A woman who is a paramedic and an award winning lip artist has said her cosmetics business has seen customers from Chicago and Transylvania.
Ellie Jones, née Adele, is a 39 year-old from Kirkby who combines her work saving lives as a paramedic with transforming people’s looks. She started Ella Adele Aesthetics as a hobby seven years ago and has gone on to win Best Lip Artist 2022 at the National Beauty Awards.
Word of her work quickly spread and she was “blown away” when her first client from Wales visited and soon had custom from Somerset, Scotland and Island.
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However, it was an American woman visiting which truly astonished Ellie. She said: “This woman walked in and said, ‘oh my god, I just got off my flight and thought I’d missed my appointment.’"
She explained that she was from Chicago. Ellie said: “I thought, I’m going to need a better clinic if I’m getting clients from America!’”
Elle admitted it can be tiring balancing her lives as a paramedic and beautician. However, given the nature of healthcare, her work as a lip artist is a form of therapy for her.
She explained: “It started of as a bit of extra income, as I was a single parent at the time. But I became obsessed with it.
She added: “When I have a couple of bad jobs as a paramedic, instead of sitting at home and dwelling on it, I get to be in a gorgeous environment with dead empowering girls.”
Like her work as a paramedic, Ellie has claimed lip work also has care and support at the heart of it. She said: “I’ve had a girl who cried to me, saying she thought she was ugly and had stopped going to the gym because of it. But because of the work I’ve done, I helped her regain confidence in herself.”
Ellie’s aim of giving her clients "gorgeous, natural lips'' was not straightforward. She trained with Polish, Russian and Romanian beauticians. She also had to fight restrictions when applying for her qualifications after initially being told that paramedics were not suitable for aesthetics.
Ellie even had nerves before the National Beauty Awards where she was nominated for Best Lip Artist. She explained: “I attended feeling like I did not belong there as it was my first awards event. But everyone there was amazing. The organisers gave me a warm welcome and the night was filled with compliments all around the room from strangers all lifting each other up.”
Ellie topped off a great night by winning the prize for Best Lip Artist of the year. She said: “I was over the moon. It started off as just a passion project and an extra piece of income as a single mum, so to win the award was amazing.”
Her work as a paramedic also gained attention as she featured on BBC show Ambulance, set in Liverpool. She only agreed to appear on the show due to a deal with her grandad, who was struggling to get active after suffering from a blockage in his leg.
Ellie explained: “He was so proud of me being a paramedic. We’d walk around the B&M and he’d pull over strangers and tell them what I did.”
He agreed to get out of bed and watch her on their big TV together. However, before the series was released, tragedy struck.
Ellie explained: “After the filming was done, we got told he only had two weeks left to live. I was devastated, because he wouldn’t be able to watch the episodes and that was the only reason I went on the show.
Thankfully, the makers of the show stepped in to help. Ellie said: “They made a little clip of me in the show before it aired and drove down from Manchester to Kirkby to show us it. I recorded a video of him watching it.”
By the time the show aired, her grandad had passed away, which was acknowledged in the final edit. Ellie said: "When I watch that episode, I cry every time that comes up.”
Ellie has continued to do whatever she can to help others in her life. During bad times as a paramedic, work as a lip artist can make up for it.
Ellie said: “Me going away, doing people’s lips and making people feel good, that’s my equivalent of going the gym. As someone determined to help others, being a lip artist archives that and keeps my mind occupied.”
You can visit Ellie’s Instagram page here.
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