Best friends open beauty academy in Romford Shopping Hall

Co-owners Emma West and Eni Caushi, both 29, have been best friends since Year 7 and are thrilled to be working together at Eyelash Bar.

Eni said: “We’re like family really.

“It’s amazing, we bicker half the time, but it’s just our banter and there’s never any hard feelings.

“I’m very lucky to have her and get into business with her.”

Eyelash Bar was both fully booked and taking walk-ins on the day it opened for the first time - which was also the day non-essential retail around the country was able to reopen as part of the government's lockdown easing roadmap.

Romford-born Emma said: “The salon looks amazing, and there has been a lot of interest as people walk by.”

Eyelash Bar offers a range of beauty treatments as well as being a training academy (Image: Ken Mears)

The back of the unit is used as a training academy for two-day courses in eyelash and eyebrow treatments and waxing, and all the salon’s staff are former students.

Beauty therapist Shannon Croly, an ex-NHS worker, said: “I wanted to enjoy my job and work for myself, so Emma convinced me to train in the academy.”