Entrepreneur Aaron Perkins introduces Face Your Day Xpress to his unique portfolio of amenities – in collaboration with the downtown Little Rock Marriott Hotel – with enthusiasm and a continued commitment to #PolishingtheRock.
Photography by Lori Sparkman
As Aaron Perkins stands on the rooftop of the 2nd Street Parking Deck overlooking the city he loves, he admires the view and considers his business Face Your Day Salon in the historic Gans Building quite an accomplishment. But his attention is focused on another building: the Little Rock Marriott Hotel, home of his newest project, Face Your Day Xpress.
“This is a dream five years in the making,” Aaron says.
A Maumelle native, Aaron’s dream to work in the beauty industry led him to New York City, where he polished his craft as a makeup artist for Vogue Magazine for three years. When his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, Aaron returned to Arkansas to be with her and support her throughout her cancer treatments. After she entered remission, Aaron decided to stay in his home state and start a business providing beauty services commonplace in the Big Apple but lacking in the Rock.
“Weddings are a big deal in the South,” Aaron explains. “I felt that the women of Arkansas deserved nothing but the best treatment as they faced their special day, so I created Face Your Day Salon to offer the professional services I learned during my time in New York.”
Aaron not only created an innovative beauty business, transforming the ordinary into extraordinary, he is devoted to the community and believes sharing his talent + perspective is a civic responsibility. He has taught makeup classes to women at the working homeless shelter Our House, worked with local teens through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas, promoted health + wellness through the City of Little Rock’s Biggest Loser weight loss initiative and served as the Style Chairman at the CARTI Festival of Fashion for the last five years benefitting cancer research – a personal tribute to his mother’s hard-fought victory over the disease.
Aaron’s new partnership with the Little Rock Marriott Hotel – Face Your Day Xpress – will be the first in-house salon in the building’s legacy as the Marriott, Peabody, and Excelsior as well as the first salon to be operated within a Marriott property in Arkansas. With the acquisition of JW Hotels and the Ritz-Carlton, Marriott is currently the largest hotel brand in the world.
The Face Your Day Xpress portfolio of amenities will include haircuts and styling, makeup application and eyebrow waxing/threading as well as manicures and pedicures for Capital City residents and guests of the hotel. The salon will also feature a retail store offering Aaron’s own complete custom line Aaron Charles Cosmetics.
