Naimie’s/garcia/24″/mike1st/dp2nd By SHELLY GARCIA Staff Reporter Need a tonic to make the whites of your eyes look whiter? Cover up scar tissue? Hide a bald spot? These are just some of the products that can be found at Naimie’s Beauty Center, a beauty supplies distributor, retail store, day spa and hair styling salon in North Hollywood. Naimie’s made a name for itself by supplying cosmetics and other beauty and special effects products to the film industry, and the company has attracted a star-studded clientele for its retail business as a result. Cher stopped in a few weeks ago for some lipstick. Dolly Parton and Lonnie Anderson are regulars. And when US magazine recently asked Meg Ryan where she buys her cosmetics, she answered, “Naimie’s.” More recently, though, Naimie’s has branched out, dramatically expanding its physical location, services and retail merchandise selection with cosmetics and other products that enable just plain folks to cultivate some of the same illusions once reserved for Hollywood. With its expansion, Naimie’s is one of the few independent companies capitalizing on a growing trend to house a wide array of beauty products and services under one roof. And the company has won mention in nearly every national fashion magazine from Allure to Good Housekeeping for its large selection and competitive prices. The company’s founder and co-owner Naimie Ojeil keeps sales a closely guarded secret. But Naimie’s move last August from a tiny, 5,000-square-foot storefront at the intersection of Victory and Coldwater Canyon boulevards to its posh new Riverside Drive location suggests the magnitude of its growth. “He (Ojeil) is not doing that without doing a lot of business,” said Mike Nave, editor and publisher of Beauty Industry Report, a monthly newsletter based in Chatsworth for the professional beauty industry. Ojeil intended to become a civil engineer when he emigrated here from Syria to attend Mississippi State University. He came to Los Angeles to earn money for his schooling and got a job with a beauty supplies distributor who worked with many of the movie studios at the time. Starting as a delivery boy, Ojeil worked his way up to a manager in a short time, and he never returned to school. The beauty supply industry at that time was beginning a major transformation from generic shampoos, hair dyes, hair brushes and other equipment to a full range of beauty products, and Ojeil led the charge for his former employer. “We made a revolution from (traditional) beauty supply with $1.50 lipsticks to something professional.” As movie technology changed, there was no longer a need for special, thick makeup foundations and harsh colors that could withstand the old lighting techniques. Ojeil began bringing in good quality makeup lines that could be used for street wear as well as for film shoots. By the time he opened his own shop with partner Sam Bekarian in 1988, designer names had come onto the scene in the cosmetics industry, and Ojeil found he was able to spot the quickly changing trends even before department stores got wind of them. “As the change came in, I was there, and sometimes I was ahead of it,” Ojeil said. He stocked his store with premier cosmetic lines like Mac, Christian Dior and Laroc, but the little shop on Victory soon became cramped. To convince more upscale cosmetic manufacturers, who are very picky about where their products are sold, Naimie’s needed a facelift. “About 1995 we started thinking we should get to a better location,” said Bekarian. “If we didn’t have the ambiance, they (upscale product line manufacturers) wouldn’t give us a second look. So our plan was to be able to do this and contact them.” The new, two-level salon and boutique, three years in the making, is elegantly appointed with marble floors, plants and mirrors. Skylights open onto an enclosed patio with wrought-iron tables, and the day spa and hair salon are housed separately at either end of a large retail area in the center of the floor. In addition to a hair styling salon and day spa offering facials, massages, seaweed and mineral baths, wraps and scrubs, electrolysis, waxing and cosmetic makeovers, Naimie’s has added about 10 new lines of cosmetics and skin care products. Many are available in very limited distribution, making the boutique a destination for a number of hard-to-find items. The store carries Vincent Longo cosmetics, which, besides Naimie’s, are only available in L.A. at Neiman-Marcus; Senna, which is carried at Nordstrom and the Beverly Hills shop owned by its creator; Repechage, which is only available at salons; and Lorac, also sold at Fred Siegel, among many others. In addition, Naimie’s offers its own private-label brand of cosmetics and makeup brushes. There is a selection of about 200 different eyelashes, an entire wall of hair dryers and styling wands, henna tattoo kits and decals and dozens of shampoos and conditioners, along with more esoteric products. There is something called Super Million, a $60 concoction that can be sprinkled onto bald spots to give the appearance of hair, and Collyre Blue, drops that make the whites of the eyes look whiter (to be used only for special occasions, the saleswoman warns), for $14.95. Despite its glamorous clientele, the store’s product lines span a wide variety of prices. Foundations, for example, are priced from $30 to $40 for Vincent Longo varieties to $10.95 for Naimie’s private brand. And for convenience, the store also carries a variety of brands, like Max Factor, that are typically found in drug stores. The Hollywood clientele of Naimie’s grew as a result of its movie business. When a makeup artist works on an actor on the set, he or she will often ask about the products and where they are available. The street traffic, however, has come mostly by word of mouth. “As we opened here, business grew in the retail arena,” Bekarian said. The expansion fits neatly with a growing trend to house a number of beauty products and services under one roof, industry experts said. “You have working women today who are always looking for one-stop shopping,” said Nave. “Now that he (Ojeil) has such a wide selection of merchandise, that’s a real key value to consumers. By making it appealing and having things that are available and price competitive, you make it easy for (customers to make) buying decisions.”
