Mini Monsters
Mini Monsters
Did you ever want to try fantasy art? Learn techniques for creating creatures and characters for your fantasy designs from International Fantasy Champion, Aigul Fritzke.
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Red Iguana 3D Silicone Molds
Hi, I'm Alisha Rimando and welcome to Hot Products.
This is the show where we get to search all over the world to find some really great products.
That will make your life easier and we have a special gift from Red Iguana that came in the mail today, and I'm kind of excited to see what's inside of here.
We've met April Ryan and we've done an interview with her and she was so kind to send us some things.
that we could play with.
This is crazy.
Look at all this stuff that's in here.
First off, I think I'm going need this, I think these are some directions.
because this looks like it's a silicone 3D mold and I'm thinking that you get to put some gel polish in it and we get to build some 3D nail art with gel polish.
I don't know, we're gonna have to go down to the salon and try this, but she's also sent some really cool.let's get this open, because this is some really beautiful packaging.
Let's check it out.
She has sent us some beautiful gel polishes.
Red and black, oh, perfect, these are the colors I love.
Somebody knew what I like.pink, white, red, black perfect.
and a really beautiful gold nail art brush.
Let's just check that out for one second.
Oh, wow.
Look at that pretty thing.
Okay, so there's all kinds of fun stuff in here to try.
There's some pigments in here and it looks like there might be some magnetic pigments.
So I think that we need to head down to the salon and give this stuff a try.
So we're going to try this Red Iguana gel polish and I'm going to try it in white.
White's always the tricky one because it can be really streaky, but this looks really pretty. It also looks like it's got really heavy pigment.
So it may not streak.
Let's see what happens.
And usually with gel polish, if you get a little bit of streaking on the first coat, that's fine.
You really do want to make it as thin as possible, to make sure it cures all the way through.
I've never used this before, so hopefully we'll have a nice even cure.
So now we're going to do the Red Iguana No Wipe Gel Top Coat.
So now we have that really cool silicone mold from Red Iguana and we've got the Red Iguana gel polish in Passion, the red one, and then there's also a Red Iguana top coat that you need to mix with it.
So I'm just going to get a little tray here and I'm going to add a couple drops.
So basically I think it's about a 50:50 ratio, because you want it to be sheer.
Add a little bit of clear so you can get a good cure on it.
So I'm going to drop that on here.
I don't want to get any of that red on my top coat.
So I'm going to get a little bit more out.
That looks like about a 50:50 ratio.
And because this is so heavily pigmented, I think even if you put a little bit more of that clear, rather than the red, that might be a good thing so I'm going to mix this together. And then you're supposed to be able to paint it right inside that silicone mold.
So that we can cure it and pop out some roses.
So let's see how that works.
So we're going to take the silicone mold and you're supposed to go inside here.
I guess and get the product inside and paint in there and then fill it.
so I'm just going to try to paint inside these holes.
So I guess you can see it from this side.
It looks as though, I need to put in a lot more.
I'm going to mix some more of this and just paint it in.
So I'm just mixing and I wanted to build a few of these at a time and what's so weird, is do you see how that just keeps like static cling or something? Every time I go in there, when I pull something out, it just splatters on its own.
It's so weird.
So I've noticed that I have to look at it from the other side to see where the holes are.
And in that bow it needs to go over here.
So you have to push it down into the little holes that didn't get anything on them and make sure all of the bows, like everything's filled in.
It looks like that bow still needs a little push the product right inside.
So there's no air bubbles just fill in the rest of these holes.
I'm just going to take my mixture of gel and the gel polish and you can tell how heavily pigmented this gel polish is, it really.
you can put quite a bit of the clear in there and it'll still be red.
So you don't have to worry about mixing it too thin and it not being the color you want it to be.
It's definitely a lot of pigment in the color itself and I'm just going to make sure that that fills up completely, popping these air bubbles that look like they're going on the surface.
So now I'm going to go ahead and cure.
So I cured for about a minute and a half and that didn't seem to do it.
But now I've cured it for another 60-seconds and it looks like everything is cured completely.
