A contemporary coat of mirador blue, a shade impressed by the southern coast of Spain, gives a heat and welcoming vibe when first coming into Beya Skincare Studio. Nestled comfortably in cozy suite No. 3 at 100 Corry Street, the newly opened enterprise owned by Belinda Stephens will cater to the skincare wants of Yellow Springs residents.
Stephens, a licensed cosmetologist with certifications in skincare and everlasting make-up procedures and 33-year veteran of the business, determined early on that she didn’t wish to do hair.
“I began exploring different issues we will do with our license, and pores and skin simply grew to become an increasing number of what I used to be excited about,” she mentioned.
Through Beya, Stephens will provide skincare therapies that some residents might have needed to journey exterior of the village to obtain through the years. Beya’s menu gives physique and pores and skin therapies. It contains dermaplaning, a well-liked therapy through which a sterilized surgical blade is used to take away peach fuzz and lifeless pores and skin cells from the highest layer of the face, and Gua Sha, a lymphatic drainage therapy for the face that may cut back puffiness and has a detoxifying impact on the face and neck, in accordance with the skincare providers menu discovered on Beya’s Facebook web page. Stephens will provide conventional providers similar to facial waxing and her personal customized touches to conventional manicures. Called the Beya Mani, it contains dry brushing and Gua Sha on the hand and forearm.
The title for her enterprise was impressed by the pronunciation of the Spanish phrase for stunning, bella, which is pronounced like “beya.” Stephens, whose kids are of Mexican descent, speaks fluent Spanish. Stephens didn’t wish to title her enterprise Bella, solely to have folks mispronounce the enterprise title by calling it “bell-a.” She additionally didn’t need folks to assume it was a nickname for Belinda.
“If any individual says ‘beya’ and also you converse Spanish, you’re going to see it in your thoughts as bella. So, I went with that spelling as a result of I needed it to be pronounced proper. And once I Googled the phrase ‘beya,’ it additionally means magnificence in Pakistani.”
When requested why she thought Yellow Springs can be a superb match for Beya, Stephens defined that she gives providers not at present present in Yellow Springs.
“For one, there’s no person else doing what I do, that’s an enormous one. But additionally, I feel my enterprise mannequin is an efficient match for this neighborhood as a result of I do issues in additional of a pure manner,” Stephens mentioned.
Stephens has been advised that she is approachable, which helps folks really feel extra relaxed round her.
“Beya’s focus is extra on wellness and wellbeing, and private care. My daughter tells me on a regular basis that individuals are simply drawn to me,” Stephens mentioned. “She advised me, ‘I don’t know what number of instances I’ve seen folks speak to you for no motive.’”
Stephens sees her enterprise as serving a necessity for the village and has deliberately stored her costs decrease to draw villagers.
“This is one thing that I’m cognizant of as I stroll round assembly folks and posting issues. I’m very leery of somebody seeing me as wanting to come back into the neighborhood to begin a enterprise simply to revenue off tourism,” Stephens mentioned.
Stephens can also be excited to have the chance to emphasise service, one thing she’s by no means been in a position to implement totally. She’s at all times labored for different companies and needed to do issues their manner. For her, service is important.
“I like the private contact and I just like the relationships with folks, the bonds that may kind when you’ve gotten a consumer that is available in each week or each month — you get to know folks,” Stephens mentioned.
Beya will function in the identical constructing that homes one other just lately opened enterprise, H & H Studios, which focuses on wholesome hair care and therapeutic therapeutic massage. Stephens reached out to the homeowners when she determined to hire the area close by. She sees the skincare work that she does as complementary to their providers.
Being neighborhood minded, Stephens desires to do her half to assist different companies. “We had been speaking about the opportunity of cross referrals — I can refer folks over there for hair, for therapeutic massage and vice versa,” she mentioned.
Because Stephens isn’t planning to promote retail merchandise proper now, she’s hoping to develop relationships with different companies on the town, together with Rosie’s, the well being meals retailer.
“I wish to check out the skincare merchandise that they carry over there. I do know they’ve the important oils, which I’m good with shopping for there,” she mentioned.
Stephens believes that with the ability to refer her shoppers to Rosie’s can be mutually useful. “That’s retail gross sales for them and simple for my shoppers, as a result of alternatively I’d should say you will get this on-line. It can be good to only ship them proper throughout the road,” she mentioned.
Stephens additionally customized blends pure merchandise throughout therapies primarily based on her consumer’s particular person wants. She incorporates important oils, mixing them with provider oils and lotions. She deliberately makes use of merchandise which can be as pure as potential. Custom mixing permits her to keep away from what she refers to as “all of the dangerous elements, the parabens, alcohol and all of that stuff.”
Stephens doesn’t carry nail polish, so if folks needed a manicure with polish, they’d should deliver it.
“I don’t wish to make investments lots in having 100 nail polish colours, to not point out I don’t have anywhere to place it so the pure will do. The buff and shine or the french as a result of that’s straightforward sufficient,” Stephens mentioned.
