LL Training Academy

LL Training Academy is an established permanent makeup academy in the heart of the town with a large PMU training and theory room offering one-on-one, level 4 elite permanent makeup training.

Since opening in June 2019, LL Training Academy has obtained ABT Accreditation and Lindsay has achieved her Award in Education & Teaching level 3, winning the SPMU (Semi-Permanent makeup) specialist of the year for the North East as well as becoming the Silver winner in the Hair and Beauty Awards for SPMU all in the space of five months.

Students attend the academy from as far as Portsmouth, Newcastle and Nottinghamshire training in many services ranging from SPMU to Dermaplaning.

Lindsay first started out in the beauty industry in 2004, working from the back room of a sunbed shop with expensive rent.

Here, she built up a loyal client base, which enabled her to open her own salon with four staff members, but reality and the recession hit the business hard.

She says “The overheads were phenomenal, I was selling personal possessions to pay wages, I didn’t have a holiday for over five years, nearly had my car repossessed, had a breakdown in a long term relationship, moved out of my home into a rented flat, but I carried on working 12 to 14 hours a day sometimes.”

After meeting her partner Kevin, things started to turn around. Lindsay decided not to renew her lease and started working from home.

Following years of experience, Lindsay was head hunted to become a trainer with one of England’s top SPMU training academies in West Yorkshire and travelled there twice a week to be their brow artistry trainer as well as running a new business at Elements on Thorne Road.

Unfortunately, two years later Lindsay was diagnosed with bowel cancer, forcing her to leave the academy in West Yorkshire to focus on recovering.

After taking just three months off to recover and still in remission with two years left for the all clear, Lindsay began to focus on building up her business at Elements.

She said, “I should have returned so much later but self-employed doesn’t carry as many perks as someone salaried so I needed to return to carry on earning.”

Despite still being in quite some pain, Lindsay decided that she could actually start her own academy.

She said, “I had some savings, a great PA who really wanted it to work and a very supportive husband, the only thing I didn’t have was the room.”

As Elements were unable to provide any bigger workspaces for a training academy, Lindsay approached Nigel Thompson at Queens Road Design Centre earlier this year, took out a lease on three rooms and the LL Training Academy was born.

The company has since expanded to four rooms to include a massage and holistic room, which has resulted in the business recruiting another member of staff to run this area.

Lindsay also offers areola tattooing as a free service to women who have had surgery as a result of breast cancer stating in her own words that they should “pay with a smile”.