Meet Jennifer Montoya | Tooth Gem Technician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Montoya and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Honestly , tooth gems kinda came back to me out of no where . I was sitting in my room talking to my boyfriend about how I really was tired of working a regular job. I wanted to start my own business, I wanted to work for myself. Toothgems weren’t my first option if I’m being honest … but thats another story.

I started to think , what’s something I can do ? Something that I can take with me everywhere ? Something that doesn’t take a lot of space .

I remember one day one of my best friends (Teresa ) had came to Hang out and she had the cutest little gold charm on her tooth , it’s was an 18k gold playboy bunny . I remember seeing it and thinking “ woah I haven’t seen that in YEARS.”
Back in the day when I was younger I remember my mom and alot of her friends having “ Coronas de Oro “ which means gold crowns . They had little gold charm designs on their teeth like stars , a small Virgin Mary , or even the whole tooth covered in gold .
And that’s when it hit me , I was like “That’s it , that’s what I want to do.”

So I started looking into tooth gems and grillz . I mainly wanted to focus on gold . I did my research I started looking into different trainers and classes. I couldn’t afford the actual classes on learning how to make gold charms and grillz so I settled for tooth gems and I figured that would be the perfect start .

When i first started doing tooth gems I was really excited to work with gold. I remember when I first met my trainer I had told her that and she quickly told me “ you’re going to f*cking hate working with gold “ and she’s was right applying gold is my least favorite thing to do haha but the outcome is rewarding , each piece I apply kinda fulfills a small part inside of me that take me back to my childhood .

Now Swarovski crystals are a different story.

I absolutely love applying gems . All the colors , shapes and sizes is what makes doing tooth gems exciting for me . Being able to get creative with my clients fuels me .I love my clients . I know that might sound cheesy but that’s what makes my job so fun I love hearing the ideas they have ! Seeing their favorite colors , having both of our minds work together into creating something unique . Stars , flowers , butterflies , hearts , patterns , all of it . I never knew that tooth gems could be so creative . Like I said earlier when I first started doing gems I really was in it for the gold, the crystals didn’t catch my attention as much cause I thought they weren’t as “cool “ as the gold ….. But I was wrong , from the simplest designs to the craziest; From one gold charm to multiple, I love doing it all !

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’d like to think that HoodgemsLA is a bit more affordable than other tooth gem artist . I grew up in the hood , in low income housing to be specific. My mom use to work at the swap meet that was located in our projects. She sold shoes , clothes and perfumes . She always made sure she made what she needed but always worked with peoples budgets , I can say that I definitely got that from her. A lot of other techs have made comments about me being cheap or how I have alot of specials and how “they could never “ but realistically when I’ve had a good work week / month I like to give back with having specials that are up to 20%- 50% off.
Tooth gems are definitely luxury services and not everyone can always afford it .
Just because they can’t afford it doesn’t mean they’re broke either … some of us aren’t as fortunate as others who have a high income job . Especially around my area , a lot of us have had to budget or pick and choose what we spend.
So it’s nice to be able to give back by having these specials so some people can splurge on themselves when the chance is given .

It’s a very warm feeling when I get to meet clients and they mention to me how they’ve been wanting to get gems for a while and finally have the opportunity too . Seeing them excited to get work done by me , or how they saved up to come see me is mind blowing and extremely humbling… I’m grateful for anyone and everyone who comes to me whether is during a special or regular hours ..