So, and then you're supposed to be able to pop these cute little things right on out.
So let's see what happened.
Wow, look how pretty that is? Well, how you doing.
April Ryan.
How cute is this? Little guy.
Okay, so he needs a little bit of trimming.
But what a great little concept if you make these in advance when you're sitting the salon and not doing anything.
And you know you can keep them to the side and wait for your clients.
Let's see what this bow comes out and then you can charge for them when they come in.
Oh my goodness, look how cute that is?
So yeah, I think that you know a little pair of scissors or I'm all about using a little pair of nippers sometimes, because I just like to do that and I could just snip away these little pieces on the edges.
And make this nice and clean.
I mean these things are so little bitty tiny, but they have so much dimension.
So I'm just finishing trimming up these little roses and they are so very cute.
This big one is so pretty.
You can really see the detail.
It looks like this guy had just a teeny air pocket in there and it made it to where, it doesn't have a little piece.
So I was.
I think that's the trick is to try to push all of the product into any of those little air pockets and check for that before you finish curing, so you don't get that, you know that little empty spot.
But otherwise, these are super cute and I am ready to get them on some nails.
So now that we have our little bow, cut the little extra pieces off the bottom from the mold, and I think that kind of helps to make it perfect like you want, and then you see there's a little bar across there.
So I'm going to take a little bit of the non-wipe top coat.
I'm going to put a little bit right there, on that and then we can place our our bow on the nail.
And then go ahead and put that in the light to cure.
So we've cured that for 60-seconds and then I'm going to take our little roses, and again on the back side, I need to take a pair of nippers and just trim off the excess around the bottom.
So I'm going to bring the nail back in and again, a little bit of top coat, and I'm just going to add this right over here in the corner.
That'll look kind of cute, a little bit of that non-wipe top coat, and grab my roses and place them on.
And we'll put that in the light for another 60-seconds.
So I've also received this little thing.
It's called the Red Iguana Sealing Gem Gel and it's supposed to be for in between your gems to seal them in and hold them, and I think this would be a great product to use around the roses, just to give them a little bit more strength.
So let's try that.
So that was so much fun to play with those products from Red Iguana.
You can make this stuff when you're not doing anything else in the salon and you're waiting for your next client and then have all of those roses waiting and also little bows.
So there was a lot of fun stuff that you can do with Red Iguana and you know what that pigmented polish.
It was really heavy and nice and I really like that too.
So thank you so much Red Iguana for sending us your stuff to review on Hot Products and we'll see you next time.
Silicone 3D Molds by Red Iguana
Red Iguana just changed the 3D Nail Art game by releasing these easy to use silicone molds. Made by the same April Ryan who made a multi-million dollar company out of creating a silicone replica of her own hand, these silicone molds will save you hours of time in the salon, since these 3D art pieces can be made well in advance of your client’s arrival. Find out how easy these silicone molds can be to make at your nail desk in this episode of Hot Products.
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Creating Your Professional Polish Brand
Hello and welcome to this edition of Life On The Free Edge where I'm absolutely thrilled to pieces to be sitting with Morgan Haile and Taylor Daniel of the Morgan Taylor Professional Nail Lacquer brand.
Hi guys!
Hello.
Hey Alex, thanks for having us.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for joining me, because I bet there are people out there that have no idea that Morgan Taylor are actual real people behind the brand.
In the flesh, right? Yeah.
So here we are, we've got Morgan and Taylor of Morgan Taylor Professional Lacquer.
Yes here we are! Yay, brilliant.
Well, I think we should tell people that not only are you the two amazing women behind this global polish brand, but you also come from really great nail stock, I like to say, because notably you've got two incredibly industry-famous fathers.
Morgan, you've got Danny Haile as your father, and Taylor has David Daniel.
Both are the brain and nail brawn behind a company called Nail Alliance, which is found in California, which is the company that has invented and produces Gelish, which was the incredible invention that came out in 2009 which, quite frankly, changed the trajectory of our industry for the better as we're all aware.
And I'm led to believe that, between David and Danny, they've both accrued about 30, if not 30 plus years, of industry experience.
