My name is Leanne Fulawka and I'm an esthetician and I've been doing this for about three years.


[Job Description:]

An esthetician is just someone that deals with skin care. I do manicures and pedicures. Manicures deal with the fingernails, and pedicures is the feet. I [also] do sculptured nails and that's where I like build nails and make them stronger; or, if someone wants long nails or people that are nail biters. I learn how to…do makeup and just all the skincare, body type of work - rather than hairdressers. They deal with cutting hair and cutting and stuff. I do the pampering, I guess, the nice stuff.

I make people feel good and that's what I like to do. It's like a chair rent salon. So, I buy my own supplies and I pay a month, a weekly rent for my space and stuff, but I am basically self-employed. Not all places are like that though. It just depends on where you go. Some days I have bad days where I'm not very busy but most days I mostly do nails. You know, like, I do the fills and the full sets and that's what I mostly do and that's what I mostly enjoy doing.

[Most Satisfying Aspect:]

The nice thing about it is being on your own. Being chair rent, if you're not busy and you choose to go home, you can. You don't have to answer to anybody.

[Courses Taken:]

Education is very important. I took my training. It's a ten-month course and you learn a lot about the body's anatomy like the muscle system and the nervous system. Because when you're doing facials and body treatments you have to really know the muscles and know what muscles you can massage and which areas you have to be really careful with. You have to know those kinds of things because you have to know what you can and cannot treat. Like some things, it's just a doctor. You have to refer clients to a doctor.

Get as much experience as you can. Practice, practice. Build your base and then you go from there. You know, it just all comes to you naturally.

[Attitude & Positive Behaviour:]

If you've got a positive attitude, everything just starts to roll and away you go. And you have to really be there for the public. Like if you're not really good at customer relations, this isn't the job for you. It's almost like psychiatry. It's funny, I had read in a magazine somewhere where a person will more likely confide in their hairstylist/esthetician than their own doctor or their own husband.

[Opportunities This Job Offers:]

There's so many other branches:

I can teach esthetics;
I could do theatrical makeup if I wanted to go into the movie business;
You can just do makeup for TV.
It really helps being in a positive environment. If I'm very happy here, I wake up in the morning and I look forward to going to work. Honestly. Truly. And that's just from experience. You know, I'm a lot healthier and I really do enjoy what I do.

It's fun because you get to meet a lot of different people; I've met a lot of people from the states, from Toronto and all walks of life. You're there to make them happy and because I enjoy doing what I do, I do a good job and they come back to me because they like what I do for them.