Today we’d like to introduce you to KK Shoaf.
Hi KK, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey in the beauty world began watching my mother tote her Fashion 220 bag from door-to-door one and I was a little girl. It was a company similar to Avon, I suppose, that did not stand the test of time. My dad’s sister, only 10 years older than I, was very much into makeup, as a teen, and whenever I was in her home, she drew me further into that world, to the excitement of both of us. By the time I was in middle school, I received a life-size Barbie head for Christmas, and was styling her hair and her face with a passion.
As a young adult, not excited about finishing college or the course of study I was on, I stepped into the beauty world in the retail space, beginning as a fragrance vendor in a large department store. I was asked to turn my focus to make up by one of the companies I was representing, Elizabeth Arden. Soon after, I was counter support for lines such as Chanel, YSL, Juice Beauty, Laura Mercier, and others.
Along the way, I had a major health crisis, which changed the way I had to eat, and made me become selective about the ingredients in my personal care products as well. It was quite the education process I hadn’t expected. The problem was, the demand for clean ingredient Beauty products had not fully manifested, and the only items available were in Health food stores, which were not readily accessible to most people, and truly, the formulations did not hold up over the course of a day. So for several years, I felt like I was living in two worlds, believing in using products from one sphere, while promoting and selling products from another.
But social media changed all that. The number of people coming together, and opening up about their health crises, becoming more open to alternative methods of health and healing, caused makeup companies to step up to the plate, and offer beautiful colors, with truly clean formulations that held up in any weather. No, I wasn’t alone in my journey after all. As so many today are affected by moderate to severe health issues, the modern beauty shopper is becoming increasingly savvy to ingredients in personal care products, and making demands for better choices for herself and the environment. As more and more clients requested my services offsite from the retail store, I realized I could operate in my own space, on my own terms, and start from scratch with only the clean ingredient beauty products that I would actually use.
In 2018, I stepped out and got my business license and insurance, and Whole Life Beauty LLC was born. Every client I served from then on could be confident that the products WHOLE LIFE BEAUTY uses are researched and vetted for purity by third party sources, no greenwashing, no false claims.
So I’ve been enjoying life in the Beauty Biz for over 30 years, and am now providing makeup artistry for magazine covers, weddings and special events, exclusively using clean, non-toxic beauty products that perform. Whole Life Beauty, LLC, also offers clean beauty education with private beauty cabinet consultations (a very popular service) and group master classes.
I’ve also enjoyed giving back to the community through several youth theater productions, senior citizen community events, Tim Tebo‘s Night To Shine, cancer patient events, and other outlets.
Keeping up with trends in color and skin care is exciting work, where there is joy in recognizing and enhancing what is truly and uniquely beautiful in every person, with the end goal of client satisfaction. “What’s most important to me is that my clients feel confident after spending time in my chair.” I love making the world more BEAUTIFUL, one face at a time. 💋
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Biggest lesson: taking myself seriously as a business person, and operating on those terms with myself first, so I can be taken more seriously by colleagues I work with and the clients I work for. One example is having learned the need to operate on a tight schedule when serving multiple clients at a time.
Now that I have a whole hair and makeup team that assist me on the larger commercials, weddings, or special events, I have taken what I’ve learned about organization from the retail space, and learned to apply it effectively to my business. It has changed my business for the better, and I believe, helped me grow as a person.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Whole Life Beauty LLC?
Clean ingredients are my priority for my clients, just as they are for me. Smile and the world smiles with you. Faith is not a construct but a way of life, and love is the overflow. For these reasons, I named my business Whole Life Beauty, as I desire to serve the whole person, spirit, mind and body.
I now have a makeup brush and hair tool cleaner, called It’s Cleaner by KK, that I am in the process of selling to local Health food stores, and hopefully soon, other independent retail outlets.
What matters most to you?
End goal of working on my own terms while providingclient satisfaction. “What’s most important to me is that my clients feel confident after spending time in my chair.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wholelifebeauty.biz
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/wholelifebeauty/?hl=en
- Facebook: Https://www.Facebook.com/WholeLIfeBeauty
