Business Spotlight: Beauty Mark salon owners find the neighborhood they were looking for

Keely Glorioso juggled her phone as she held open the front door.

A bit breathless, she sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't say hello right away. It's just been so busy."

It's exactly what Glorioso and her partner Kimarie Boucher hoped for when they made the leap from straight-up stylists to salon owners.

"We look at each other, even after a 12- or 13-hour day and say, 'We're tired, but we're really happy,'" said Glorioso, co-owner of Beauty Mark, the latest shop to enliven the eastern stretch of North Avenue in Wauwatosa, where neighbors have embraced a café, a Vietnamese restaurant and a home décor shop in the last year.

The two-chair salon sets the tone up front, where the word "love" floats in script on the glass door and the open sign teases, "Come in, We're awesome." Inside, the 450-square-foot salon is decorated with chandeliers, ornate mirrors and two vintage-style dressers — Beauty Mark's take on salon stations.

"The comment we've gotten most from people is we have a 1920s Great Gatsby feel. I don't know if that's what we went for, but we like it," Glorioso said.

The space was as much a labor of love as a business for the duo, who decided to open their own shop after more than 30 years combined experience at other salons.

"I've been doing this since I was 18, so more than 20 years, and Kimarie has done hair for 12 years," Glorioso explained. "We just decided it was time."

And Tosa was the place.

"We wanted to be part of a neighborhood," Boucher said. "It's part of the reason I just bought a house in Tosa, as well. We're shooting for as local as possible. We want to keep it small. We're not chain type of people. We want small and cozy. And it feels more mom and pop here."

Perhaps that's why the new business owners haven't felt some of the jitters they expected in their opening days. In fact, just days into entrepreneurship — Beauty Mark opened June 9 — Glorioso and Boucher said they've been calm, despite the chaos of the grand opening.

"I don't want to keep going at this rate, working 12 or 13 hours a day," Boucher laughed. "But it's working because of just the love of all the neighbors, who have come to congratulate us and take a peak."

Glorioso agreed. "I definitely thought being on my own would be a little more stressful in some ways; you have more responsibility and pressure. But Kim said it best: It's liberating. You feel free."

JUST THE FACTS

BUSINESS:Beauty Mark, 6435 W. North Ave.

WEB: www.beautymarktosa.com

PHONE: (414) 897-7178

OWNER: Kimarie Boucher and Keely Glorioso

INCORPORATED: June 2015

TYPE OF BUSINESS: salon

PEARLS OF WISDOM:"We wanted to be part of a neighborhood."