Kate Shaughnessy

You Teach Your Children How to Live Life By The Way You Live Yours

I grew up with a mom who always encouraged me to reach for the stars and to find my passion. Having always loved to play with makeup from a young age, I was devastated to develop onset cystic acne when I was 18. This was acne so bad that people would ask if I had been in a fire.  Through this traumatic period of my life, I discovered that I was passionate about helping other women overcome their doubts and fears and feel gorgeous in their own skin.

Kate’s skin: Before & After

After spending thousands of dollars on facial treatments, topical crèmes, and Accutane, I was finally able to turn my skin around. While the way you look isn’t everything, my self-image affected my self-esteem tremendously, so I made the decision to go to school to help others with similar stories of their skin. Not long into my esthetics career, eyelash extensions entered the scene and I decided to go to training. Against the advice of so many of my peers who said it would be a fad, I decided to sign up for the Xtreme Lash training.

I fell in love right away with the ability to transform tired, dreary eyes into bright, happy eyes. I was the first Certified Lash Stylist in Indiana through Xtreme Lashes and began building my clientele quickly. As my clientele was growing so was my family.

I was six months pregnant with a two-year-old when I made the decision to open my own studio when the market crashed.  Determined to succeed, I would not let my fears overcome me. Two weeks after giving birth to my second daughter, I went back to work.

Lash & Brow Design Co. Opening

I struggled through the plan I had put in place. A few more years passed adding two more children as well as clients to my already full schedule. At the same time, I was recruited to be an educator for Xtreme Lashes. While traveling the country teaching women the art of lash extensions, I encountered so many innovative facets of our industry, most notably: Microblading.

I was amazed at how beautiful Microblading was. After spending a month researching the best training available, I borrowed money from my dad (who thought the whole idea was crazy) to attend a Microblading basics course.

Following the training, I came home and practiced A LOT! I would apply lash extensions from 9 am to 9 pm only to go home and practice on latex for a few. Several times my husband found me fast asleep with my face resting on the practice latex. I was determined to be not just good, but great! My first year I did well over 1,000 procedures. This allowed me to hire several amazing ladies to take my lash extension clientele and focus solely on honing my craft. When I wasn’t working on a client I was back on latex practicing patterns and mastering my flow.

I remember when my family went to Disney, we would come home from the parks. While everyone would sleep, I would practice.

Kate's Family

The transformation of Microblading on women was incredible. So many clients who wouldn’t swim with their kids, for fear of their penciled eyebrows coming off, would cry when they saw their newly bladed brows. This confidence I was able to bring out in my clients, became one of my driving forces. The day it really shifted for me was the day I received a call from a burn survivor who asked if I could give her back her eyebrows.  She had been lost in a house fire at the age of three. “Let me do some research” I replied.

I interviewed burn doctors, practiced on many different types of textures from pig skin, oranges, pears, a thicker rubber, to cowhide. This brave young woman had both skin grafts as well as cadaver skin making the challenge that much more difficult. Watching her reaction when she looked in the mirror and saw her new brows was life-changing. Who knew that Microblading eyebrows could so radically change someone’s life? The doctors at the burn hospital were amazed by the results and began referring patients to me.  

 After Microblading Transformation

My business grew to 10 Lash Stylists, 2 Microblading artists, and a Scalp Micro Pigmentation artist who, just like me, believe that practice makes perfect.

My daughters watch me go to work every day loving what I do. They have seen me work so hard, set goals, dream big, and work crazy hard to achieve them. Nothing has been handed to me.

Work hard for what matters, and give back every chance you get. In a world where there is so much bad, we have the power to do good and I believe in being the good. Transforming client's lives one eyebrow at a time allows me to be the good.

Am I making an impact on others? All you have to do is look into the eyes of the woman with alopecia, the cancer survivor who lost her brows to chemo, the burn survivor, or the woman with over-tweezed eyebrows. Those eyes that tell you the story can open a window to the powerful woman inside.

My four little girls now get to hear me repeat my mother’s refrain. “Find the thing that sets your soul on fire, the thing that you would do every day even if you never were paid to do it.” This is what drives me to have monthly giveaways to burn and cancer survivors.

I want my girls to see what it is to achieve a dream no matter the walk of life you come from or the challenges in front of you. I want them to always help others, to encourage and not to tear down.

Kate's four daughters

So, in the words of one of my favorite people: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would tell me to look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping” ~ Mr. Rogers

 Let's be those people. 

Shine on,

Kate Shaughnessy

Website: Lash & Brow Design Co.

Facebook: Lash & Brow Design Co.

Instagram: @lashandbrowdesignco