Check Out Kim Nguyen’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Nguyen.

Kim, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I got started back in 2019 when I first got my own lips tattooed when it was still a new trend. Everyone has heard of tattooing eyebrows, eyeliner, but lips were sort of still unheard of at the time. My brow artist (shoutout @cinspmu) tattooed my lips and I fell in love with the results so I took a class the very next month on how to do it for other people. No tattoo or artistic background. Just a girl who loved getting beauty services done to make herself feel and look better – so why can’t that be pass forward to others too?

Before I was tattooing lips, I was deep in the corporate world — insurance sales, claims adjusting, underwriting — basically the furthest thing from artistry you can imagine. I started doing permanent makeup out of my 500 square foot studio apartment in 2019. I was taking friends, friends of friends and coworkers after work and on weekends, quietly building something while still in my 9-to-5.

Then COVID hit, and corporate sent us to work from home to quarantine. For one glorious month, I got a glimpse of what it felt like to be fully present in my own work — and I never wanted to let that go. When they called everyone back to the office, something in me just said no so I quit my stable corporate job with only 1 weeks worth of clients booked and a whole lot of faith in myself.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. And I think anyone who tells you their entrepreneurial journey was smooth is either lying or had a lot of help. I never worked in the beauty industry before. Most people start working under a master artist but I started as a solo artist and doing everything myself – building a clientele from scratch, learning how to use social media to market my services, building a website, learning how to be better at my craft, handling client’s expectations, managing bookings, and the list goes on – all while quieting burning out from holding down a corporate job. The day I quit corporate and pursued my business full time, I felt so FREE.

There were many sleepless nights, There were slow months that made me question everything. There were moments where I wondered if I had made a massive mistake leaving a stable paycheck behind. Imposter syndrome is very real, especially when you’re transitioning from a completely unrelated field and people are trusting you with their faces.

But honestly? The struggle I didn’t see coming was losing myself in the process. I traded a 9-to-5 for a 24/7 — and for many years, I wore that like a badge of honor. I forgot to sleep, forgot to exercise, forgot to just… enjoy life. I became so consumed by building something that I forgot to actually live and enjoy the journey while building it.

It took me a long time to realize that my work doesn’t define my self worth. I am not my business. The bookings, the reviews, the revenue — of course those things matter, but they are not me. These days I pour just as much intention into my life outside of work as I do into my craft. The hobbies, the rest, the fun — that’s not wasted time. That’s what actually makes me a better artist and show up better for my clients.

The road wasn’t smooth. But every bump — even the ones I put there myself — taught me something I needed to learn.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Lip Blush artist — and only a Lip Blush artist. (Hence my name, KISSD by Kim). In a world where a lot of permanent makeup artists do everything — brows, eyeliner, lips — I made the deliberate choice to specialize exclusively in lips. People thought I was crazy for niching down that far. I thought I was being smart. Turns out, I was right because clients have told me that they chose me to do their lips since I only specialize in them.

Lip Blush is a cosmetic tattoo technique that enhances the natural shape, definition, and color of your lips. It’s not the harsh, overdone lip liner of the 90s that your aunt or mom regrets — it’s soft, it’s washed in color, it’s your lips but better. Done well, people shouldn’t be able to tell you have it. They should just think you woke up like that.

And that’s exactly what I’m known for — results that look natural, healed beautifully, and hold their integrity over time. Healed results are everything to me. Anyone can make lips look good fresh off the table. The real flex is how they look six weeks or years later.

What sets me apart is that I do one thing, and I do it exceptionally well. My entire focus goes into color theory, custom color matching for every unique skin tone, and the kind of attention to detail that comes from genuinely loving your craft. I’ve worked hard to become one of the most recognized Lip Blush artists in Orange County, I have over 200 5 star reviews over Yelp and Google combined but what I’m most proud of isn’t any title or accolade — it’s the loyal clients who keep coming back, and the referrals they send because they trust me with the people they love. That kind of reputation isn’t bought. It’s built, one set of lips at a time.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was fiercely independent from a young age. Ambitious, driven, always dreaming bigger than my circumstances. I was a people person through and through — I love connecting with people. I was a cheerleader, I played violin, I had my nose in a book every chance I got. On the surface those things might seem random, but they all wired me in ways I didn’t fully appreciate until much later.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kissdbykim.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kissdbykim/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kissd-by-kim-orange