When I started hoodgemsla a little over a year ago I would’ve never believed I would get so many good opportunities.
I quit my job to dedicate my full time to doing tooth gems and building my brand , I didn’t quit right away … I quit after 8 months of knowing how to do apply gems . I was very flippyfloppy in the beginning. I think I did gems for a whole two months straight and then I stopped for like 3 months because I didn’t have much business to be honest ….then one day I got fed up with my job again and decided to dedicate my weekends to finding events to do gems at . I did skate park pop ups , punk shows and some underground events here and there . I slowly started to add more content to my page , any time I did gems I’d take a picture and uploaded it right away , then bug all my friends to share it on their story and tag me hahaha. They’re some real ones for that! As I started to put more time into doing tooth gems I started coming across different tooth gems accounts and started seeing more creative work , I think I came across toothcharms instagram and saw a bunch of crazy designs that I never knew you could do on teeth , she called them “freestyles “ and I was like woaahhh I never knew people would even be down to get so many gems on their teeth . But I loved it. I remembered looking for more freestyles after coming across her page , I went though different tooth gem techs instagram looking for more inspiration until I found one that I really liked and wanted to recreate. I remember I posted one on my story with a caption saying “ who’s down to let me do something like this on their teeth. “ And right away one of my friends responded to me saying yes , so I packed all my supplies and went straight to their house and did my first freestyle, I was hooked .I started doing more and more freestyles. I would post pictures and videos of each set I did , I would add all these hashtags then share my work through my personal page, have my friends share it on their page then have their friends share it .
. Then slowly more people started to follow me .I had a few people asking me for gems . I had a $150 dollar deal when I first started doing freestyles it was get 6-8 teeth with any design you want unlimited gems, quite a steal if you ask me haha . I needed the content for my page and at the time I didn’t have a place to work out of so I only did house calls at some point .
I’d drive anywhere in LA just to do tooth gems . I would be out all day driving from house to house just to do these freestyles. I’d come home so tired but it was so worth it . It was so exciting to me to see what I had created.
I literally could not wait to share on my page every time I did a new set of gems . And from their that’s how it started and it got better and better .

Although I’m nowhere near where I want to be, I can proudly say that I’ve already accomplished so much in just a year . From working with designer brands , artist , to doing big events like Rolling Loud ! . I get asked all the time by other tooth gem techs “ how did you get into working this event” “ how did you apply ?” and to be honest I have no clue haha any “BIG” event I have ever done or “BIG” brand I have worked with found me. (Thankfully)
I always ask anyone I work with how they came across my page and they always say through hashtags. So there’s a tip. USE HASHTAGS !

Hoodgemsla is so much more than just tooth gems . It’s a representation of everything I loved while growing up, You’ll start to see more of that as I begin to add more to my business . Glamour shot service coming soon Btw ! Along with shirts and stickers ! My goal is to bring back some memories to anyone who grew up in the hood around the late 90s / early 2000s . I want people too see hoodgemsla and feel nostalgic. At the moment I’m heavily inspired by things I couldn’t really have when I was younger . I guess that’s the cool part about running your own business . Being able to make it into anything you want .

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Mariachi plaza in Boyle heights on the weekend Usually they have live music and local small businesses are set up selling hand made items / clothes / food etc .

There or the blvd in East LA on a Sunday watch all the low riders cruising and support local food vendors that set up all along the side walk .

SUPPORT LOCAL SMALL BUSINESSES YALL

There’s also little Tokyo right! You can never go wrong with Tenno sushi or ramen at shin sen gumi definitely my favorite go to spots !

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I never would’ve thought you could do so much with toothgems tbh . Until I came across accounts like @toothgemsbygraci3lla @toothcharm @noirtoothgems @sharpchicas seeing their work really inspired and showed me how creative you can get , they inspired me to go outside of the box and find my own style , not only are they tooth gem techs that I look up to they’re even my friends now ! So big shout out to them!

Shout out to all my friends that have supported my business from day one !
Also to all my clients ! Returning and new! Thank you for coming to me and trusting me to do your gems.

To my boyfriend for helping me invest in my business and always helping me with anything that I need.💕

And of course to my trainer @sugar_tooth_jewels for teaching me everything I know and always being there for me whenever I need something, YOU DA BEST !

Instagram: www.instagram.com/hoodgemsla

Twitter: www.twitter.com/hoodgemsla

Image Credits
Backdrops by @lilcroissant