Ohio Sugarist Raises the Barre

Imagine someone with their leg up on the sink, as if it were a ballet barre, repeatedly practicing sugaring. Well, that wasn’t some fantasy that was Kayla Johnson’s realty for awhile.

“That was me,” she said. “Leg propped up on my bathroom counter thinking, ‘I’m never going to get this’!”

A former ballet dancer, Johnson wants everyone to know that sugaring takes time to learn, and is one of the reasons she became an educator.

“Some things are unexplainable,” she said. “I can explain things over and over again, but sometimes it doesn’t click or work quite how it should the first time for a student; but, in time, it just happens and they’re on their way.

She said that teaching brings her valuable inspiration, which she hadn’t expected.

“I often go back to work the next day (after teaching) feeling so great. It’s so much fun teaching estheticians that are so hungry to learn something new, and see their eyes opened to this amazing art form.”

One thing she’d like to teach everyone is the difference between sugaring and waxing.

“It is truly astounding!” Johnson said. “How we got away from sugaring to waxing, I will never know.”

Johnson said she believes her business, Skin Care by Kayla Marie at Z Salon and Spa in Berea, Ohio, is more than a place where people’s faces get massaged or learn to work with makeup.

“I’m a skin changer, confidence booster, therapist, and often leave work after a long day feeling satisfied, yet my body aches,” she said. “Just because I work in a spa doesn’t mean I don’t work very hard.”

She especially loves doing brow sugaring, she said, noting that the creativity it involves brings to light one of her strongest skills.

“My clients always say, ‘you’re the expert, so do whatever you want’!” she said. “This allows me, if needed, to completely re-frame a face. The look of shock and happiness after a brow sugaring is why I do my job.”

Her personal philosophy on business it to offer treatments how she would want her own treatments done, she said.

 “I do this while staying true to my love of natural and organic products, and a holistic approach to skincare,” Johnson said.

With that in mind it was a instinctive that she would partner with Tamara’s Sugar. She said that she first found Tamara’s company more than three years ago when she was searching for a company to train her in sugaring.

“At the time, I didn’t really know all what sugaring was, or had ever seen a treatment before,” Johnson said. “After getting such a quick, kind, and informative response from Tamara, I knew hers was the company for me.”