They've carved out a huge career of industry milestones, which one notably for me, is going back to the year 2000, they were part of the original team that came up with the brilliant idea called the Nail Olympics, which was first hosted in Vegas.
Which obviously now, still a brilliant idea, now called Nailympia.
So that's talking about your famous dads, now moving on a little bit, I have a feeling that you two might also be related, but I'm not entirely sure? Yes, we are blood-related.
Even though I have brown hair and she has blonde.
We don't look much alike but we are actually related.
My dad is Danny's uncle, but they were basically raised as brothers.
They were around the same age, grew up together, are very close- knit families.
So yes, even though they're uncle and nephew, they were raised just like brothers, best friends.
So we call each other cousins, even though we're not technically cousins.
That is super exciting guys! That's super exciting, that means that you've known each other pretty much your whole lives and you've both grown up around nails.
So that makes an awful lot of sense that you've got proper nail blood running through both of you.
So I think probably we should just get down to it and find out, how did you both get from childhood into Morgan Taylor? How did it all happen? Yeah, that's definitely a journey.
So, like you mentioned, we've been around the industry our entire lives.
I remember we were.
well in our previous family company, we were running around the warehouse and playing with products and Taylor even had a color named Taylor's Pearly Pink.
I had Morgan's Red.
So we've all been around the industry playing with products and just being, whether it's in the warehouse or at the office, just as kids, that's what we would do.
That's where we were at and just like playing.
Then as we developed.
as we got older, and had interests and things like that it.
we definitely took our different paths and different interests and then it all just led us back to the core, back to our roots.
So, like for me, I went to a university to study healthcare administration.
So more in the healthcare side and business side, but it wasn't so far off the path where I am now, because I was able to learn a lot about the business side of an industry and take that with me and also in the everyday things of what goes on in a business.
I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about that, I took some marketing classes, and, I think it's good to have.
to keep your mind open and to bring that back to your core.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I remember one instance Morgan was talking about us kind of getting up high jinx at the old company.
There was this room where we housed all of the packing peanuts.
So if you're old enough to remember shipping in the early 2000's, there were white foam packing peanuts and we just had huge bags of them stored in this particular like closet sized room and Morgan, myself, our brothers, and some of the other kids of the people who worked there at the time, broke into all of the bags of packing peanuts and just filled the room with packing peanuts.
Eventually, we were caught as we were like playing in the 'snow' of packing peanuts and it was quite a situation, but those were just those were the days of our childhood, kind of playing around and we have been around nails quite literally our whole life.
So it definitely have those great memories, but then growing up.
I actually have been an avid reader my whole life and wanted to be an English teacher, so I started going to school to be a teacher and I just came to work at the company as a receptionist part- time and was helping out, filing papers and stuff, and then slowly got more and more interested and just never never left.
That was 11 years ago.
So I think a lot of people don't know too is that we really started from the ground up.
Our dad's didn't just say, Alright, you know, here's your nice office job.
It was like, No, you're gonna learn a lot of aspects from the company.
Right.
So I remember being in the warehouse literally filling product, like hand-filling like.
But it just.
Yeah, it just brings a new perspective, gives you new appreciation, and also shows you the process.
Now I think about it, Morgan, that's when I met you both for the very first time was actually the The Beauty World Show in Dubai.
That's when I first ever came upon you and approached you, I do remember created or had these polishes, these life polishes made.
Yes.
So someone was in this costume and we didn't know about it.
So when we approached the booth, you know, it looks just like a product and everything, and then we look over like, Is that a dancing polish of Morgan Taylor? It was so funny.
It's great.
So if you guys entered right from the ground up doing little bits and pieces, how did the actual Morgan Taylor lacquer come about, when you've got a situation where and Morgan Taylor, sister products to Gelish, global phenomenon, how.
you must have known that Morgan Taylor was going to take off around the world.
So how do you go about actually creating this polish brand? That's a good question.
So we.
the company first started with Gelish with the whole foundation of making it easier for a gel application to the natural nail.
And it really took off but we felt like we were missing a little bit more.
