-Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

When you pull into A NuReflection in Turnersville, you are first met with a small, quaint brick building featuring cursive on the door reading “Appointment Only.”

Elegant and feminine decorations adorn the walls, beautiful crystals line a side table and a pair of sofa armchairs rest along the wall.

Stacie Evans, 35, and Andrea Cerini-Fawthrop, 42, sisters with a passion for cosmetics, buzzed around like bees as they set the studio up for appointments. Both women have long, dark hair and dark eyes.

The most prominent feature on their faces, of course, are their perfectly carved eyebrows.

They walked in and out of the two rooms inside the building, laying out pigments, opening the curtains and setting up the equipment.

A NuReflection is a Fellows of the American Academy of Micropigmentation (FAAM) certified cosmetic tattooing and medical aesthetics business. They focus on microblading and other semi-permanent to permanent brow techniques, permanent eyeliner, eyelash enhancement, permanent lip color and lipliner and medical tattooing, among other things. They recently brought a doctor onto the team to provide services such as botox and fillers.

With a direct and serious yet friendly tone, Evans talked about her past and everything that led up to the creation of her business.

Before coming into the beauty industry, she started off doing business-to-business sales and eventually consumer relations for Pepsi at the age of 19. This is where she accredits learning the value of work ethic.

Even still, she felt a pull towards beauty.

“I always looked up to my older sisters,” Evans said. “They were always in the beauty industry…I saw that and I wanted to be a part of that. Our father was a tattoo artist. I knew it was something I’ve always wanted to do…I was fascinated by all of it.”

This led her to a tattoo ink company called Freedom-2 Inc. in Cherry Hill. There, Evans had the opportunity to work with industry professionals doing encapsulation methods on tattoo inks to make them more easily removable, as well as FDA approved, so it would be safer if consumers wanted to get them lasered.

Her knowledge of tattooing and scar tissue gives her the unique niche of being able to fix “botched” work on clients who struggle with the incorrect techniques or colors used on them from other cosmetic tattooing businesses.

“I’m the person people will come to as their last resort, because time has not been fair to their permanent cosmetics or they’ve gone to different practitioners or technicians, they’re not at their personal goal and no one is listening to them. So they come to me,” Evans said.

Her biggest goal, above all, is to create conservative, natural-looking brows that transcend the often unrealistic Instagram expectations that dominate pop culture.

“You don’t want to tattoo Saturday night makeup on your face. Trends have an expiration date. Classic never expires,” Fawthrop said.

But there were setbacks before she could begin her business. Evans grew up in Collingswood but relocated to Washington Township after meeting her husband Geoff. She had to put tattooing on hold while they dealt with losing their house to a fire and complications with their newborn son.

“My husband’s grandfather built it in 1950. So when we lost the house, it was like ‘well, what are we going to do? We’re not leaving.’ So we rebuilt,” Evans said.

From there, life began to calm down.

While Geoff built his plumbing business and brand, Evans remained loosely involved in her craft and eventually started the LLC for A NuReflection on April 28 of 2017. This summer will be two years of working from her current location, but they will not be there to celebrate.

Evans is moving to a bigger building located at 5050 Route 42 in Turnersville, not too far from her current location, with plans to expand: more technicians, more rooms and hopefully more clients.

As Evans left to deal with a trainee in the other room, Fawthrop discussed her modest beginnings as a young girl at age 11, sweeping the floors of the local salon. From there she worked her way up to washing hair, but her passion remained in makeup and beauty, especially eyebrows.

Fawthrop applied to 800 West Salon and Spa in Marlton, where she learned everything about the business from the bottom up. At age 17, she went to cosmetology school and had a full book for makeup—she even had to work on her prom day.

Their father played a large role in inspiring Fawthrop’s career as well. When he bought a permanent makeup gun for the fine lines it could achieve, he let her tattoo him and taught her techniques like popcorning and cross-hatching. Around age 26, she finally bought one of her own.

Not only did she do her own brows with the makeup gun, but she did Evans’, too—on their kitchen floor.

Although she loved permanent makeup, she knew she would have to go to school for it. As a single mom, she knew she didn’t have the time. So she focused on her makeup business, honing in mostly on bridal showers and weddings.

It was only last October that she received her Permanent Makeup and Microblading certification, much to her sister’s pleasure, and joined A NuReflection as a permanent makeup artist.

Together the two strive to accentuate the natural beauty of their clients and, above all, promote self confidence.

When asked what she would like prospective clients to know, Evans makes one thing clear: be informed.

“I want people to ask questions, I want people to feel comfortable. You’re getting your face tattooed. Do your research. Meet the technicians,” Evans said. “New Jersey is one of the hardest states to get fully certified to work in, so make sure you’re verifying credentials.”

But more importantly, know that you can trust your technician.

“My girls care. You can always contact me no matter what. Regardless of the thousands of people I work on, this could be the first time for you and you should be treated with that respect, and that’s what I give to clients,” Evans said.

If you would like to read more about Stacie and Andrea or book an appointment, visit anureflection.com or call at 856-562-5952. To book Andrea’s makeup services, go to andreacerini.com.

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