A MUM-OF-TWO who started her own beauty business after being made redundant picked up a top award at a glitzy ceremony. . . without her shoes!

Emma Hamilton was one of dozens of talented beauty experts in Glasgow at the end of last month for the Scottish Nails, Brows and Lashes Awards.

The 25-year-old, of Haddington’s Clerkington Road, was one of 10 in the running for the Lash Extensions Specialists of the Year South-East prize and was delighted when her very own Lashes by Emma Jane was crowned the winner.

She said: “I just went to enjoy the night and my expectation was it would be big salons that would win.

“I’m only part-time, I have got two kids and I have only been doing this less than three years.

“It was an experience to go along and then I won it. It was amazing.”

And she laughed: “I had my shoes off as my feet were sore and I thought I was not going to win it.

“We were sitting right up the back of the hall and they said the shortlisted people and then my name came up to say I’d won. The host said my name again and she probably thought I was not there.

“My partner, Bradley, then told me to go up to the stage without my shoes!”

The winners of the five regions – north, central, south-west, south-east and Glasgow – were then put forward for the nationwide award, which was won by a business in Glenrothes.

Former Knox Academy pupil Emma previously worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland but was twice made redundant within the space of a year.

It was on the second occasion that she decided to take matters into her own hands and set up her own business, which is based in her mum and dad’s home on Haddington’s Dunollie Gardens.

Her dad, John Hamilton, is treasurer of the town’s community council and responsible for the popular Lost Haddington social media page.

Emma, who is mum to two-year-olds Isabella and Romeo, told the Courier: “I got made redundant twice within a year and I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’

“That was when I decided to do a course at Serenity Beauty School in Dalkeith and took it upon myself to go self-employed around the kids.

“It is the best decision I have ever made.”