Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali Morrison Lucia Simpkins.
Hi Ali Morrison, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The entire team at Radiance started out at Beauty Brands salon and Spa. Our tenures ranged from 10 to 22 years. In November of 2025 we were all informed that all St. Louis locations would be closing their doors by the end of the year. Lucia quickly went into action looking for commercial properties to rent, and her and Ali partnered together to get the ball rolling. None of stylists and employees wanted to split up so we figured out how keep us all together. In a matter of 3 days after finding out of Beauty brands closing, we had secured a location, a contractor and construction team, and our LLC. We are committed to keeping our work family of close to 2 decades together. We worked like crazy to get the salon up and running as quickly as possible and were able to open 4 weeks after beauty brands closing.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We’ve had to learn how to be small business owners in a very short amount of time. IT was exactly 9 weeks to the day between finding out we were all losing our job to opening our new salon home. we figured out how to navigate through the stresses and challenges of permits and licenses to budgeting and more, with little to no experience but we have pushed through.
We’ve been impressed with Radiance Salon and Spa, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are more than co-workers, we are a salon family. We have a full salon and spa and offer a large range of services including- all color services from a full balayage to a few accent foils, an all over color or rainbow vivids. We can give you curls or relax them down. The whole family can come in for their haircuts, including specialized cuts for our curly haired guests. We offer manicures and pedicures, full body waxing services and you should definitely try out one of our amazing facials by the esthetician who was previously the number one esthetician in beauty brands history! Our services don’t stop there, we can get you ready for your next vacation with an airbrush spray tan and a lash lift and tint. What we believe sets us apart from other salons is when things got hard we all stuck together, learned together and grew together. We stayed whole through a very trying time and because of that our clients can still enjoy coming in to get all their services done in one place.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I would say all of us as a whole had a mentor in our field director at Beauty Brands. Erin DeCarlo helped us in more ways than we could list. However, we have all mentored each other at one point in time. Our advice to someone in this industry is everyone can learn something from everyone, from the newest stylist fresh out of beauty school to the veteran stylist at the salon. We all have our strengths and we share our experiences with each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://RadianceSalonandSpa.glossgenius.com
- Instagram: Radiance_SalonandSpa_
- Facebook: RadianceSalonandSpa
