Follow These Sisters For Girly Style Inspo
Sisters that slay together, stay together.
Cari and Kay have always been into fashion. After growing up with their mom owning a clothing store and an older sister who designs bridal gowns, they decided to take their own crack at the industry.
Cari is more into fashion, and Kay is a beauty boss. Combined, they’re the ultimate dream team for looking fly. Their Instagram, Layllah Style, is filled with beauty and fashion inspiration — and they’re just getting started. Check out our Q+A below.
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For those who may not know, what do you define your career as?
Cari: I’m a freelance stylist in Atlanta. I work with different modeling agencies, on sets, etc. [I’m] also a brand ambassador and social media strategist. Kay is a master license cosmetologist & a beauty educator. She has a salon and showroom where people can buy hair, get their hair or lashes done, as well as an esthetician in the salon. Together we are blending my fashion background and her hair background, so when you come to our page you are able to see that balance.
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What made you join the beauty industry?
Paying attention to trends and the transition out of fashion into beauty. Beauty is affordable, relatable, with connections to women everywhere. Women always take pride and put their disposable income into hair, nails, and makeup, so when you have all of this going on you can throw on an outfit from Walmart and look good.
With Kay being a master license cosmetologist & a beauty educator, that’s where the hair aspect of our brand comes from. Our transition out of fashion is because we want to satisfy the masses and show that there is a balance of how you dress and having the outer appearance of beauty.
What do you love most about your career?
The ability to be able to create everything on my own terms. Thats what’s most exciting about it because our destiny isn’t in the hands of anyone else. Meeting new people, not being locked into a 9-5, and having our own grind pay our bills. We encourage anyone who’s in this position to do whatever you want while you can. It’s very rewarding to do it on your terms and not having someone tell you what to do.
When you decided to pursue your dreams, what was the hardest part about it?
The lack of security and not knowing. When you get a job you get a training and it’s already written how to do the job well, but when you step out on your own you don’t have that and you’re scrambling how to succeed.
What tips do you have for young women interested in the beauty or fashion industry?
At this point, everything has kind of been touched, so entering in at this stage is about finding what is going to make your brand stand out among the noise. Now in 2017 with social media, beauty, and fashion gurus owning their territory, it’s important to create quality content that is unique to your audience and figuring out who your audience is. If your industry is oversaturated, you have to sit down and figure out what makes you different.
[There are] so many bloggers who are doing the same thing, it’s a race and girls are moving fast, so you have to stay in the trenches in this industry. You have to make sure you are two steps ahead of whoever is in your industry. I mean, people are snatching wigs, it’s really cut throat out here. Also, show your personality, having multiple social media channels helps because people wanna be all in your business because they want to be close and relate to the people they’re inspired by. You have to figure out how you can fit in and make your mark.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
We are working on our YouTube channel, better late than never, right? We want to educate our followers and teach them how to do the looks you see on our Instagram page and letting them into our world more personally because we feel like people are like, “what’s the next wave with Layllah Style?” Another thing we have coming up is “The Lipstick Line Up“, a women’s empowerment networking event. We did it a couple years back and had amazing coverage and we will be bringing that back in the spring. It will be a fashion and beauty expo in Atlanta.
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What do you want your supporters to take from this interview?
Never be afraid to look in the mirror over and over. Consistently find ways to be better than the person you were yesterday. That’s what our brand is all about, we feel like that’s what our audience wants. They want to find ways to keep moving forward. That forces us to figure out what is the next wave. We want to give our supporters more because we know that they’re craving more. Showing them the what, how, and why we do what we do is very important. Sometimes when you’re doing your thing you lose track of the focus and goals and that’s where the YouTube channel is coming in because that is what benefits the audience. Our content is going to be different, but still relate to fashion and beauty.
