Alayne Curtiss

Leading Expert in the Bridal Beauty Business and Salon Entrepreneurship for over 25 years

Alayne Curtiss is the founder and owner of Make Me Fab, an award-winning salon and spa.

“As a licensed aesthetician and cosmetologist Alayne is fully skilled in bridal hair and makeup.  She has worked on thousands of brides from San Diego to Honolulu, the Adirondack Mountains, NY Bridal Fashion Week for Pnina Tourna and Mark Zunino and almost everywhere in between.  With more than 25 years in the bridal beauty business there isn’t a situation, skin tone or hairstyle that Alayne hasn’t mastered.  Now she shares her 25 years of experience in the bridal beauty business with you! For bookings email alayne@makemefab.com.

 We use only prestige quality products and purchase products directly from the manufacturer-not from discounted internet sites. We strive to provide hair and makeup that have superior long-wear capabilities as well as photograph perfectly! Read more… 

Alayne Curtiss is a world-renowned hair, makeup, and wardrobe stylist. She is also the founder and CEO of Make Me Fabulous, an award-winning non-toxic salon and spa that has been rated one of the hot 100 salons in America. Her work has been featured in Glamour, Self, Instyle Hair, Women’s Day, Martha Stewart, The Knot and numerous other publications. Her blog posts have earned her a place on the list of both the top 100 aesthetician blogs and the top 75 cosmetology blogs. For over 25 years, thousands of brides, socialites, celebrities and public figures, have had the good fortune to experience her incredible talent.

Alayne Curtiss says she got her work ethic from her grandmother who came to America from Italy at age 14 and worked to support her family of 8 brothers and sisters. Alayne grew up in Upstate New York on Saratoga Lake near her grandparents’ restaurant and was already a hard worker by the age of 12. By age 16, she was known as the girl in high school who always did everyone’s hair and makeup at slumber parties. 

She was a cum laude graduate in marketing from Southern New Hampshire University, and although she’s proud of her academic accomplishments, her passions clearly propelled her in another direction. Years before starting her own company, she was working three jobs. Her day job was as a sales rep for Experian, selling residential mortgage credit reports. She amassed a territory covering 5 states. On the weekends, she worked as a member of a special events team for Clinique, servicing multiple retailers in upstate New York. At night she worked at one of her family’s restaurants in Saratoga Springs, NY.

While working for Clinique and Experian, Alayne Curtiss started doing wedding makeup on the weekends. Although it wasn’t originally her goal to open a salon, she quickly met a lot of brides and her business grew exponentially. She ended up opening her first salon in Ballston Spa, NY. Her first location was 300 square feet, within five months she grew to 600 square feet and within five years to 1,800 square feet with 3000+ clients in her database. She then opened a second location in the Pavilion Grand Hotel, in the downtown hotspot of Saratoga Springs, New York. With two salons, a commercial styling clientele of local news channels and politicians, and servicing over 150 weddings a year, she worked to empower her staff in each location to run the business alongside her.

Commitment and a strong work ethic are two character traits that are very important to Alayne. She knows that’s what it takes to grow and nurture a million-dollar company. Networking is also crucial. She used her marketing background to  develop referral sources, getting to know venues, vendors, photographers and wedding planners.

As a boss, her unique “coach with compassion” attitude has also made her a dream employer for anyone she chooses to mentor. Under her watchful eye, each employee is trained to work as a team. Each team member is equally as important as the rest. Every team member is coached to speak with kindness, as opposed to bullying and working based on a commission pay structure, which is the norm in most salon cultures. They learn to care deeply about each other, and that the success of the team benefits each individual’s success. Every guest should feel comfortable in any team member’s chair, because they are all committed to the highest level of service for all our guests. Alayne Curtiss also wanted her team to have all the benefits of other professions, including bonuses for a job well done, paid sick and vacation time, consistent wages, retirement reimbursement and paid training. Keeping all the chairs full and all the guests and staff happy is the only way to provide the employee benefits that most professional workplaces are able to provide. It can’t be accomplished with a one person show. 

In her spare time, she enjoys scrapbooking, cooking and staying fit with her family. Never one to sit still for too long, Alayne Curtiss also has several projects lined up. In addition to her own line of long-lasting, photo-friendly, clean cosmetics, she is also developing a mail-order delivery service. Geared towards the wedding industry, this subscription service would include personal style makeup beauty boxes made exclusively for brides, mothers-of-the-bride, and maids-of-honor. You’ll also get to work with her trained makeup artists to create your wedding day look from anywhere in the world, using the same techniques to keep brides and bridal parties looking fabulous all day, that she and her teams have tried and tested for years.