right thing, but my whole body just rejected it. I cried almost every day on the way home from work, just to finally get home, shower, sleep, and do it again. I just kept thinking, people go to work in office jobs every day- do all their lives suck this bad?!
So I started doing some soul searching, as well as any 22 year old could anyway, and eventually found my way back to MAC. I loved the atmosphere, I loved the clients, and I loved learning new makeup techniques. I could feel that it wasn’t a forever fit, by my god did it feel good to be back in my element and my black Gianni Bini combat boots with the crystals (IYKYK). About a year later, I got the news that we would be moving to Hawaii. We didn’t have any kids, it was a new fresh start, so if I was going to be a makeup girlie, I was going to jump in with two feet and go back to school to become a licensed esthetician.
After arriving on the island, I luckily stumbled upon The Skin Institute International, an incredible esthetician school on Oahu. I was learning so much so fast, and I truly fell in love with treating the skin. In my time off, I was constantly googling what ingredients were, or pouring through Google Scholar to see the studies behind the “rules” of skin. I could just feel that this is where I was supposed to be. If money didn’t exist, I would still be working in skincare. I saw myself spending my days working in a medspa, and my weekends doing makeup. And then, I got pregnant.
Finding out I was pregnant was quite a shock. Actually, that word doesn’t sound big enough. It was an earthquake. I was in the middle of esthetician school, 6,000 miles away from my family, in the middle of COVID, with very minimal daycare options. How on earth was I supposed to build my new career and take care of this little baby?
Then, thanks to the support of some really incredible photographers, my side makeup business started taking off. Hawaii is the most stunning backdrop, so everyone wanted family photos, and they wanted ME to do their makeup for them. ME. The girl who was always the least talented makeup artist at the MAC store. I couldn’t believe it! The style of makeup I had always done was getting more popular (natural colors, less coverage, etc). It turned out to be my main gig, and the most perfect scenario I could’ve asked for. Working part-time, making full time money, taking my baby to the beach in our backyard on my days off, doing styled shoots with my friends… And then, the news comes that we're moving again.
I was so sad to leave my wonderful business and clients I’d built in Hawaii. I still had different goals, goals I knew I could never reach in Hawaii or through makeup, so I was excited in a way for this new adventure; But what was I going to do? And then a second set of news comes: I’m pregnant again.
I knew there was no way I could afford to restart my makeup business and pay daycare for two kids (over $1200 a month, in case you haven’t priced it out). But I had been doing skincare consultations on and off, selling Glymed through their site, and I absolutely loved it. Creating skincare routines for people to do at home has always been my favorite thing in aesthetics. Months go by, and after endless chats with my sister, I had the idea to make it a real business, and call it Deux Skin. We’re two sisters with a French grandmother, so it worked personally, and professionally speaking- the puns are never ending.
I had my second baby, Sia, on December 27th, and January 2nd, Sarah and I went to work. Brainstorming, creating, Googling how to start a business (literally). We wanted this to feel like our clients had an esthetician and a nurse they could communicate with any time that was going to fix their skin concerns. From there, we realized the power of taking 5 minutes a day to do your skincare when you spend the other 1435 minutes taking care of other people (i.e. babies). We found immense joy in creating this brand and working with our clients in a way that allows us to be the present moms we want to be. I genuinely couldn’t be more grateful that 18 year old Savannah had the guts to change her major for the first time to give herself a better life. There have been SO many more pivots since then: 4 cross country and/or ocean moves, 10 different houses, another dog, 2 surprise babies, many nights crying in the bathtub drinking red wine because if I was grown up enough to like red wine I should be grown up enough to know what I’m doing in my life… But all roads led to Deux and I’m eternally grateful.
Now that we're really settling into the flow of the business, we have a ton of ideas and new launches planned for the next year and we can't wait to see where this thing goes. I hope I'm still writing these posts when I'm 80 (and still look 60.) Thanks for the support thus far, and for reading my little 28 year old life story.
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