By Jennifer Armstrong
Kirkland Patch
December 7, 2011
SEQUOIA LEOPOLD, owner of Kirkland’s My Flawless Tan and Makeup, knows tanning.
An avid tanning bed user since high school, Leopold loved the look of a tan. As a Seattle Seagal professional cheerleader for four years, it was part of her job to maintain her tan year-round. Her first year on the squad, she found herself using tanning beds four or five times a week.
She was shaken when a fellow Seagal was diagnosed with skin cancer and had to have surgery to remove it.
“I was shocked that you could still die of skin cancer,” she said of the experience. “Skin cancer is a big deal. The surgery was significant and the scars are pretty intense. It’s like taking an ice cream scoop to your skin.”
In 2002, she discovered airbrush tanning, a safe process of essentially painting natural looking color onto the skin. She bought an airbrush and began using it on herself and her friends. With the small, non-commercial equipment, the process was slow and messy. But she and her friends loved the results. Little did she know, this would one day lead to a whole new career.
In 2007, after leaving the Seagals, Leopold was looking for inspiration. “All my friends had these careers they loved and were good at,” she recalls. “I was thinking, ‘What could I do that I love, that I’m good at and that people will pay me for?’ and I thought of this. I thought I could make a business of it.”
Turns out she was right. That summer, she opened My Flawless Tan and Makeup in a rented room of her stylist’s salon in Seattle. However, she lived in Kirkland and had a large client base here, so three or four times each week, she’d pack all of her equipment into her car and bring it to Kirkland.
In 2009, she got the push she needed when the salon closed. She moved the equipment into her home and worked from there for three months, saving money. She opened that year in Lake Street Mall and hung on for two years, in spite of the recession, until about a year ago when the business started to take off.
“Kirkland is the perfect market for this business because it’s got enough people who stay here and do their stuff locally, and it’s right on the freeway and easy to get to,” she said. “The business owners in Kirkland are magnificent. They are helpful and kind and synergistic.”
EARLIER THIS YEAR, she moved into her current location at 123 Lake Street, where she now has two airbrush tanning rooms, two airbrush makeup stations and an aesthetics room for threading, a hair removal process. One of the airbrush tanning systems is portable, allowing her to do parties, from charity and sorority events, to private, in-home functions.
Clients include residents of all ages, shapes and sizes, as well as many of the current Seattle Seagals, the Avalanche’s Bombshell dance team and other local notables.
Airbrush tanning sessions last 15 to 20 minutes and an application will last five to seven days. She tells clients that tans look best on the second or third day, so to plan accordingly when tanning for a special event. One application is all that is needed; technicians can apply tanning solution as light or dark as a client wants.
Sessions cost $40 and are safe and effective to people of all ages and body types. “All of our tanning products are organic,” Leopold said of her product line from Scentual Tan and Norvell. “Essentially, when I look at a label, I need to know what all of the ingredients are and how to pronounce them. All of our products are vegetable and fruit-based,” she said. “Our intention is to make all of our clients comfortable. Everyone has a bad sun-less tanning story, but we try to dispel those stories and give our clients the natural looking tan they are looking for.”
Leopold has not forgotten her lesson about the dangers of tanning in beds or outdoors. “I am very excited about our teen program,” she said. “I offer anyone under twenty the same session for only twenty dollars as a way to encourage them to stay out of the beds and to wear sunscreen. I have a form online where they can make that pledge, with airbrush tanning being a safe option if they want to tan.”
In her quest to keep teens from repeating the dangerous tanning habit she once had, she has even shared her own troubles combatting skin damage caused by those years in the tanning beds. “It’s mostly vanity,” she said. “But I had those brown spots all over my legs and I just hated them. I recently had them removed, which was a very painful process. I blogged about it to help teens understand that tanning not only causes cancer, but it is painful to remove the sun damage and it looks bad.”
What’s next? Leopold plans to open two new storefronts of her own on the Eastside in the next 18 months. Currently, there is also a franchised My Flawless Tan and Makeup in Seattle.
For now, though, Leopold will continue to serve her clients with a sunny smile and a sun-free glow at her shop in downtown Kirkland.
To learn more about My Flawless Tan and Makeup, receive discounts on future services and products and enjoy some treats and champagne, Leopold invites readers to an Open House Spa Party on Sunday Dec. 11, 12-4 p.m.
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