Hair stylist and lash/nails tech combined their individual businesses into one: Luxe Oasis x Mad Lash

Tim Harty, The Business Times 

Kaitlyn Fournier and Maddii Pink owned separate small businesses, but had quite a few shared customers, thanks to the nearby spaces they occupied in Sola Salon Studios in Mesa Mall.

That made it relatively easy for customers to go to Fournier to get their hair styled at Luxe Oasis and go to Pink to get their eyelashes and nails done at Mad Lash.

But that base of shared customers got the duo, best friends who met eight years ago through their husbands who are best friends, thinking maybe they should share something else: a combined salon.

“We say we’re the dynamic duo, because she handles all of the stuff that I don’t like doing, which is nails and lashes, and then I do the hair, which she doesn’t enjoy doing,” Fournier said. “So, it was really just a way that we could have our clients come into one space and get the full experience.”

They said the idea surfaced about a year ago, and it became a reality Aug. 10, when they opened Luxe Oasis x Mad Lash at 1048 Independent Ave., A-101, in Independence Plaza.

They didn’t overthink the salon name, simply combining their existing business names.

“We kind of smushed them together into Luxe Oasis x Mad Lash,” Fournier said. “That way we weren’t having to think of a whole new name, and we had already done all this marketing for our individual businesses, so it just kind of made sense to do it that way.”

Just like the salon itself made sense to them.

“We were in separate suites together before we started here, but we had always kind of had a big dream to create something together,” Pink said. “I don’t have anything to do with hair, and she’s the hair behind this side of things. … We share a lot of clientele, so bringing it to one area where they can come and get all of the things done at once was kind of convenient for them.”

Plus, she added, “We enjoy hanging out with each other, and having a salon together was a dream, so we just made it happen.”

It might have happened sooner, but finding the right location proved challenging, and it wasn’t for lack of trying.

“We were like crackheads, checking listings every day, multiple times a day,” Pink said.

“Once our leases were up, we really started hammering down on finding a building, and we found a couple,” Fournier added. “We looked at multiple properties, but it wasn’t really like the one that we thought would benefit us and that was big enough for us to expand services. 

“Then, when this one came up, it was just kind of a fluke that it came up, and I’ll never forget, the Realtor, she was like, ‘OK, do you guys want to think about it?’ And we both looked at each other, like, ‘No, we want it.’ Like, this is it. We can envision ourselves in here and this is the building for us.”

The fluke, Pink explained, was Fournier saw the Independence Ave. unit listed for rent and sent it to her to look at, but Pink drove past it and saw previous tenant Fixture Studio was still occupying the space.

“I was like, ‘Kaitlyn, there’s someone in there. Someone’s renting it,’” Pink said.

Fournier’s reply was: “No, it’s on (the listing). It says it’s available,” and she said, “I’m just gonna reach out and see what happens.”

From there, Pink said, “It was maybe 15 minutes later, and she calls me back, and she’s like, ‘You want to go look at it today at like 4 o’clock? And I was like, ‘OK, sure.’”

Fournier said the unit’s lease was more than they had wanted to budget for, “but when we saw the space, we were like, ‘No, we want this one.’ It’s like, ‘We will make it work. We’ll make it happen.’”

They expect to fill the extra space by renting booths. Because while Fournier and Pink are versatile and can do a little bit of everything, their plan to grow the business will be to offer more services, such as spray tans, “so we have a well-rounded salon where we offer kind of everything,” Fournier said.

“Kind of like a one stop shop for most things,” Pink added.

That will develop in time, though, as Fournier said, “We just moved in here, so we’re not really in a rush right now.”

Luxe Oasis x Mad Lash also eventually will have an area set up for kids with toys, books, snacks and drinks. Fournier is a mother of three boys, and Pink has a daughter and a son, so they understand what moms go through.

They also emphasize their salon is a judgment-free zone.

“They say that hairstylists or lash techs are the closest thing you get to a therapist,” Fournier said. “And so it’s just a place where they can come and they feel safe, and they feel like we’re gonna listen and not judge. And whether they want to turn up the music and just kind of zone out or they want to talk about their day, we’re here for them.”

Pink echoed that and said she limits herself to three to five clients per day, “because I want to be able to take my time and personalize their experience,” rather than process them like a transaction.

Pink said she can’t tell you what she had for breakfast yesterday, but she’s determined to provide her clients a “very personalized experience.”

“Some of my clients will giggle at me,” she said, “because I try my best to remember all of their stories and all of the vacations that they take, their kids’ names, how old their kids are.”

Both owners mentioned honesty and trust are another cornerstone of their salon. They said it’s better to have the hard conversation than to ignore it, and such honesty builds trust.

“We do it because we care about your overall well-being,” Pink said.

Grand Opening for New Salon

Luxe Oasis x Mad Lash, 1048 Independent Ave., A-101, will host its grand opening Saturday, Aug. 29, beginning at 10 a.m.

Salon owners Maddii Pink and Kaitlyn Fournier said a tattoo artist and a permanent-jewelry artist will be on hand, and there will be brunch, snacks, mimosas and raffles.