About the Founder
Meet Dianna.
Lash artist. Educator. Formulator. Researcher. Entrepreneur. And someone who has spent years asking, “But why?”
My career has taken me from behind the lash bed to owning studios, teaching professionals, developing brands and products, studying health sciences and cosmetic science, and exploring the questions that eventually became the foundation of Elusive.
Where It Began
I wasn't trying to change an industry.
I was a young single mom trying to figure out how to build a different future for my son, Brody, and myself.
I found the lash industry during that chapter of my life. What began as an opportunity to earn an income became the beginning of a career I could never have predicted.
There were years of clients, studios, teaching, business growth, mistakes, pivots, learning, rebuilding, and figuring things out as I went.
I was trying to build a life.
And slowly, that's exactly what happened.
Learning Through Experience
One opportunity slowly became a career.
Over the years, I went on to own and operate multiple full-service lash studios, build teams, teach professionals, develop private-label brands, and become more involved in product development, formulation, and manufacturing.
Each part of that journey taught me something different.
Some things worked. Some didn't.
There were decisions I would make differently now, ideas that evolved, businesses that changed, and plenty of moments where I had to stop, reassess, and learn as I went.
Behind the Lash Bed
Years of working directly with clients taught me the practical realities of application, retention, sensitivities, product performance, and professional lash care.
Building Studios
Owning and operating full-service lash studios introduced me to team building, education, operations, client care, business growth, and the realities of running a beauty business.
Developing Products
Working with private-label brands and product development opened an entirely new world of ingredients, formulation, manufacturing, product performance, and commercialization.
Growth rarely happens in a straight line.
Life Grew Too
The business wasn't the only thing evolving.
Over the years, my life changed alongside my career.
I met my husband, Christopher. We built a life together, and our family grew when we welcomed our daughter, Audrina.
Brody grew up alongside my career. Audrina arrived in a completely different chapter of it.
My family has lived through nearly every version of this journey: the late nights, studios, courses, studying, product ideas, experiments, successes, failures, and probably more conversations about eyelash adhesive than any family should reasonably have to endure.
What began as a way to create opportunity for Brody and me eventually became part of the life our whole family was building.
Learning, Growing & Starting Again
Life has a way of changing the plan.
One of the things I've learned, both personally and professionally, is that obstacles are unavoidable.
There are seasons where things move quickly and seasons where everything seems to stall.
There are plans that work beautifully and others that fall apart.
There are times you feel certain about what you're doing, and other times when the best thing you can do is admit that you need to learn more.
My own path has included building businesses, raising a family, changing directions, continuing my education, making mistakes, starting over, and learning to become comfortable with not knowing everything.
It's about staying curious enough to keep growing.
Being willing to question what you once believed.
Being open to new evidence.
Listening to people who know more than you do.
And understanding that changing your mind can be a sign of growth, not failure.
Then My Questions Changed
Education changed the way I saw the industry.
The longer I worked in lashes, the less satisfied I became with simply knowing what worked.
I wanted to understand why.
My education expanded into health sciences, public health, occupational health and safety, toxicology, cosmetic formulation, and cosmetic science.
And something unexpected happened.
The more I learned outside of the lash industry, the more questions I started asking inside of it.
What does this mean for lashes?
Asking Better Questions
I stopped being satisfied with “because that's how we do it.”
I started looking more closely at the things we teach, the products we use, and the explanations we repeat.
What is actually happening at the adhesive–lash interface?
How does cleansing change the natural lash surface?
What role does the ocular environment play?
What are the ingredients in our products actually doing?
What does the evidence tell us?
What might we be overlooking?
And increasingly:
What would someone from another discipline see that we might not?
Looking Beyond the Lash Industry
I realized the answers weren't all in one place.
Professional lashes intersect with far more scientific and healthcare disciplines than I originally understood.
Questions about the eye led toward optometry and ocular health.
Questions about the eyelid, hair, and surrounding skin led toward dermatology and health sciences.
Questions about adhesives led toward chemistry, polymer science, materials science, adhesion, and surface science.
Questions about products led toward cosmetic chemistry, formulation, manufacturing, toxicology, and regulation.
And questions about how products and materials actually behave led toward engineering and product development.
Today, that means continuing to learn from, seek insight from, and collaborate with professionals across fields including optometry, medicine, dermatology, chemistry, cosmetic science, formulation, manufacturing, and engineering.
Each discipline understands a different piece.
I'm interested in what happens when we bring those pieces together.
What I Do Today
Somewhere along the way, lashes became much bigger than lashes.
Today, my work brings together many of the different parts of my career: professional lash practice, education, product development, formulation, cosmetic science, research, and entrepreneurship.
But I still see myself as someone who is learning.
My years working with clients and operating studios taught me the practical realities of the industry.
Developing brands and products introduced me to manufacturing, ingredients, formulation, and product performance.
My education has given me new ways to look at questions I had been asking for years.
And collaborating with professionals from other disciplines continues to remind me how much there is still to understand.
Educate
Translate complex scientific concepts into education that professionals can understand, question, and apply.
Research & Collaborate
Look beyond the beauty industry and bring together research, professional experience, and knowledge from other disciplines.
Formulate & Develop
Apply deeper understanding to product formulation, evaluation, development, and future innovation.
And sometimes it's simply:
“I don't know yet. Let's find out.”
Why It Matters
“The lash industry gave me an opportunity during a time in my life when I really needed one.
It helped me build a career, support my family, continue my education, and discover interests I never expected to have.
Elusive is my way of continuing to learn, sharing what I discover, and hopefully contributing something useful back to the industry that has been such a big part of my life.”
I just hope I never stop asking questions.