We really wanted to bring that traditional lacquer, but not just any traditional lacquer, like something that was truly pigmented, had a lot of thought about it, especially for the professionals who're using it, right? Everything from the bottle, to the cap, to the product inside was really thought out.
Even to the brush, we even went back and changed our brush to make it more of a friendly use, but when it came to naming the.
So we knew we wanted a lacquer line, but when it came to naming it it was.
well, what's the future girls? And you guys want to be a part of this and we want to.
our dads were saying that they wanted to keep their legacy going.
So, we're taking that baton on and creating Morgan Taylor into what it is and it really took off quite fast.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And in the brand itself, was almost created as a way to honor what the industry has meant to our family.
As we both said, we grew up around this industry and when our dads were coming up with the name together, that's one of the things they said.
They wanted to bring a lacquer.wanted to give to the industry almost in a way that it's given to us.
So really centering in family, the family aspect of our business and how much at the core of our entire families.
We love the nail industry.
So it was really tying the two together and that's how Morgan Taylor came about and it was just then once it was named, then it was long days of picking up the packaging and what's a good color range that's gonna fit? Like you said globally, you know, different markets have different preferences for color.
So making sure there were some nudes and reds and glitters, making sure there was a finish and a color family for everyone and really a true professional lacquer that was just high quality and gave a great salon experience.
Wow, that's so interesting to find out all of this from you guys.
So can you tell us what year that this was launched onto the market.
2013 was when we started working.
Yeah, and then 2014 was when it really kind of globally launched.
Yeah 7 years ago.
Wow that's a long time.
So I notice that you've managed to be on the scene, whether it's yourselves or the brand, you've done quite a lot of fashion weeks, New York Fashion weeks.
How did that come about? Well, actually our first fashion show was in Italy.
Yes, it was yeah.
Yes DSquared.
Yeah, it's actually through a distributor of ours who helped make it happen and then from there we were, ok we need to do New York Fashion Week.
So you started at Milan Fashion Week, that was the first one and then you got the bug is what you're saying, yeah? Absolutely, yes.
We had to go to New York.
Yeah.
New York we've been doing that since.
so long, I think even before technically we were on the market, right? Yes.
Yeah it was the February before we launched on the market because we launched on the market and in April.
So in February, we were in New York.
And yeah did I think two shows that very first season and then after that it was like a massive undertaking in the following seasons, but you know, it's great.
We really wanted to.
There's a lot of benefits to being at Fashion Week and we wanted to make sure that, like I said, we were creating a professional brand but professional brands need to have the end consumer know who they are, you know, the retail consumer needs to know who the brand is in order to go into the salon and ask for it or to ask their nail technician to stock that brand.
So it was kind of about being on the pulse of fashion knowing what colors and trends were coming about, but also trying to reach the end consumer and letting them know, here we are, we're this new brand on the scene and we want to represent fashion-forward and quality colors.
Wow, that's amazing.
It's so interesting to find out and to know that you actually managed to get into New York Fashion Week before you had actually launched on the market.
I'd thought that's really quite hard.
So really impressive.
So how often do you guys actually present a collection? So we present a collection a few times a year.
So we do spring, summer, fall and then holiday/winter we combine the collection.
It's been really fun.
So actually Taylor and I, we create the colors, we work on the collections themselves.
So we sit in the lab and look at trends and what's going on in the world, and figure what is on trend but also what is wearable? What is the end user going to like? What is the nail tech going to like? What is the client going to like? and so on.
Sometimes it hits us right away.
We get it.
We have these colors, it's done, but other times, it's more of a lengthier process because you know, we want to get it right, I always fight for certain colors, but I know it's not wearable, but it just looks so pretty.
Absolutely.
Yeah Morgan and I actually we took a color class in France.
We went to Paris together and we still work with this same color house, well a trend house, based in Paris and we learned all about, you know, building colors the undertones of colors, pairing and putting together collections of colors that are complementary with just enough contrasting nature in them as well.
So it was really important for us to build that foundational knowledge and then coming back here, and working with the trend books and interpreting how the upcoming year's color trends will translate to nails specifically.
Yeah.
