ETON ACADEMY
COVID-19 Response
LBN Reporter Rebecca Calappi talks with Pete Pullen, Head of School, about what Eton Academy is and how they are dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic and opening for school in the fall.
Check out our previous story on Eton Academy here.
Sullivan & Sons
Funeral Directors
COVID-19 Response
Sullivan & Sons
Funeral Directors
COVID-19 Response
Join LBN Reporter Rebecca Calappi as she talks with Michael Lope about how Sullivan & Sons is dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic and the current and future state of the funeral home industry.
Check out our previous story on Sullivan & Sons here.
Beauty Specialist
Offers Supermodel
Treatment in B’ham
05
FEBRUARY 2020
LBN Community Series
Birmingham
For more than 20 years, Jenny Brethen has been trusting Elizabeth Arsov to help her feel vibrant.
“I always leave there feeling like a supermodel,” said Brethen recently. “I have some other friends in the same field, but no, I’m very loyal to Liz. She’s does a great job and she always makes me feel good.”
OWNER, ELIZABETH'S HEAD TO TOE
The praise goes to Arsov, owner of Elizabeth’s Head to Toe. Arsov is an aesthetician and makeup artist who has won national acclaim for her work, especially in eyebrows.
She’s been an aesthetician for more than 12 years. Early in her career, a peer realized Arsov’s potential and went into business with her. From there, the business kept growing, culminating in Elizabeth’s Head to Toe.
Getting into the beauty industry seemed natural for Arsov. As a child, her sister and friends would come to her to get their hair braided or their eyebrows done. As she got older, she did makeup for friends, too.
“Growing up, my grandfather had a barber shop and my mom stayed home with the kids and did hair out of the house,” said Arsov. “I’ve been doing eyebrows since I was 11. It was something I was always good at, but I never thought that would be how I could make a living. I just thought it was a hobby. It wasn’t until I was in my late teens, early 20s that I got introduced to people in the industry while I was waiting tables.”
Today, she owns Elizabeth’s Head to Toe. She started the business in 2009 on Woodward and moved into the current building, on 14 Mile in Birmingham, in September 2019.
“I do love my job. I get to make people feel pretty,” said Arsov. “I’d like to think that goes beyond the surface of what that sounds like. We could have people come in who lost a spouse and they want a change. You can change somebody’s attitude.”
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Arsov owns the building where she works, but shares the space with the hair salon Beauty Collective as well as with a spa upstairs.
“The stylists are coming from all different places and have landed here,” said Arsov. “I feel like we’re really fortunate to have this cool work environment.”
Elizabeth’s Head to Toe offers services with a strong focus on waxing, brow-shaping and cosmetics. Additionally, there’s a quaint shop area where Arsov artfully displays seasonal fashions for purchase.
Customers come to Elizabeth’s for eyebrow-shaping and –tinting and facial-waxing, including sideburns, cheeks, chin, lip, neck and hairline; services also include eyelash-tinting and eyelash-lifting, which is a perm for lashes. Clients can also get two-week or one-day lashes as well as makeup applications, eyes-only makeup, minifacials and European facials. Serums or masks can be added for an additional cost.
Elizabeth’s also offers body-waxing services for men and women, including for the back, underarms, bikini area and stomach. A Brazilian wax — a more extreme form of the bikini wax — is also available.
“I just want people to feel good. I like people to laugh. I like to keep things light,” said Arsov. “I just want people to be happy. If you’re taking time from your life to come see me, you should feel good about it.”
Acknowledged in Allure magazine as a brow specialist, Arsov’s specialty is giving clients the perfect arch. She uses a combination of tweezing and waxing to shape the brow, but also offers microblading.
“Microblading is a semi-permanent eyebrow,” Arsov explained. “Instead of using a tattoo needle, with microblading you make a series of cuts in the skin and pack it with pigment. It lasts from one to three years, depending on skin type, time in the sun or how aggressive your skin-care regimen is. You can wake up with eyebrows.”
In an industry that thrives on loyalty, Elizabeth’s Head to Toe is rich with customer rapport and Arsov’s caring attitude.
“At the end of the day, you leave there feeling like you got a service and you have a friend,” said Brethen. “She makes you feel good when you leave her. You look good, but you also feel good.”
Elizabeth’s Head to Toe is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday. Closed Sunday and Monday.
130 West 14 Mile Road
Birmingham, MI 48009
248.203.9933
Surprises Abound at Mount Clemens
Vintage Boutique
30
BY REBECCA CALAPPI
LBN Community Series
Mount Clemens
There’s nothing ho-hum about Max & Ollie’s Vintage Boutique in downtown Mount Clemens. From the array of throw-back merchandise to the owner, the store is chock-full of pleasant surprises.
Diane Kubik has owned Max & Ollie’s for 15 years, but the whole thing was a bit of an accident. Her sister saw the empty storefront just around the corner from where the store is now located. The deal was, Diane would put up the money and her recently unemployed sister would run the shop. When the sister was unexpectedly called back to work, Diane, then a stay-at-home mom of five, found herself in an unfamiliar position.
OWNER, MAX & OLLIE'S
“I could get diapers snowy white, but I knew nothing about vintage, antiques or running a business,” Kubik said.
When Max & Ollie’s first opened, Kubik’s youngest sons and the store’s namesakes, Max and Ollie, were 6 and 8 years old. Originally, the store was evenly split between crafts and vintage, but keeping up on the crafting was unrealistic, so Kubik converted over to strictly vintage.
“We had just one goal: Keep the doors open,” said Kubik. “We just filled the shop with things we loved. We’re not a high-end store and we don’t want to be. We want people to buy things that are fun. People come in and reminisce and relive memories, and we hear a lot of, ‘My grandma had that.’”
Within six years, Max & Ollie’s had outgrown its 300-square-foot space. When a larger space opened on Macomb Place eight years ago, Kubik made the move.
The store is beautifully organized and displayed in a manner not typical for vintage stores. Instead of stacks of dishes and piles of knick-knacks, Kubik thoughtfully arranges her wares. Kitchen and home goods are on one side of the store, while the clothing is on the other.
“The biggest part of that is to make people fall in love with things. Keep it clean, keep it neat keep it fun,” she said. “My strong background was crafting, but it really ended up that creative problem-solving was my strongest. You have to get really creative with the solutions and it worked out OK.”
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Customers can find anything from costume jewelry and clothing to kitchenware and linens at Max & Ollie’s.
“Aprons are a huge seller,” said Kubik. “We sell the sheer aprons for when something other than dinner is cooking. Valentine’s is coming!”
In addition to the unique merchandise, Kubik likes to make a visit to her store an experience. Her dynamic personality comes through in conversation. To each customer, she offers freshly baked cookies right out of a toaster oven next to the cash register.
You can also find Kubik in other shops in downtown Mount Clemens, helping with displays or giving a bit of business advice. It’s just the kind of person she is.
“We’ve morphed a lot over the years, but the thing I wanted to be most is fun,” said Kubik. “We managed to hold it through the toughest economy since the Depression. My favorite part has got to be the customers. I love the stuff, but the people have been incredible. It’s been an adventure. It’s the greatest job ever.”
Max & Ollie’s is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Closed Monday.
Ray Lareau has been working on computers for a long time — about 44 years, which takes him back to the dark ages of personal computing.
The owner of Royal Oak-based Computer Services of Michigan, Lareau built his first computer at age 9.
Armed with some computer books given to him by a brother-in-law, including one on building a computer, Lareau said, he also taught himself to program.
OWNER, COMPUTER SERVICES OF MICHIGAN
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