Hello, 

My name is Lulu Azizi and I am a 14 year beauty business professional.  I became an aesthetician in 2009 and a tattoo artist in 2018.  Prior to aesthetics, I was a fine art student that dabbled in portrait sketching and oil painting.  I was a long time member at a Madison Art Collective where I created gallery art and discovered a book that led me to become a certified forensic artist for law enforcement.  I went to college to become an art teacher because my high school art teacher always made me feel really good about my drawing and painting skills. I decided to enroll in aesthetics school in 2008 after working in a family restaurant for 10 years.  Aesthetics school was the best thing that ever happened to me because it gave me a purpose to work on myself and my connections with clients. The beauty industry was not popular in 2008 and eyebrows, makeup and skin was not in its best shape.  I recall trying to understand how so many clients had poorly shaped brows that they did to themselves.  As a portrait artist, I just couldn't get past the misshaped brows!  
I started my career working at a stunning spa salon on the capitol square in Madison, WI as a front desk associate.  It was my first real job outside of the restaurant so it was very scary for me!  I was 24 years old!  I eventually transitioned to an aesthetician position where I was very solely focused on learning each skill and gaining clientele.  I eventually grew to over 700 repeat clients that requested me as their aesthetician. I starting convincing clients to put down the tweezers and come see me every 4 weeks for a year until they were fully grown.  I also began to take skincare more seriously because I loved the immediate result so therefor I became a certified Dermalogica skin care expert through the International Dermal Institute in downtown Chicago.   
I started my aesthetics establishment as Luxe By Lulu LLC in 2017 at the Quarry Arts Building after working at the spa since 2010.  I decided to add a tattoo permit to my establishment because I became certified in microblading in January of 2018 with Enhance Artistry.  It was a 2 or 3 day course and it was hard to wrap my head around.  I was taught to use a manual tool with a row of needles to cut skin repeatedly across the whole eyebrow.  It seemed like a very cool technique on social media but as a person that cared for client skin, it was hard to get past creating so much trauma.  The results were not satisfying me so in December of 2018 I enrolled in a 6 month online course for microblading with Phi Academy.  Phi artists are the most trained and knowledgeable in microblading all around the world.  Phi academy taught me how to do specific hair patterns, spine patterns, transition strokes and proper shaping using the golden ratio method.  I became skilled in Phi Brows but I still was not fully satisfied with the result of microblading so therefor I decided to learn how to use the tattoo machine for shading.  I enrolled with Yana Academy in November of 2020 in Chicago, Illinois and I learned how to create a pixelated effect with a single needle and tattoo machine.  I learned how to do a soft edge powder brow, lip blush and lash line enhancement.  My instructor taught me a powder brow technique that was very advanced because she was a world renowned trainer and I was fortunate to have practiced with her because nobody in Madison was creating that soft edge powder brow technique.  The results from powder brows continued to amaze me so therefor I became addicted to it.  
In April of 2022 I enrolled with Angie Kwiatkowski and Mary Ritcherson to attend a workshop in Chicago to learn pixelated powder brows and nano lines (machine hair strokes).  This course was of very high value because I learned advanced powder brow techniques, digital microblading and the value of addendums to protect artists from client "blaming". In May of 2022 I enrolled in a lip blush and eyeliner course with Kim Hung Do and Beauty Angels Academy where I was taught one on one techniques to create the best healed results.  
I am currently enrolled in a machine hair stroke course with Lauren Taylor Ink to be able to offer hair strokes in a a safer method as opposed to microblading.  I still continue to offer microblading but I'm very selective as to who I offer it to because it's dependent on age and skin type.  In February of 2023 I attended the American Academy of Micropigmentation Summit in Los Angeles where I was able to learn the theory of pigmentology and how pigments are made by reading the CI numbers on the bottles and breaking down the color order. This has helped me to make better decisions for color theory in regards to long term results.  In addition I learned about the latest techniques and I met Teryn Darling from Girlz Ink, Maya from MayaMoore Beauty, Kristina from 5 Star Brows and Sheila Bella who are famous in the permanent cosmetics industry.  I was able to spend three days with powerful and motivated industry entrepreneurs which elevated my mindset and knowledge to become an advanced artist.