That's incredibly interesting.
I remember thinking what do we expect in this class? And you feel like a foreign exchange student.
I'm in a country.
I don't really speak their language what's good what's going on? But I remember they put paint on a plate and then alright mix colors.
And you're like, you know, just the standard and it's like, no go further.
Go beyond that, go beyond that and then we had to create harmonies as they call it.
We had to put a collection together and they asked why would you do this? Why would you do that? So they really helped us develop what it means to have a collection, not just these colors are pretty, but more in depth thought process into why colors work together and what they do and what they mean, because we are a global brand and different colors and different things around the world can be interpreted or have the different feeling.
Yeah.
And also colors on different skin tones look different too.
So something like cool tones look really good on you.
And warm tones look different on me.
So having that thought process was really cool.
And yeah, I'm so glad we had that experience.
I would love to go back.
Wow, so that's actually like the science and the study of color and you went did it on one of the fashion capitals of the world.
It doesn't get much sexier than Paris guys.
So, where do you, I know you mentioned that you look around the world when you're sitting and you're assessing trends and you're looking at stuff, but what are the other sources or more specific sources of your inspiration for collections? well, sometimes we were at New York Fashion Week and they wanted a custom color and we didn't have anything like that because it was a very like copper-metallic tone.
And then we created it on this spot essentially, for Fashion Week for this designer and then we were looking at it and it's actually a really pretty color, and then we put it in one of our collections.
So sometimes it's like that right? It's an accident.
it just happens.
Yeah, totally color can do that.
It can lift your mood.
It can bring you into a better place if you're having a bad day.
So, just trying to think about what's going on in the world.
What's trending? There's a lot of pop culture influences on our collections sometimes, so yeah really inspiration can strike from anywhere.
Yeah.
nails and make-up and beauty, the beauty industry as a whole is a way for people to escape from the heaviness of what was going on or what they couldn't do, you can escape through color, you can escape through textures and things like that and have fun and play.
That's a really important point you've both made there, because we know that one of the reasons women, well anybody goes for manicure is because of the feeling and then the result and the result gives the feeling, so it's a beautiful journey having a manicure full stop and I just love this idea that there's so much behind your collections and behind the ideas and and the journey of inspiration and the study of color.
This is all just.
it's really nice to learn about and hear about to be fair guys.
Thank you.
So I think you should give us a typical day.
Morgan and I do different things here in the office.
So I'll go through my day first and then she can fill us in on what her day looks like.
But you know, it's just waking up early, coming into the office, checking email.
Obviously, we want to make sure we're on top of what we're doing.
My responsibilities fall a little bit more in the.
I specialize in a lot of our copywriting.
So I write our press releases.
I help with our advertising copy and coming up with our stories, our features and benefits for our new product development, things like that.
So I could be doing any of those things on a daily basis, you know, writing a press release for our upcoming collection, and then if we're working on colors., it's a color meeting in the lab to touch and feel and get our hands dirty and then working with the team here doing the process of launching a product from A to Z from nothing to being on the shelf and existing.
Yeah, product development.
That's pretty fun too.
is figuring out what's coming next or what's important or what don't we have in our line? That's going to make it a household name.
Some of my favorite things about my job is to do with the PR side of it.
Talking to people figuring out what products will work for this type of story and just getting the product out there and thinking of creative ways on how we can tell our color story or tell our collection story or .you need to know about this product.
or we need to.
this is what's going on.
So these products were perfect.
or you need to know about this and and so on.
it's fun.
It keeps us creative in different ways and working, you know, we are influencers, it's so busy.
It's never ending, it's never done.
It's never a quiet day and the days are never the same How many have you got on your Morgan Taylor team? How many of you are there? Well, we have in-house our marketing team, our sales team and then outside our office we have our education team and they're able to spread it all around the world.
Yeah, and we've actually gone with our sales team and helped done pitches and explain the products.
It's actually been kind of fun.
Yeah, so what Morgan was saying, we have a marketing and an art team internally here.
So the people who work on Gelish, Morgan Taylor on the daily, is about 3-4 people at any given time plus then we have an internal artist, videographer those types of things when assets are needed.
