If you have ever wanted to connect with your inner movie star, Carla Hanson (now known to family and friends as Carla Closson since her recent marriage), has the real deal. In her tiny shop on 1st, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a Marilyn Monroe museum, Carla, the owner of Royal Design Day Spa and former Mrs. Oregon, says women come to her from all over for that standard of beauty, the heavy, dark and flirty eyelashes that announce right away, you are not fooling around.
And if that weren’t enough to set your heart beating quickly, that kind of Hollywood glam is on sale. Right now you can have an entire set of eyelash extensions for $100, a fraction of their normal cost. “Normally they would be $150 but full sets are discounted right now,” Carla says, “because of hard times. I lost almost all my staff during COVID. They moved on. I hope to have a full staff by March but for now it’s just me.”
Good news is that Carla would rather do lashes than any other beauty procedure for which she is eminently qualified. Carla has been doing eyelashes for better than 15 years. During that time she has done them for stars like Gina Davis and has worked on the sets of movies like Grim, Portlandia and Leverage. The first time her shop won the People’s Choice award in 2013 was the same year she won the Mrs. Oregon title. Royal Design Day Spa won the People’s Choice awards again in 2014. She is also certified to teach eyelash extension to students who already hold basic hairstyle licenses.
Eyelash extensions are semi-permanent but require periodic updates. The initial procedure takes an hour and a half but fills are much faster. “Basically, like all our hair, eyelashes grow and fall out,” she says, “Some people come back every two weeks, other people prefer every three weeks. I charge $55 for a fill if you have it done within three weeks because if you wait longer than that, it’s much more work and takes more product.”
In this procedure individual fibers or a fan of fibers are attached to individual eyelashes with a very small amount of adhesive for a full, long lash look. “It looks great. It’s comfortable and it saves so much time getting ready in the morning,” she says. It’s important that the esthetician is sensitive to the individual they are working on, she says. “The integrity of the lash varies by person. Everybody’s body is different. That’s why I keep a chart of every single client.”
While lashes have currently taken over at Royal Design Day Spa, Carla emphasizes that she is planning on returning to a full staff in March and looks forward to accommodating all the folks wanting haircuts, color and other spa necessities. She also offers two day training for already certified members of the esthetic community.