Meet Jeff Mendoza of Skin Factory in Monrovia

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Mendoza.

Jeff, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 2008, I decided to move to Hawaii for my well being after living in big cities my entire life. After a couple of great years, I got a call that would change my life. My mom was diagnosed with Cancer and I moved back to Los Angeles to take care of her. For years I focused on taking care of her but after she had gotten better, I set out to find what I wanted to do with my career. I found this pamphlet for an esthetics school, so I checked it out and decided this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to take care of people.

On the day of graduation, my instructor gave me such encouraging words after I had done well in school. With that frame of mind, I began on my journey to find jobs. After some failed interviews, I realized that it was going to be harder than I thought. No one wanted to hire me because I didn’t have the real-world experience. I was also told by a certain salon that they couldn’t hire me because most female clients wouldn’t be comfortable with having a male esthetician perform services on them. I couldn’t believe the salon encouraged this stigma and I couldn’t believe anyone would feel that way. This is when I told myself that I should just go for it and start my own skincare business and prove it wrong.

I was able to find a treatment room to rent out in Studio City. After a few months of running the business, I was able to see my clientele grow. I loved seeing my clients and building relationships with them. But the most rewarding part was that I was helping them with their skin concerns. They were seeing results and I couldn’t have been happier.

A year into the business my Mom’s cancer returned and I was juggling the business and taking care of her. I was losing money fast. I had to close down my studio and I ended up working a stable job in retail. She eventually recovered again but I ended up growing in my position and enjoying the company. This opened up a great job opportunity at a fitness studio in Pasadena. I began to fall in love with this job and I started to learn so much more on how to run a brick and mortar business. I also saw how our instructors were so passionate about helping our members and this made me miss going back to skincare.

This is when I decided to reopen my business under the name Skin Factory. It is located in Monrovia inside Sola Salons and is currently under construction. I have a lot of support from my friends and family and I am very excited to see where this new path will take me.

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?
I would say, without discrediting anyone’s journey, that it hasn’t been smooth for me. My story is a bit unique in the skincare world as there are not that very many male estheticians in my field of work. I don’t know how many there are but to give you an idea. If you ever ask another male esthetician if there were other male students in his class, he would most likely tell you none.

Being a male in this industry can be challenging but can also be an advantage. During the first half of my journey, I had a difficult time fitting in. I thought that no one was ever going to hire me because I, as a male esthetician, made female clients uncomfortable in the treatment rooms. This experience, despite the setback, gave me the push to open up my own business. I wanted to prove to myself that I can be successful despite all of the pressure of gendered perceptions of who does what kind of jobs in our society.

During my time in Studio City, I’ve had clients tell me that they would only go to a male esthetician. There’s still a long way to go when it comes to the discriminatory attitude in the workplace. We need to work on closing the gap and making every single industry unisex for fairness and good business.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Skin Factory story. Tell us more about the business.
Skin Factory specializes in customized skin therapy services. I believe that it’s crucial to know my client’s skin individually to guide them with their skin needs. I do that by listening to them and acknowledging their concerns before we create a plan that works for their individual needs. Only then we can both solve their needs with the correct facial treatments, product recommendations, and home care.

Based on their skin needs, I offer the following services using current technology and professional skincare products: chemical peels, micro-exfoliation, wet/dry microdermabrasion, LED, micro-current galvanic, high frequency, and more.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think despite having the best research and outline for any business, there will always be no guarantee of success. There are always going to be unexpected twists that can either get you to that next level in your career or beat you back down to the ground. I have had quite a few bad lucks in my business and my career that it’s helped me be a stronger person. It has gotten me to where I am mentally and emotionally and I have learned not to regret those experiences.

However, I feel that I’ve been more lucky than unlucky. I’m lucky to have the health and opportunity to run a business; to have friends and family that support this crazy journey of mine and to have the experiences that enable me to push myself to be a better business owner.

I don’t know what the future holds but I have accepted that for me to be successful now, I have to learn to enjoy the journey because in the end, no one knows what they’re doing, and sometimes you just have to put yourself out there and try.

Contact Info:

• Address: Located inside Sola Salon
  530 West Huntington Drive Suite 23, Monrovia, CA 91016
• Website: www.skinfactoryla.com
• Phone: 626.406.1010
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @skinfactoryla
• Facebook: facebook.com/skinfactoryla
• Twitter: @skinfactoryla

Image Credit:
Rachelle Herrera, Alyce Barrick

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