“I think it’s good to work for yourself if you want more client trust because you build that client base – it’s a lot more difficult to do that in a salon.”
Sophia Aziza
Initially setting up her flat as a brow studio, Aziza brought clients into her home for treatments as lockdown restrictions began to lift.
“I was living in a studio flat at the time, which was literally just a living room with a little door to the kitchen and a bathroom. So, my plan was to work from there and disguise it as a brow studio.
“To my clients, it looked like I was renting it for a brow studio because I didn’t have a TV, just an L-shaped sofa that pulled out into bed, and then a treatment bed and a plant. I started seeing clients and kept browsing for my next place, which is where I am now in Holland Park.”
The aftermath of Covid was far from an easy period for Aziza, and both living and working in what was essentially a single room as lockdown restrictions lifted took its toll.
She shares, “I know it sounds cliché but until you’re in a good place, you don’t realise you were in a bad place mentally. It’s crazy because I don’t think about it a lot, but I said to Jasmin (her assistant), you’ve got to be able to look back without crying, because you’re in survival mode.”
Building her celebrity client base
The risk paid off and Aziza began to fly in her career, with both her regular and VIP client list filling up quickly. The person who kickstarted it all? TV presenter Maya Jama.
Similarly to Jama’s make-up artist, Letitia Sophia, who we spoke to on The Pro Beauty Pod in 2023, Aziza’s relationship with the presenter began with a bit of courage and a DM to the star’s social media account.
“I was hungover in my PJs and DM’d her thinking she’d never reply. She replied that day, and my mum drove me to her flat in Fulham,” says Aziza.
“No one had ever touched her brows before. I was shaking because I was so nervous. My success has definitely come off the back of the support from Maya – and the bloggers whose brows I was doing at that time.”
With other celeb clients including S’Able Labs co-founder Sabrina Elba, who launched the line alongside her husband, actor Idris Elba, being able to build a trusting relationship has been the key to Aziza’s success.
“I’ve never signed an NDA. I was trusted with addresses so early on. I think just having that trust is so important,” she says.
“It’s difficult to say where the success came from because you’re talking about people skills… but I just love people. People like Maya… having an insight into her and realising this woman got success through hard graft and joking around, it definitely inspires me.”
Aziza advises others looking to build a celebrity client base not to be afraid to be selfish when it comes to client relationships.
“I’d be going to their houses late at night after I finished work in the salon but I knew if I’d invited them in, the salon would take them as their clients,” she says.
When to hire some help
It’s clear that she’s a busy woman, and Aziza aims to provide an elevated brow experience for all her clients, VIP or not, meaning her treatments take time and dedication – a trait she attributes to her days working in spas.
“I think it comes from having a spa background because it’s about giving a bit more time to treatments. An initial consultation takes 45 minutes,” she says.
In fact, the brow artist is so dedicated to client experience that she’s developed her own threading technique, allowing her to remove single hairs with minimal pain.
As a result of her priorities, she brought on her long-standing client Jasmin Carroll in an assistant role to help manage her administration and social media.
“She was a client for three years. She was already PA-ing for someone else and could see that I wasn’t managing – I’ve never had PR or an assistant and have always just done it totally alone.
“I don’t plan my socials, but this year I’m planning to be on social media a lot more. I’ve been a bit camera shy in the past, which hasn’t helped, and if there were any extra hours I could get in the treatment room, it always went on the clients.”
For those considering bringing on an assistant, Aziza advises, “It’s an investment. You can’t look at it as money lost because all that time is gained. I’d literally finish in the treatment room at 8pm and be on my phone getting back to clients until midnight then just falling asleep. It’s nice to have some distance mentally now; you really need that separation.”
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