So we started off with one person doing everything and been so blessed to grow the team here as we've needed to and been able to expand.
Yeah.
I don't think a lot of people know actually what we do in-house.
We literally have everything in-house, which is kind of rare these days because a lot of people will outsource, which is fine, it works for them.
But yeah, we have marketing, we have videos, we have photographers, we have a whole lab, we have sales across the street, we have shipping.
We have it all in-house, which makes it really nice because we're able to see the process and help, you know, make sure it's quality from the start to finish.
You can also be a quick responder can't you? You can respond to all things when everything's at your fingertips rather than outsourcing, which can hold things up can't it? So, that must mean then, that Morgan Taylor and Gelish really work closely.
I mean, maybe we should just talk a little bit about that because I'm guessing that the colors of Morgan Taylor and Gelish are the same? Matching? Okay.
So yeah, nice idea, very nice idea.
And so you work very closely with that team as well.
Yeah, it's really a blended team when it comes to Gelish and Morgan Taylor because obviously our colors do match together.
We really want to create a similar message, obviously Gelish has different products than Morgan Taylor does, as far as you know, just the colors itself and different formulas, but you know, they are sister brands, so we link the brands very closely.
How many colors are you currently running on Morgan Taylor? So we have our core line up.
That's what we call our everyday offerings.
And that's at this point over 200 shades and then like Morgan said, we we launch new colors 4 times a year.
So that's 6-12 colors 4 times a year, roughly 24 new shades every year.
So it's quite an undertaking.
That must mean that when you look at your complete palette, that you must have a really lovely amount of reds and then a really lovely amount of greens, so that you can pretty much make anybody happy.
Right, absolutely trying to appeal to everyone and a color, a finish, a texture, for everyone absolutely, and then also, you know when we're creating new colors, it's a matter of looking at the palette as a whole and what's missing? Are there shade gaps? Is there a color that we absolutely have to have for summer, because it's going to be super on trend or bright pink is always going to be great in the summer.
So, how can we tweak that a little bit? So maybe it has a shimmer this year, or it has a yellow undertone versus a blue undertone.
It's a bright versus a neon, you know, trying to to really find the niches for every color.
Blimey, it sounds like your jobs are really good fun.
I'm not going to lie.
I'm sitting here quite jealous thinking how much I would love to play with polish, well I know you do more than play but you know where I'm coming from.
So I know that you've been around the world judging, you do a lot of Nailympias, you're international floor judges.
Fantastic.
You also do gel polish judging behind the booth and you've been contributors for industry trade titles.
I know you did a fantastic column in Scratch for some time.
You do the fashion weeks, now it turns out you've done them in Milan as well as New York, crikey.
And don't forget Paris.
Lots going on around the Morgan Taylor nail brand.
So can we finish up them by finding out what is the future? What's the future as you see it? What can we look forward to? Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, you know like through the start of the brand and through the pandemic and where we are now.
I think nails aren't going anywhere.
And it's such a fun creative way, whether you're just a nail lover, and whether it's your business, you know, it's such a it's such a statement.
It's a feeling it's whether you like a nude or a bright color.
You're putting out a statement to you, who you are, what you like.
And it's just fun and we want to keep bringing out the best products.
For the end user, for the professionals and you know, we are going to keep molding and growing, shifting and changing, to make those things happen and have accessible products.
Yeah, the Genesis of Gelish was, How do we make the nail technician's life easier? How can we make salon services easier to achieve? And that's sort of the driving idea behind our continued innovations.
We are constantly thinking about how to improve the lives of nail technicians.
So that's what we're going to keep doing.
We are going to keep going back to the drawing board and hopefully the industry keeps blessing us with its faith in us and we will keep working on products as long as nail technicians want us to.
As long as they keep buying, we will keep working for them.
Brilliant.
So, essentially we've got years and years of great stuff to come? Absolutely.
Brilliant.
This is brilliant.
Well, look, I've super enjoyed talking to you both today and finding out about the journey, the story behind the journey, the journey every day.
It's been really fantastic.
