Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Park.
Hi Elizabeth, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My journey into entrepreneurship wasn’t planned.
At the time, I was working as a nanny and studying sociology in college because I thought I wanted to become a therapist. I’ve always had a passion for helping people feel better, but as time went on, I slowly realized that therapy wasn’t the path I wanted to pursue long term. After spending thousands of dollars on school, I made the difficult decision to leave college and really think about what I wanted for my future.
As I reflected on what genuinely interested me, I kept coming back to waxing. I had started waxing myself after several bad experiences as a client and found that I genuinely loved it. That realization led me to enroll in esthetician school.
After graduating, I went to work at European Wax Center to gain experience. While I learned a lot, I also noticed many gaps in the client experience and the way the business operated. Clients often felt rushed, the environment felt cold and transactional, and the overall culture reminded me more of a doctor’s office than a self-care experience. I constantly found myself thinking, “If I ever started my own business, I would do this differently.”
Around that same time, I took a random trip to San Diego and fell in love with the city. A few months later, during the height of COVID, I packed up and moved there knowing literally no one. I was uncertain about my future and figured I would give starting a business a shot.
In the beginning, I waxed clients out of my bedroom. Growth was incredibly slow. For nearly a year, I averaged only about one/two clients a month. There were countless times I questioned whether I should keep going. Building a business in a new city, during a pandemic, with no network, no formal business education, and very little money to invest was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
After about a year, I realized that if I wanted to give myself a real chance, I needed to take a leap of faith. Despite having only a handful of clients, I signed a lease on my first studio space.
Over the years, I never stopped learning, growing, and pushing myself. Every challenge forced me to figure things out as I went. Looking back, I often joke that if I had known how difficult entrepreneurship would be, I probably wouldn’t have started. But I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t know. I simply took the next step and figured it out along the way.
Today, it’s been five years since those bedroom-waxing days. Some of my clients from back then still come to see me, and we laugh about how far we’ve come together. What started as a small waxing business has grown into something much bigger. In addition to serving clients, I’ve developed my own line of body care products and recently expanded into wholesale, allowing other beauty professionals to offer Naked Mango products to their clients as well.
At its core, Naked Mango was built on a simple belief: people deserve to feel cared for. Whether through a service, a product, or an experience, my goal has always been to help people feel more confident, comfortable, and cared for than when they walked in.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. Building a business has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done, but it has also been one of the hardest.
One of the biggest challenges was that I was 100% responsible for the growth of the business. There was no roadmap, no team, and no one telling me what to do next. I had to learn how to attract clients, retain them, market my services, make sales, conduct outreach, and build a reputation from the ground up. Every new client felt like a win, especially in the early years when growth was slow.
As the business grew, so did the complexity. I’ve had to make difficult decisions about when to invest money back into the business, how much inventory to order, and which opportunities were worth the risk. There were also unexpected challenges, like having to relocate my studio with only a month’s notice, which was both stressful and disruptive.
Expanding into skincare introduced an entirely new learning curve. I had to educate myself on manufacturing, packaging, supplier relationships, inventory management, and product development. On the marketing side, I spent countless hours learning SEO, advertising, content creation, and testing different strategies to understand what actually worked.
Most of these skills were learned through trial and error. While there have been plenty of mistakes along the way, each challenge has taught me something valuable and helped me become a stronger business owner. Looking back, the obstacles are what gave me the confidence to keep growing and trust my ability to figure things out, even when I’ve never done something before.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Naked Mango?
I named it Naked Mango because initially it just made sense with brazilian waxing being my main service. But as the brand expanded, the name expanded with it. I’m a beach girl, I’ve always lived in beachy cities, and the services naturally support that active lifestyle. Waxing, brows, and skincare are everything an active SoCal girl needs to feel good in her bikini. But it goes beyond just the services too, it’s about feeling confident in your own skin + just being you. The products reflect that as well: clean, natural, no fillers, nothing extra.
At Naked Mango, I specialize in beauty services including brazilian waxing, brow shaping, laminations, and lash lifts. I also created my own line of organic body oils and skincare products designed to support my clients results and for those that want a natural skincare option. More recently, I’ve expanded into wholesale, allowing other estheticians and wellness professionals to offer Naked Mango products to their clients as well!
One thing that’s always been important to me is skin health. I carefully research the ingredients and products I use because I believe clients deserve treatments and products that not only deliver results but also support the long-term health of their skin.
What sets Naked Mango apart is the experience. Technical skill is important, but I believe people are looking for more than just a service. When clients come to me, they receive years of professional experience, honest recommendations, education, and personalized care. My goal is to create an environment that feels welcoming, comfortable, and fun. We chat, listen to good music, laugh, and at the same time I make sure clients leave with the knowledge they need to maintain their results and feel confident in their skin. I feel like my clients really trust me because I’ll always give them my honest opinion. I have no issue telling them “no” if I don’t see them getting good long term results or will recommend them out to different providers that can offer them something else I think would be good. Not everyone is a good candidate for my services and honesty goes much farther than anything else in this industry. So many providers don’t educate their clients or just want a quick money grab while compromising their long-term results.
At the heart of everything I do is helping people feel better about themselves. Whether that’s through a brow transformation, a waxing service, or recommending a product that solves a skin concern, I want clients to leave feeling more confident than when they walked in.
What I’m most proud of is the growth of the business. There were many years when progress felt slow and every milestone required a tremendous amount of work. Looking back now, I’m proud not only of what I’ve built, but of the community that has grown around it. Some of my clients have been with me since the very beginning, and their trust and support have made Naked Mango what it is today.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
To me, success isn’t defined by revenue, awards, or social media followers, it’s seeing clients return year after year and trusting me to be part of their lives. I think you’ve truly made it when you’ve built a loyal client base that loves what you do, returns every month and enthusiastically recommends you to their friends and family.
Success is also about the transformation that happens beyond the service itself. Many clients come in during significant moments in their lives, whether they’re navigating a breakup, divorce, a career change, or simply going through a difficult season. While I may be providing a beauty service, there’s often so much more happening during that appointment.
One of the things I love most about my work is the opportunity to help people feel more confident and comfortable in their own skin. Seeing someone walk out feeling lighter, happier, or more empowered than when they walked in is incredibly rewarding. In many ways, that transformation is just as meaningful to me as the physical results.
The conversations we have often become a big part of the experience. Over the years, I’ve shared laughs, celebrated milestones, offered encouragement, and learned from my clients just as much as they’ve learned from me. Those genuine connections are what make this work so fulfilling and remind me that what I’ve built is about much more than beauty services, it’s about creating a space where people feel seen, supported, and confident, to me that’s success.
Pricing:
- Golden Mango Oil $50
- Restore Serum $40
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nakedmango.myshopify.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nakedmangosd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenkdmango/
