Get to know Gaby Braconnier

Name:  Gabrielle Braconnier (My friends call me Gaby)

Business Name:The Lash Growth Inc. 

How many years have you been in the lash industry:6 years this fall!

UA lash product you can’t live without:The tweezers!! Specifically pitch perfect!

What's the strangest lash-related dream you've ever had? Probably that I double booked a client or forgot to book them in and then they showed up at my house and I was panicking! More like a nightmare than a lash dream lol. I think it was my subconscious telling me to double check my schedule and make sure I wasn’t forgetting something.

Guilty pleasure: Staying up late after everyone in my family goes to bed and having the house to myself while I watch a show and have some wine. Also, coffee. I freaking love coffee.

Here are the deep Qs 🤣

How did you get started in the lash industry? What drew you to becoming a lash artist?

I had my second child and wanted to work from home and make my own hours. One of my friends had started a home lashing business 6 months prior to me. I had been watching her lashing journey and thought to myself that maybe this is something I could do too. I had been getting my lashes done for 2 years and the whole time I never once considered that I would ever do lashes. When I finally considered doing it, I thought it would be so hard and was nervous about the venture. I loved the idea of being my own boss and creating a business of my own. I thought that if I could make something of this, then it would be a dream come true. I’m naturally a creative person and creating beautiful lashes seemed very satisfying to me. Even as a child and teen I would spend hours and hours creating works of art and I approached lashing as an artistic venture.  

Can you share your journey as an entrepreneur in the lash industry? What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?

I worked so hard to learn how to lash and grow my business. There was no option for it not to work. It had to work. I desperately wanted to live a life where I could make money while working from home and spend the rest of my time taking care of my small children. Learning lashes was difficult. I took a good lashing course, however I still had to figure out a lot on my own. I had one lash friend for the first 5 years of my lashing journey and she offered me so much support when I was struggling with lashing or the business side of things. I did make more lashing friends during those years who also positively impacted me.

Being so alone in this industry is hard and you need to find the right lash friends to have in your corner. One of the worst experiences I had in my lashing journey was when I decided to take a course with a reputable lash company. Without going into detail, the experience was so poor that I left the course with my confidence completely shattered and I gave up learning mega volume for nearly a year before I decided to pick up my tweezers again and give this mega volume technique another go. It was rough! I also spent years understanding very little about retention and my glue. That made having consistent good retention difficult at times. In later years I struggled with my health and didn’t realize that the glue was as toxic as it was, and  that it was affecting my health. It wasn’t until one of my friends brought this to my attention, that I spent countless months learning as much as I possibly could about lash glue. It is currently my determination to help other people to understand their glue, master retention, and protect themselves and their clients. It’s also my resolve to build up confident lash artists, and teach them everything I wish I would have known from the get go so that they don’t have to struggle as badly as I did!

What sets your lash business apart from others in the industry? How do you differentiate yourself and attract clients?

1. I have always strived to deliver perfection with my lash work. Giving my clients the best quality work. 
2. Being able to do every style or set that the client wants! Being able to offer endless variety has made for some very happy clients.
3. Customized lashes!! Being able to customize lashes to compliment the clients unique features means that every set comes out looking perfect since it was customized to the client. I know this is something that lots of Lash Artists have yet to learn, but I’m telling you, when you do - It’s a game changer!
4. Filling my clients to 100% and mastering retention so that their lashes look top notch for many weeks.
5. I don’t take shortcuts with my work. 
6. I treat my last client of the day the same as my first client of the day. Treating every client with the same importance.
7. I educate my clients about lashes and even people who aren’t my clients. 
8. Lash health is top priority and I’m always on top of this so that my clients can see me forever. The right clients will appreciate this.
9. Not marketing myself the same way as everyone else, but rather, being creative, thinking outside the box, and being unique to me.

What has been the single most influential experience since starting your career?

Giving people the best lashes of their lives. It is one of the most satisfying feelings to me when I blow my clients minds. How many times people have told me that they have never had their lashes look this good, or that they have never had their lashes last this long, makes my heart explode.

Can you share a memorable success story or achievement in your career that you are proud of?

Starting a business from scratch and learning a brand new skill at the age of 21 with two babies. Then sticking with lashing and working my butt off all these years, all the while juggling the business along with raising my kids and homeschooling them. Putting in the work led me to build a successful lash business and become a master in my craft. It’s also led me to a place where I can now help other lash artists to grow and flourish. Now I am building a community and educational business around this called The Lash Growth. I honestly don’t sit and think about what I have done in my life and accomplished. I’m always looking forward to reaching new goals. I feel like there isn’t enough time in this lifetime for me to do everything that I want to do. But when I stop and reflect on my career, I feel very proud of myself for taking every step that I did throughout my lashing journey. 

