Meet Helena Shorinolu of Helena Maxx in Roswell

Helena, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always had a passion for skincare and product formulation. I would generally mix ingredients together to formulate a skincare regime for myself, friends and family during my spare time. I loved every bit it of it, because it felt like cooking which is one of my other favorite hobbies I like to do. The most interesting thing about me is I was crowned Commonwealth of Africa by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles at the age of 8yrs old. I also have an education background in Law and Communications Studies and Film studies. I moved to Atlanta GA from London after one of my sister had passed away from Medullary Renal Cancer.

It was one of the hardest things I have had to face and still consider it as the most hardest time of my life because we were extremely close. When my sister was diagnosed with Cancer, I took on the role as her care guardian definitely was the most trying season for my family. At that time I was optimistic that she would get better and never in a million years would have thought she would go through so much pain and then pass away. I was oblivious to how serious her condition was at that time because I was still young. Watching her go through Chemotherapy and then losing her eye site disturbed my thoughts as I watched my little sister fight hard from being a healthy vibrant charismatic young girl to going partially blind and dependent on me to assist her on her everyday life needs. It was horrific for myself and my family to go through and watch her pass away in our hands. When she passed I felt a guilt because I had promised her that she was never going to die, for the first time I was unable to protect her as an older sister and that broke me. This made it difficult for me to stay at our family home in London, so I left and decided to officially start that move we both had planned to do together which was to move to the US together! I ran away from the memories, pain and hurt by moving to America ‘Atlanta GA to be exact.’ At first, it was such a huge culture shock for me but I immediately had no choice but to adjusted once I started pursuing my music career. Yes music lol, I was signed as a up and coming new recording Artist under a developing artist deal. Fast forward unfortunately after two years, I was later released from the deal at Interscope.

Not knowing what to do next I then decided to pursue my career in the Legal field and worked on Immigration and Criminal cases just to earn a living and help people in the United States.

However, I was not fulfilled and wanted to start my own skincare line, but every time I tried to get hold of some medical grade ingredients I was always denied because I did not carry a Medical Licence or an Aesthetic license. I spoke to my friend Soraya Bowen who is also from London and is into beauty. We spoke about it and she had told me about an aesthetic program available in Roswell GA. She felt the only way people would take my skincare line and idea seriously was if I went to school to be an aesthetician. She believed that this would have been good for me because it would make me an accredited asset as a skincare owner or specialist. Soraya was right! She then referred me to the Elaine Sterling Institute and said it will be the best school for me because they also had the ITEC Cidesco curriculum which is an international accredited, would benefit me in the future if I wished to practice back home in the UK. This was the main reason I choose to attend the Elaine Sterling Institute. I felt that the information that I was getting ready to obtain was far much rewarding for me to practice as an international Aesthetician.

I can honestly say this is when my journey really started I attended Elaine Sterling Institute and studied a Full-Time Esthetic Program. First of all let me tell you something this was not easy at all. leaving a good paying job to go back to school after a long time, to study Asthetic. I mean come on from Law to asthetics really? Moving forward, upon my completion I took my state board and got Licenced to practice in GA and now I’m a MD Esthetician.

Once I got my license I said to myself: “Helena, this is it. You can finally do what you love and get paid for it, you about to live that American dream darling”, but as always in life there is always a sense of humor. A U-turn took place when I finally got acquainted to the reality and the challenges of the beauty Industry which is something they do not tell you in school. 🤦‍♀️

After school I started off working as a Master lash tech and then built my clientele from there. Though I was not working on skin and products I was still always giving extensive skincare information to my clients. I quickly found how receptive they were towards my knowledge and professionalism. I noticed because I was only doing Lash extensions and Brows at that time I quickly found myself emotionally burnt out because I was missing the aesthetic side of things. So I then decided to apply to work as an aesthetician in other spas and boutiques.The only thing I noticed was me feeling constantly shortchanged for the abilities and the knowledge I had aquired over the years. Their response usually were you have not been licensed for more than ten years. Many spa owners wanted to hire me as a trainee or at a entry-level pay scale which was far much lesser than my talent and abilities. I was not willing to do that because I knew the money I had spent at the Elaine Sterling Asthetic program was very advanced and I was certified to work on many advance aesthetic technologies including the Microcurrent, LED, MD Hydrofacial machine and many more; which had already placed Esi students  already at a upper hand especially coming out from a asthetic school! Not to mention me prioly leaving a well paid legal job only to be paid lesser than I imagined. In that moment I was disappointed and dissatisfied because I also knew that I had been oppertuned to retain my own clientele at such an early stage in my career by constantly building relationships and honesty by God grace. I was not ready to give my clientele’s  away for another company at least not just yet. I tried it for a while but knew that if I wanted to be great, I had to take a leap of faith and trust God in the abilities he gave me and just trust the process. So I decided to take the advice of my former Makeup and asthetic trainer Ms. Wanda and  started saving all my gratuity money it was not easy but that sacrifice was worth it.

As time went by the company I was working for closed down with no notice by the owner and once again I was devastated because my loyalty had left me unemployed, so I decided that I was just going to open my own Skincare and Beauty Spa location because I was tired of the constant dead ends.First thing I did was started looking for a shop spaces that my clients were able to commute to and luckily I was able to find a place through a client of mine.To my surprise, I was able to use the money I had saved from my Gratuity to put a down payment and actually opened our first Helena Maxx location in Roswell GA.

The past year at Helena Maxx we have been working hard by doing beauty educational programs in Africa, Europe and also laboratory testing for our skincare formulation on individuals through case studies. Our educational programs has been amazing. We have been able to teach inspiring beauticians the anatomy of skin and the art of beauty through Helena Maxx Curriculum. We are actively getting ready to launch our first Skin and Cosmetic line and starting our Educational programs in the US.

I found with beauty it has also allowed me to work with like minded creatives within the beauty and entertainment industry. I have had the opportunity to work with a few outstanding locally and international celebrities, Politicians, Actors, Designers and also Top Models. We have a new beauty Show airing soon called BWOGTV (BeautyWidout Guilt). A lot of great things have been happening and I am so blessed to have decided to turn my dreams to reality by facing all obstacles.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Funny thing is anything that was big and worthwhile having in my life has never come smoothly for me it has been extremely difficult from transitioning from the Cooperate world to the beauty industry. Being an entrepreneur really is not as glamorous as I thought it was lol do not let anyone fool you. I have been learning through trial and error and still learning which has helped me really know what the do’s and don’ts are when working on different clientele and industry competitors.

The Beauty Aesthetic industry is very small and you really do not get a lot of assistance from fellow business owners or successful esthetician or beauticians on where and how you can get things done to be a successful Esthetician and business owner. There are really only a very few top beauty and skincare executives who will be happy to assist you or guide you and take the time out their busy schedule to advise you on how you can evolve as a business owner and a Esthetician because, the two roles are completely different. As an Esthetician, I am the Service the face of the company and as a business owner, I am the Artistic director the Financial director fun stuff 😂 and literally the Coperation.

It can be a little lonely because your busy period are the holiday the special moments you get to travel to see family. Also with the beauty industry we do not get to really collaborate with other fellow spa or beauticians because of the competitive role many play, but I have learnt that reaching or being responsive to collaborate with other successful spa owners has helped me break the ice in gaining one’s trust in the industry. I also try to stay in touch with my Esty sisters from time to time and try to balance my work and social life to accommodate everything.