We’re looking forward to introducing you to Yukino Boice. Check out our conversation below.
Yukino, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
One of my favorite things to do when I feel like I’m not sure what my next step in life is, I LOVE making a vision board. It helps me tune into myself: what I want, what I need, and anything I want to accomplish for the future. I take a moment to listen to my intuition, pause, and when I feel centered, I start looking for visual representations of what I want to pin. I look through magazines to find pictures to cut out and pin to my board. I love the hands-on aspect of it and making the physical board. If I’m out and about, I will substitute with using Pinterest, then try to find a similar picture later and pin to my vision board. Manifesting at its best. Everyday I look at all the pictures I’ve pinned, and it helps put me into a mindset to receive. I give it to the universe and go about my life. I’m still surprised by how well this practice works!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Yukino Boice. I offer hairstyling and makeup for bridal/events in my business called Lash + Veil, LLC. I rebranded from @hairandmakeupbyyukino that I started in 2019. I launched Lash + Veil, LLC in October 2023 and just celebrated 2 years of having my business!
Hair and makeup are my passion, I LOVE IT! I love that I get to do what I enjoy and help others feel beautiful on one of the most important days of their lives. I tell my clients that even if I won the lottery, I would still choose to do bridal/event hair and makeup because it’s what I believe I was put on this Earth to do. It’s who I am, it’s a part of me, it lives in my soul.
There’s something magic about pursuing your passion and harnessing that power into your life. It’s a signal, or internal compass pointing you towards your purpose. My passion is telling me what I am meant to contribute to the world.
I chose to rebrand because I wanted a name to create an identity for my passion, not just named after me and what I offer. It took me months of trying to trigger an “A-ha”, moment to finalize on a name to put on my business. I really loved the plus mark in a business name, and I knew I wanted it to be 2 names put together, two words that sum up something from makeup and something from hair. Lashes in makeup are usually coated in mascara and faux lashes are added on top to create an elongated and fuller look. Veil is a bridal item added to your hair specifically on your wedding day. I also loved that they were both four letters, and that Lash starts with an L and Veil ends with an L. (Lash + Veil). This was it! Luckily enough, the name was available! It felt like destiny. I created my Instagram and email that same night. The next week, I applied for a trademark with a beauty business lawyer.
Working with brides through Lash + Veil, LLC has given me the opportunity to travel to and work at some of the best hotels/resorts and venues in Honolulu, Hi (Oahu). Some of my favorites include Hilton Hawaiian Village, Disney Aulani Resort, and Kualoa Ranch. My goal for my business is to work at every luxury venue in Oahu and eventually start inter-island travel for Big Island, Kauai, and Maui.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memory of feeling powerful came to me later in life. I was 18 years old, and I had just applied for my first bank account and credit card. I had received quite a sum from all my friends and family from high school graduation. My dad’s advice to me was to open a bank account with two accounts, checking and savings and to open my first credit card to start building credit. To be honest, I didn’t know what building credit meant! I understood at some degree that you needed credit to purchase a car or home in the future, but didn’t understand the building part of that sentence. I learned this on my own later in life.
I remember my first credit card had a credit limit of $600 on it. At the time, I was pretty excited about it! I didn’t realize until later on, that I couldn’t do much with a $600 credit limit. Maybe pay some bills. I promised myself after high school, my biggest purchase would be an airline ticket to visit my parents in Taipei, Taiwan. (They had been living there since 2004). I started looking up flights early for Christmas and made it a goal to purchase a $1,500 economy ticket from Phoenix, Arizona to Taipei, Taiwan. Earning and saving up for the airline ticket wasn’t the problem. My problem was that I needed to purchase the ticket with a credit card online. I couldn’t do that with my current credit card limit.
I made an appointment with my bank to talk to someone about increasing my current credit limit to purchase my ticket. I made sure to look presentable and I even printed out copies of the airline ticket I planned to purchase and put them in a folder to seem professional. I meant business and I wanted them to take me seriously. I knew on some level that they might say no due to my age and lack of experience with using my brand-new credit card since I opened it only a few months ago. I was determined and that wasn’t going to stop me.
I presented my case in the meeting and the supervisor even agreed with me that it seemed like a reasonable request. There was no question on if I could repay back the amount used on my credit card, it was the lack of built credit with the bank. She sent in the credit increase application and we both signed at the bottom. Two weeks later, I received a letter in the mail stating that I was not granted the credit increase and that I would be eligible after a year. This letter didn’t sit well with me. I returned to the bank the next day and asked the same supervisor why my application was denied if I was able to provide substantial proof of income for the credit limit increase. She was also confused about my application being denied. I had written a letter and asked her to deliver to whoever needed to read it to grant my credit limit increase. In the letter I had stated that this would be my first big purchase of an airline ticket to visit my parents living overseas. (I had been living with my grandparents in high school). The purchase was made impossible with the limited credit my card could purchase. I signed the letter at the bottom, and she guaranteed that she would hand deliver to her manager.
