Meet Monique Aquino of Mobetta Beauty Studios in South Park DTLA - Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide

Check out the interview with Mo on VoyageLA here!

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monique Aquino.

Monique, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I owned my store, I always took a shit pay in order to help keep the store afloat. Let’s just say I paid myself $12/hour at the time. As the year went by, I became a habitual lash addict and observed my spending habits on it. It was never a question between eating or getting my lashes done, lashes had to be done because of the way they made me feel. I felt damn good about it.

So then I came to an epiphany, that if my broke ass could afford spending around $100/month on lashes, then this addictive beauty habit appealed to every income bracket. Because as women, whatever makes us feel and look our best, we will do whatever it takes to get there. Getting your lashes done is the new standard of getting your nails done. So that’s when I decided to get into it as a side hustle, while I still worked in fashion.

During my last stint in fashion which was a couple of years ago, I went through a pretty miserable lay off at a fashion Australian label. It was also the same year Nasty Gal, BCBG, and American Apparel all closed their doors down, and the fashion momentum got lost on me. I decided it was time to bounce. From there, I opened up to working for myself full-time, going from seeing 4-5 clients a week, to soon seeing 4-5 a day. From there, I realized I was making good money, more than I was in digital marketing and this really excited me.

Today, I’m a licensed Esthetician and I haven’t been happier in any other industry. Currently working on opening a salon concept very very soon in the Arts District, so stay close to this space!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, not really, it never is!

When I lost the business, it felt like I lost everything all at once. I lost my business partner, (who was my best friend at the time), and I was living with a boyfriend and of course as the universe would have it—we broke up right around then too. As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. After the breakup, I was homeless crashing on people’s couches until I got back on my feet.

I was tired of being on the struggle bus most of my life. This was my tipping point. I was finally so super uncomfortable with my whole life situation, as literally everything was not going for me. Instead of falling into my usual self-victimizing role, I wanted to do everything to get out my real-life nightmare. From there, I decided in order to change my circumstances, I needed to change my whole approach; I needed to change my whole trajectory. I needed to learn a completely new trade/industry that I never had on my radar, BEAUTY.

Mobetta Beauty Studios – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business started off at Mobetta Lashes, which was mostly just lash extension services. Recently I changed it to Mobetta Beauty, seeing as I do more things. It was essentially a name I came up really fast, with the intention to change it later; but it ended up sticking. The name was inspired by a local burger joint that was in my old hood in Mid-City called Mobetta Burgers. Sometimes people think I’m poking fun and saying mobetta, as if with an Asian accent. No dudes! It’s from an old ass mom and pop shop kind of in the hood back in the day! Don’t get it twisted, LOL! Also it just worked, because I go by Mo mostly, so it was a double-whammy for the win.

Fast-forward to today I now offer facials, facial waxing, lash extension services, and soon to be lash training education. I’m mostly known for delivering natural-looking extensions. Most of my clients come from other salons and always tell me please don’t make me look like I have crazy spiders on. A lot of people and lash artists like that look a lot, and I am not disc-ing it. But ya, that’s my specialty! Giving women nice natural lashes. I always say a good lash job is like a good boob job; we always want people to think it’s ours.

I’m proud of my little company because I grew it and nurtured it like my child. I remember when I first started (like most of us lash artists), I would work on friends on their kitchen table, counter, and beds. Lawdddd, the things you have to do to get started. But it’s amazing to see things like your business grow from seeing only 4-5 clients a week to 4-6 in one day/6 days a week. You start by just doing it on friends, and friends tell their friends, and before you know it you ended up having a real business. One day you go working from a tiny little charming crap studio apartment in Koreatown to now working on a salon studio concept in the Arts District. Life is funny in how it works, but very awesome at the same time.

What sets me apart? I could say cliche things like determination, etc., etc. But vibes and transparency. People really appreciate honesty. My background originated in fashion, so I think that still carries over. I’m creative. I’m not just doing this because money is good. I am doing this because it genuinely makes me feel so damn good to make people feel their best. The one thing I can be unabashed to admit is that I have really good taste. I have a good eye, I know how to curate everything that I do, whether that’s music, food, an outfit, an environment, I just love the whole process of it! Everything I do, I do it with style. I also am such a customer-service oriented person, so I think my clients really feel and love that. A psychic once told me, “You know Mo, people can go anywhere to get their lashes done, but they’re gonna keep coming to you because of the way you make them feel.” After she told me that, I was like, damn that’s a pretty dope gift dude.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success by starting the work, taking the risks, trying anything once, failing, learning, doing the education to make you level up, completing it, and the willingness to see all your projects through.

Markers for success. Geez, this is a hard thing to define besides saying the obvious like having a brick and mortar, having a crazy following on Instagram, and constantly finding yourself talking on entrepreneurial panels. I think markers for success is when you can inspire others with what you’re doing, and helping them feel they can achieve the same in their own field. Other markers for success is knowing how to do the stuff that no one wants to do, but can also do it really well. I’m still trying to get there myself.

One of the things I am trying to improve upon, are doing heavy accounting stuff, like measuring what you treasure, aka accounting! That’s the stuff I use to tell myself, “Oh, I’ll just hire someone for that, I’m not born with that part of the brain!” But seeing as this is my second time owning a business, you learn that mentality is nonsense, and that sort of thinking will never lead you to success. You gotta know EVERY aspect of your own business so well, in order to be an expert in it. That’s when I’ll know I’ve made it. That, and when I have a few locations under my belt. 😉