BY MEGAN MANN
FOR THE OBSERVER
Whitney Allen is a woman that wears many hats. She is a mother, nurse, student and has two businesses of her own.
Allen is originally from Lafayette. She graduated with her associate’s degree in registered nursing and has been practicing for almost 10 years now. She is now on her journey toward getting her BSN through Columbus State as well.
About five years ago, Allen began dabbling in the art of makeup.
“I was just on YouTube one day and I saw this transformation people were doing with makeup,” she said. “I saw how empowered people felt by it and how much confidence it brought to their face. It’s really the first thing that inspired me to start doing makeup myself.”
Allen started out by doing makeup on her close family members, then expanded to friends and distant family. Before she knew it, she had other people asking if she could do theirs as well. Allen then decided to pursue makeup as a business.
“I moved and bought my own home in 2017 and started an in-home studio with just makeup,” she said. “Then this year I branched into skincare because I realized a lot of people didn’t realize that makeup looks good from having good skin.”
After seeing that a lot of her customers were so interested in learning about and achieving healthier skin, she began focusing on that part of health and beauty and that is when she created her second brand — The Healthy Skin RN.
She offers many services, but her most popular one is facials for men and women, and all skin tones.
Allen started catering to men, as well as females, after realizing that there weren’t as many options available for men as there were for women in the beauty industry, but that they wanted to look good too, she said.
Her passion for doing makeup, helping people with their skin and being a nurse all stem from just wanting to help people be better and feel better about themselves, she said.
“When I see the reaction on my clients’ faces when they look in the mirror after being in my chair and they feel so much more confident, it is the most rewarding thing,” Allen said. “Sometimes when I get done with their skin, clients message me and tell me their skin looks the best it has since they were a teenager and they ask for advice to help them keep up with it; it is so rewarding. I love to help people. If I can in any way, I’ll do it. I love seeing people confident and positive and feeling fulfilled.”
Allen plans to expand with more products that will continue to be all-inclusive for men and women. She also wants to do more than just give facials to her clients; she wants to promote healthy skincare in their everyday lifestyle.
“My goal is to go beyond surface-level stuff when it comes to promoting skincare,” she said. “A lot of us don’t realize that the way our skin looks on the outside comes from how we treat our bodies on the inside. I am a big advocate for healthy foods and increasing your water intake throughout the day. I want people to start within with their healthy skin journey.”
You can book an appointment with her at www.healthyskinrn.as.me/ or visit her Instagram page at Thehealthyskinrn to find out more about her business.