As a content creator, what strategies do you use to create engaging and informative lash-related content for your audience?

For my personal lash business, I obviously like to show my pretty lash creations. Even more so, always be descriptive and explain what you are showing your audience. For example: These are Classic Lashes and they are great for people who want a natural look. People want to know the outcome of booking a service with you. So make your clients aware. You could say: These are Classic Lashes and they look natural. Or you could take it further and say, “After getting these lashes, you will be able to wake up and get ready for the day so much faster!” Or “You won’t have to deal with your mascara running or smudging at the lake.” There’s a million reasons to get lashes so believe me you won’t run out of reasons to share with people.

Oftentimes, people's imaginations can’t take them past what they see in front of them. So if you can take visually appealing videos or photos of the lash models whole face rather than just the eyeball - I find that clients are able to put the picture better together in their head as to if they will like that specific service. I appreciate a good eyeball photo though and my camera roll is full of them lol! It’s good to have a mix. 

Also, get yourself out there. People like to watch other people. Don’t hide yourself. When people get to know the person behind the camera, that helps draw the audience in. Be yourself! If you are quirky or nerdy or funny or a bit of a drama queen. Then be exactly who you are. As in any relationship, we feel closer and more comfortable with someone that we get to know more about. 

What are some common misconceptions about being a lash artist or entrepreneur in the beauty industry? 

1. That lashing is easy. It’s definitely something that takes time to dial in. I think it takes at least a year to feel comfortable and then years to feel like it comes as natural to you as breathing. 
2. That after you take one course, you will be set for your entire lashing career. Although you could ‘make due’ or ‘get by’ with the knowledge you acquire from only one course. Your lash work and business will thrive the more you learn and grow. So never stop learning!

What advice would you give to someone who is considering starting their own lash business/brand?

If you really want to make it in this business, then you have to practice, and often! This isn’t something that you can just dabble in on the side when you feel like it. You have to immerse yourself in it. If it is something that you do on the side that’s fine too! When starting out, if you could practice 3-5 times a week even, that’s better than a couple times a month.

Also, be willing to work for free or for a lower cost for a few months while you learn. You won’t make the big bucks right out of the gates. But taking this time to work for free or for cheap will help you to learn and hone in your skill so that when you do start charging more, you will be able to deliver the quality work that matches the price you’re charging!

You can start a business on a lower or higher budget. There are certain items that you don’t want to cheap out on from day one, but there are definitely some products you can get by with getting the ‘financially friendly’ version. Down the road you can always upgrade these items. I’m going to release a podcast episode on this very topic because I think that this is a game changer to know when you are in the process of launching your lash biz! My podcast is called The Beyond Artistry Podcast - so stay tuned! 

What's the funniest or most memorable experience you've had while working on a client's lashes?

I had a client who got off the lash table at the end of her appointment and an old strip lash fell out of her purse and onto the floor. She just stared at the ground for sometime and she was in SHOCK. She looked at me in horror. She had thought that those were her lash extensions and that they had all fallen off of her eye in a big strip! Her and I had the biggest laugh. I was even mortified for a moment. I was like “what is happening with her lashes!? They couldn’t have all fallen off like that! What!?”

What are you super passionate about right now? (Anything at all, doesn’t have to be lash related.  Share projects, products, et. here)

I’ve been in the process of pursuing makeup artistry! I am on the path to become a certified makeup artist and I am so excited to mix that in with my lashing business and combine these two loves of mine: makeup and lashes! Just all things beauty period. 

I used to be a personal trainer and I want to get back to hitting those goals I used to hit, pushing the limits and seeing how strong I can become! I’ve even created a new instagram and tiktok account called @thefitlasher to hold myself accountable and watch my progress!

Lastly, I am very passionate about the unique courses I am developing for lash artists, especially the one on the topic of lash glue safety. This is a very rare thing that is discussed in the lash industry and is being pushed below the surface. I’m excited to shed a bright light on it, expose all the dark truths about our lash glue, and forever change the way that lash artists work with their lash glue. The nerdy side of me has enjoyed the process of developing this in depth curriculum and I genuinely want lash artists to continue to be able to lash for a long time without long term damage!