From shed to salon: how a Leeds woman built a beauty business from her garden
“I want people to feel like they’re coming to a salon that feels like a community.”
A Leeds woman has shared how losing her job while she was pregnant inspired found her own beauty business.
Emma Vaughan found herself unexpectedly unemployed while she was twenty weeks pregnant when her workplace suddenly closed in 2022.
“I felt like a failure - I was really embarrassed. I was humiliated,” Emma told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Though pregnancy discrimination is illegal under the Equality Act, the beauty therapist struggled to find a workplace willing to take on a pregnant employee.
Emma said: “Although people don’t want to admit it, no one's going to employ someone who is halfway through a pregnancy and then needs to take maternity leave.
“They’ll find a reason to not give you a job.”
In a “fight or flight” situation, Emma, who has 18 years of experience in the beauty industry, decided to work for herself for the first time and create her own business.
Ivoré Beauty Atelier began in Emma’s kitchen after she sold furniture to buy beauty supplies.
Emma’s son Beauden was born shortly after and Emma began to explore how to expand her business while raising her young family.
However, when she was quoted £30k to open a shop in Leeds, Emma decided to follow an alternative path to make her dream a reality: start her business from her garden.
Emma discovered Tiger, a leading UK-based specialist that designs, manufactures, and retails wooden garden buildings
She said: “Obviously, with a new-born baby, in my house everything was everywhere - with the shed I had an actual space to work in.
“I was really proud of it.”
For Emma, working from home enabled her to balance her business alongside raising two children.
As word of mouth spread, Ivoré, which offers services including intimate waxing, brow treatments, and gel nail overlays, began to thrive.
Four months ago Emma was finally able to open her own salon and now, she is the proud owner of the Ivoré salon in Crossgates.
Alongside offering treatments, Emma has now started an education programme to ensure the next generation of beauty therapists are well-informed on modern beauty practices.
“Clients are my bread and butter and I’ll never give them up but I wanted to push more into education,” Emma said.
“There needs to be education around what we’re using and making sure that we’re using the correct products and clients need to know more about what we’re putting on them.”
In her salon, Emma takes great pride in the “trust” clients put in her and this is a highlight of her job as a beauty therapist.
Though Ivoré is no longer a garden-based business, Emma always wants her clients to feel like they are at home.
Emma said: “(Ivoré) is for anybody that’s wanting to invest in themselves, whether it be for a feel-good factor, hygiene reasons, or even just that they want to feel like they belong somewhere.
Emma said: “I want people to feel like they’re coming to a salon that feels like a community.
“It doesn’t matter how much you spend, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it’s as long as you’re happy with your treatment and you’ve got somewhere to feel safe.”