I walked out of the bank hopeful and still determined. Two weeks later, I received another letter from my bank. This time, they approved the credit limit increase. It was increased to $1,800! I couldn’t believe it!
I will never forget this feeling of triumph. I decided what I wanted, went for it, and didn’t stop until I accomplished it.
It was from this point on in my life that I knew I could pursue anything.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I almost gave up my passion during 2020. I started @hairandmakeupbyyukino in January 2019. By March 2020, the world had shut down from COVID. I had brides booked out for the entire year of 2020. I had to reschedule or refund all of them. The worst part, I couldn’t even tell my brides when I would be able to rebook them for another date. No one had an idea of the chaos that would unfold. I ended up being able to work only a handful of weddings that year.
Fast forward to December 2020. I was one week away from graduating from Arizona State University with my Bachelor of Science Business Entrepreneurship degree. I had been working towards it for 9.5 years! I remember I turned in my last assignment for my last business class I would ever take at university. Instant relief came over me and I knew it was all worth it. This sense of relief would be short lived as I found out I was 6 weeks pregnant, a week later.
I cannot tell you how terrified I was, it was the biggest shock of my life. To make matters worse, the guy I was dating during that time decided that he wasn’t ready to be a father and left me with the impossible decision of keeping the pregnancy and raising the baby myself. I saved as much as I could, packed up my life into 3 suitcases, took a step back from booking weddings and moved to Honolulu, Hawai’i (Oahu) to live with my sister. (She’s lived in HI over 10 years). I needed a support system and roommate, and my sister graciously volunteered to become, “dad”. I gave birth to a baby girl in August 2021. She is the love of my life.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride trying to get back to doing what I love. I ended up taking off the first year to take care of my daughter, while also navigating how to live in Hawai’i. The following year, in 2022, I put all my energy and effort into rebranding my business. Between finding reliable and safe childcare, working out the kinks in building a business from scratch in another state, to exploring around Honolulu, it was a ton of growth in a short amount of time. By October 2023, I officially launched my website for Lash + Veil, LLC!
Thinking back, I have no idea how I was able to pull everything off. Living in a new house in a new state, far away from friends and family, becoming a single mom overnight and learning how to “mom”, to building a business from the ground up a second time sounds impossible. All the while doing it all on a few hours of sleep a night, I barely felt like my own person. To be honest, I would do it all over again. Raising my beautiful daughter, booking weddings in Hawai’i, and traveling during holiday breaks. I’m learning every day to love the way my life unfolded, even if it wasn’t the way I had planned for myself.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
A belief I’ve held close to me since I was little is to do the right thing even when no one is looking. Integrity still shines. I don’t align with the idea that someone can lie, cheat, and deceive to get to where they want to go in life. There are no short cuts to being and staying a kind and true human being. We all have hard times where we feel lost or maybe life didn’t go the way as planned. I don’t allow surprises or setbacks to stop me from being a good person. I do right by people, even when it’s just me in the room.
“Real recognizes real, and karma keeps receipts. Your integrity isn’t just a choice- its’ the signature of your energy. Stay anchored in your truth, rooted in your values, and firm in who you are. The right people, opportunities, and blessings will recognize and respect your light”. – Vex King
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Since birth, I’ve been the person to walk to the beat of my own drum. That’s what my grandma used to say about me. Anytime someone new would meet me, they would have a hard time describing me in words to someone else that didn’t know me. They would usually say, “you just need to meet her”. I’ve taken this as a compliment and never let it make me feel as though I needed to shrink to fit or that I needed to become more “digestible” in any way.
I’ve known since I was five years old that I wanted to do hair and makeup. My parents got me this play makeup kit as a gift and I used to run around the house giving everyone a “makeover”. I think back and cringe because that was super unsanitary! Since then, I’ve loved doing art in school. Anything hands-on, with lots of color and tools. I originally majored as a Bachelor of Arts Fine Arts major before transferring to Business Entrepreneurship one year into college.
I know after I’m gone from this world, one thing that will be remembered about me is my resilience to adversity. I’ve overcome so much in my life. From moving around every few years growing up, to my parents moving overseas to Taipei, Taiwan when I was 12 years old, and my siblings and I were half raised by our grandparents. This also meant we had to learn some things on our own. (Like how to use a credit card and build credit). I also worked in several different hair salons, trying to find my salon home. It was surprisingly harder than anticipated since they never taught this in cosmetology school. I was actually fired from my favorite salon that I was apprenticing at! I was involved with a toxic partner at the time, and it took a toll on my mental health. I was detached at work, and it started to show. It was hard for me to accept at the time, but it was a learning experience. That same year, I was sexually assaulted by that same toxic partner. It took me a long time to even realize what had happened to me. It took me years of therapy to feel like myself again.
Fast forward to now: raising my daughter as a solo mom, starting my business from the ground up twice, and moving and living in Hawai’i. Figuring it out one step at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lashandveil.com/home/
- Instagram: @lash_and_veil
- Yelp: Lash and Veil
- Other: https://voyagephoenix.com/interview/meet-yukino-boice-hairandmakeupbyyukino-tempe/
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