Healthy Skin, Whole Person: Toy Makes Faces

When LaToya Hedrick and her husband Mack were planning their move to Northwest Arkansas, one of the first things she did was follow Black Owned NWA. She says our page is part of how she found her people here before she had even unpacked. Now she is one of those people, and her studio is open for the rest of us.

Toy, as her friends call her, relocated from Greensboro to Bella Vista in August 2024 and opened Toy Makes Faces, a skincare studio in Rogers. She is a licensed esthetician who specializes in corrective skincare and age management for all genders and all skin tones, working with professional Korean skincare and a whole person, holistic approach. She describes the heart of it simply, that she loves watching skin transform under a gentle touch with high performance treatments built for the individual in her chair. For the beauty lovers, she is also a semi retired makeup artist who does beautifully styled lash lifts and brow shaping, because as she puts it, healthy glowing skin with a dash of enhancement never hurt anybody.

This is not a hobby she picked up last year. Toy started doing makeup professionally back in 2008 and spent a decade learning how much skincare shaped the way that makeup sat on a face. In 2018 she went to school for esthetics, finished, and immediately went solo. She is honest that going out on her own was scary, and that leaving her original studio behind in North Carolina to start over in Arkansas was hard, but she knew she had to build it again here and be even better.

Her advice for other Black entrepreneurs is refreshingly current. Keep an open mind toward new trends and make them your own, be willing to evolve with technology, and dump the imposter syndrome for good, because nobody is you and that is your actual strength. The best advice she has ever received is the same thing she now passes on, that chasing someone else's version of success will not make you successful or happy, and that being authentically yourself is what attracts the right people.

Her studio is appointment only, and she means it when she says all are welcome. If your skin has been asking for some real attention, this is a neighbor who will treat the work, and you, with genuine care. You can book Toy Makes Faces and shop skincare at toymakesfaces.com, and find her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at @toymakesfaces.