Although Beya is on social media platforms together with Facebook and Instagram, advertising and marketing for a skincare enterprise that requires shut contact could be tough because the nation begins to maneuver past the COVID-19 pandemic. And in accordance with Stephens, being outgoing isn’t pure to her. She prefers the one-on-one interactions she has along with her shoppers.
And but Stephens, who has been introducing herself to different native retailers, is having fun with the method of attending to know the neighborhood, and her appreciation for the village has grown. So far, the trouble has outdated her social discomfort.
“I haven’t actually met lots of people but — however folks right here have a manner about them, and I don’t know if it’s as a result of they’ve lived right here so lengthy or if folks had been introduced up right here, or if it’s simply sort of ingrained in them,” Stephens mentioned.
COVID impression
Beya is Stephens’ first enterprise enterprise working past unbiased contracting, which regularly entails renting a chair or an area inside one other enterprise and having to adapt to their enterprise insurance policies.
“This is the primary time in my 53 years that I’ve opened a enterprise fully by myself,” Stephens mentioned.
The concept for Beya was planted throughout a go to to the Yellow Springs Street Fair in Spring 2016. Born and raised in Terre Haute, Ind., Stephens first visited the village along with her boyfriend, a Dayton native.
“Yellow Springs was one of many first locations my boyfriend and I got here once we had been courting. I simply fell in love with it instantly,” she mentioned.
According to Stephens, it was when she noticed all of the distributors arrange on the truthful and he or she explored the companies on the town that the seed was planted in her thoughts that opening a skincare enterprise within the village is one thing she’d like to do. However, she waved it away at first.
“Way again then I believed, ‘Yeah, no matter, pipe dream’ however then the pandemic occurred, and I discovered myself not wanting to return to what I used to be doing earlier than,” she mentioned.
The cosmetology business was particularly hit laborious by the COVID-19 pandemic as salons had been ordered closed in the beginning of the pandemic, leaving hundreds of employees out of the blue unemployed for months throughout the industrywide shut down.
Stephen’s catalyst to step out on her personal and away from a administration job she had been working for 3 years at a Dayton space salon was the pandemic.
“COVID for me, I’m not going to say it was a blessing, as a result of it’s not, nevertheless it was a spur. It moved me. Maybe not 100% however perhaps 99% of the rationale I’m right here proper now,” she mentioned.
During the shutdown, Stephens determined to embrace a extra fulfilling path for herself.
“The job the place I used to be managing these three years, I didn’t have any intention of quitting, I wasn’t going to go away there, I used to be going to make the most effective of it, and do my finest for them. But then it was over, so I simply determined throughout that point that I didn’t wish to return,” she mentioned.
The resolution to open a enterprise on her personal was additionally a transfer away from stagnation. “You could be in one thing day after day, and also you’re giving it your all, and it’s straightforward sufficient to say tomorrow will likely be higher or subsequent week will likely be higher, and also you’ll go on for years like that. And I may need achieved that,” she mentioned.
Finding an area to hire in Yellow Springs was a easy course of for Stephens. She rented the primary location that got here up on her Google search partially as a result of she was conversant in the placement, “I simply checked advertisements,” she mentioned.
From Indiana to Ohio
Stephens determined to maneuver to the Dayton space when her relationship along with her boyfriend grew to become extra critical. But she didn’t transfer instantly. Belinda is household oriented and enjoys spending time along with her children.
When Stephens’ daughter graduated from highschool in Indiana, she began on the lookout for work within the Dayton space, discovering a job managing a salon.
Although Stephens doesn’t have numerous hobbies, she enjoys reinventing garments by hand sewn alterations. Stephens additionally likes the outside, and enjoys climbing in John Bryan and Glen Helen.
Being in a relationship wasn’t the one motive she moved to the world. She moved eager to be a part of a neighborhood that higher matched her political opinions and private values. Her first go to to Yellow Springs was throughout the Spring 2016 presidential primaries.
“I knocked on doorways for Bernie in my hometown and it wasn’t straightforward. Coming to Yellow Springs throughout that first time was like sunshine on a cloudy day. I’ve since heard the city described as a Bernie island in the midst of a Trump ocean, and pondering again on it, that’s the way it felt. Kindred spirits in that regard,” Stephens mentioned.
Stephens additionally appreciated the village’s “all-out unapologetic assist for Black Lives Matter throughout the protests — and at all times, celebrating within the streets when Biden was elected president, PRIDE seen on each road on the town. We knew certainly that villagers would consider the science round Covid-19,” she mentioned.
Stephens at present resides within the Dayton space however desires ultimately to reside within the village. Her eyes match the keenness in her voice when discussing the likelihood. “I might like to reside in Yellow Springs,” she mentioned, emphasizing the phrase love.
Information about reserving an appointment at Beya Skincare Studio, together with an entire menu of providers, could be discovered on each Facebook and Instagram.
