The Work We Do: Victoria Schade, Special Effects Salon and Spa

My name is Victoria Schade. I’m an employee here at Special Effects Salon and Spa in Greenport Village.

I think it’s safe to say I’ve been working here since I was 6 years old.

My mom has had this business for over 30 years here in Greenport, which I think is pretty remarkable.

Special Effects is a full-service salon and spa. We offer massage therapy, we have a hair salon, we have a nail salon and we also do makeup, waxing services and body treatments. We also have a bike rental service with beach cruisers and they’re fabulous. We’ve recently added on a tea room called Special Tea House that is open for private parties but will soon be open for daily service.

My favorite part about working here is that I’m able to wear a bunch of different hats. I manage the employees and work at the front desk. I’m also a makeup artist, so I do makeup consultations during the week and bridal work on the weekends. As a makeup artist, I really look to enhance everyone’s natural features, versus change what they look like. So when I have a makeup consultation, I sit my client down and we talk about what they’re missing in their makeup case and what they’d like to enhance. I don’t do a consult thinking I’m going to have a customer buy a bunch of products. I did a makeup consultation with a client who was raving about natural makeup from Boston and she texted me the next day, thanking me, saying she felt beautiful when she left.

I graduated Southold High School in 2012, and I left for FIT for four years, and one of those years I lived in Florence. When I moved back to the city, I realized quality of life was really important to me and that I didn’t want to live there anymore, so I moved back out here and started working with my mom again. We both have different strengths so we make a great team.

The most rewarding thing about working here is that I get to be one-on-one with a lot of our clients and I’ve gotten to know them over the past year and half that I’ve been full time here.

A great part about working here is that the ambiance is just incredible and I feel like I’m at home when I’m working here.

‘The Work We Do’ is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. This weekly feature is made possible by Peconic Landing. See more photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes. See the complete list of previous profiles here.