Alumni
Grad Launches Natural Beauty Products for Aesthetic Procedures
Meghan Wyscaver, who was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was always creative and knew she wanted to go to design school one day. After visiting a friend who was living in Hollywood, the fashion enthusiast fell in love with the city’s sunshine and mountains. She quickly realized she wanted to move to Los Angeles, so she began looking into schools when she returned home to Michigan. Within a matter of months, Meghan applied to FIDM, got accepted, and headed West to study Merchandise Product Development. “I wanted to get the full picture of design and business and the computer-aided design aspect,” explained Meghan, who was a classmate of Lauren Conrad’s while at FIDM. “The fact that it covered taking products from concept to creation, but also researching, production management, and learning the supply chain was really interesting.”
Missing home, she moved back to Michigan after graduation and pursued her love of baking at a fine dining restaurant where she worked as a pastry chef after intensive training. “I got to come up with my own desserts for specials and had my own kitchen, but it was really hard work,” Meghan said. “I worked long hours in a hot 90-degree-plus kitchen six days a week and couldn't really take vacations because no one could cover for me.” Once Meghan became pregnant with her son, she realized her schedule wasn’t sustainable and that she wanted a job where she could help people. She decided to go back to school to pursue nursing, a career she’d always been interested in since she has medical professionals in her family.
In 2015, Meghan earned a B.S. in nursing and has worked as a pediatric emergency room nurse for the past six years. In 2019, she started training to become an aesthetic nurse injector and currently does injections such as Botox and facial fillers at the Center for Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery in Ann Arbor. Meghan noticed that patients receiving lip fillers were not being given a product to assist with their recovery. Recognizing an industry need and using tools she learned at FIDM, Meghan recently launched Elle & Evie, an all-natural beauty product line that promotes healing after aesthetic procedures. Her first product, Calme de Lèvre, is a calming lip salve that helps with post-injection bruising and swelling. She has also developed a CBD lip balm and is working on a post-filler cream for the face.
Meghan started sampling her product on her own patients and received such an amazing response she knew she had to forward with the business. “I have a ton of self-motivation and I wake up excited to work,” Meghan said. “As a mom of three young kids, to have flexibility to set my own schedule and take on as much or as little as I want is ideal.” The registered nurse said she really struggled during the past year taking care of Covid patients in the ER and was not given proper protective equipment for far too long. “I felt completely unsupported and wanted to do something that brought people happiness,” she explained. “In the beginning everyone was all about the health workers, but then it felt like people didn’t care.”
She said she enjoys working in aesthetic nursing because she can make people feel better about themselves and that entrepreneurship suits her well thanks to her past education. “I don’t know if I ever would have gone forward with what I am doing if not for all that background I received at FIDM,” said Meghan, who noted that it’s important for her children to know that if they have an idea they can start their own businesses as well. “FIDM gives you the skills you need to take a concept to a real legitimate business and gave me the backbone that I needed to do it.”
Learn more at elleandevie.com and on Instagram @elle.and.evie and @megwyscaverrn.
Categories: Merchandise Product Development Alumni
