Joy A. Johnson is SBA’s 2023 Maryland Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year, a renowned beauty industry expert in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area who is a multi-licensed beauty professional, former adjunct professor, international beauty educator, author, and sole proprietor of Nails & Faces of Joy, LLC the parent company of Joy of Beauty ™. Joy has been in the beauty business since 2007 and is a Global educator and Licensed Nail Technician specializing in Diabetic Pedicures, Licensed Esthetician, and was an international educator for American International Industries (Aii) educating for brands such as Ardell Lashes, Gigi Wax, China Glaze Nail Polish and was a Lash Lifting/Tinting Educator for Refectocil and CaronLab wax for more than 11 years. Johnson has been featured on ABC news for her philanthropic efforts to offer free monthly services to current cancer fighters. She has also been a freelance Makeup Artist for Nars, and Lancome, a Key Manicurist for New York Fashion World (NYFW) shows for designers Tadashi Shoji and Taoray Wang; she’s also worked on teams for designers Jill Stuart, Zang Toi, Altuzarra, and many others. Johnson has had editorial features in Real Simple Magazine, Ebony, Good Housekeeping, Cosmobiz Magazine, and more. She was inspired by the natural and inner beauty of her late mother, who happened to be a vibrant and innovative fashion model turned American Airlines Flight Attendant who later passed away in a car accident while battling metastatic breast cancer. To honor her late mother and aunt she created two candles in her Joy of Beauty line names after them to honor both of them as they were cancer fighters.

Early on, Johnson developed an earned passion for the artistry of beauty and makeup; and later it led her down a path of educating beauty industry counterparts speaking to packed tradeshow classrooms and her community on how to properly care for yourself while battling cancer, or a disease such as diabetes and being health conscious. The experience of seeing her mother beautify herself despite her cancer diagnosis displayed a willingness to feel good while undergoing treatment. “Survive & Thrive” is a program she created that gave one free service per month to current cancer fighters with a doctor’s note while they were battling. She wanted others to experience without regard to their finances the joys of feeling beautiful, their version of normal, or not feeling like they had cancer at least” one time per month similarly to how the expression of happiness her mother would display periodically when she got services while undergoing treatment.

After years of being a nail professional, she decided to specialize in the diabetic community because it affects the African American Community at a disproportionate rate of 60%* when compared to other racial groups and seeing for her own eyes the frailness that was left behind while her mother battled cancer led her to a passion for creating products for the most sensitive of communities. *Source: Northwestern Medicine

This demographic is very special to Joy because of her experience with understanding the need for safe products. Losing her mother, who had metastasized breast cancer when she was just 16 years old, and now, being one of the primary caretakers for her elderly grandmother, who is 91 years young, she is evermore conscious about what she and her family use. She wasn’t to make this task a bit easier by the creation of her line, Joy of Beauty™.

If a diabetic can use it, we all can use it, so it makes sense to make products for the most sensitive among us.