So thank you both very very much for joining me today.
Bye guys.
Creating Your Professional Polish Brand
Meet Morgan Haile & Taylor Daniel, the inspiration behind Morgan Taylor professional nail lacquer & associated nailcare products (sister-brand to Gelish) & the offspring of Hand & Nail Harmony executives, CEO & founder Danny Haile & president David Daniel.
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Chatting Nails with Two Queens
Chatting Nails with Two Queens
Nail industry legends, Marian Newman & Gigi Rouse, who’ve become the industry’s ‘two old queens’, reminisce over the nail industry’s evolution, while comparing its structure & form across the last three decades up until the present day. Global trailblazers & educators, these two women have pioneered elements of the industry & it all started from behind their respective nail desks in Hertford & Leeds., UK.
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Nail Culture in Korea
Hello and welcome to this edition of Salon Stopover.
I'm really delighted today to be going over to Seoul in South Korea where I'm going to be talking to two fantastic people who are utterly immersed in the nail industry and are going to give us a fabulous insight into the nail culture over in South Korea and particularly in Seoul.
So today I'm speaking to Seeun Park, who is the editor of Nailholic magazine and also the director of NailPro Asia, and Hemi Park, who is based in the USA, but travels at least four times a year over to South Korea, where she coordinates NailPro Asia.
So, I want to welcome them today.
Hi guys.
Thank you for joining me.
Hi, thank you for having us.
I'm excited to talk about the style of the South Korean salon.
So I've noted, we're going to look at some salons in a moment, but I've noted some common themes that seem to be throughout.
So I've noted that the salons I've looked at, are looking at white walls, cream or white walls and light wood for your storage and your shelves, with lovely accents of plants around to give that pop of color.
And I'm seeing what I've noted is it's quite minimalist.
minimalist salons, very easy to clean, which is obviously incredibly important, and then lots of glass.
interior glass as well.
And when I look at that as a whole, what I'm feeling is that it's about light.
It's about bringing in as much light as possible and I guess for a salon that's in a mall, that's actually very important.
But I think the thing I noticed the most, that I really, really loved and I'd love you to tell me more about, is that I'm used to seeing maybe 1 or 2 gel polishes, maybe 3 at a stretch.
Brands I'm talking about when you walk into a salon.
when I'm looking at these salons, I'm looking at a huge gigantic wall of color.
Absolutely beautiful.
It's the center piece of every salon I've seen and I'm seeing 5, 5 if not more brands of gel polish.
So please can you tell us what that's about?
Why so many brands can be found in one salon?
So, to give you a little insight of the Korean professional nail brands, there are maybe 40 to 50 professional nail brands that are made and manufactured in Korea and to add up the different retail brands, there are maybe over 100 nail brands that exist in Korea.
So a lot of clients prefer the Korean products over the international brands, the well-known brands because of their quality and the Korean products are made under strict guidelines.
So the Korean FDA controls the ingredients.
The substances and ingredients that can be harmful to clients or that cause allergic reaction to clients potentially.
So the brands that are made and manufactured in Korea are highly trusted by clients and they do request specific colors, specific brands, as well as specific designs.
So the clients are doing their part, doing their homework.
So they research, they they come on to the salon and they get recommendations, but they know what they want when they walk into the salon.
So that's how it goes.
And that's why the part of the colors and different bottles and packages are part of the salon interior.
Goodness, that's a really savvy clientele you've got per se.
That's astonishing, but I have to say I mean, it's incredibly beautiful to see these walls of color and I love the way that they're put in color palettes.
So you almost get ombrés across and then also the bottles themselves are absolutely beautiful.
So it is a wall of stunning color and shape and structure and another thing I've noticed, I suppose this ties in then with your savvy clientele, is I'm used to seeing nail art designs in an area of a salon where you've got a nice selection that can give you an idea, either give you the design you want to see, or give you an idea but the salons that we're going to look at in a moment, they've got a wealth of nail art, nail art tips absolutely massive oceans of them.
The walls of nail art .so the specific salon culture in Korea is called the Nail Art of the Month.
So every salon and every nail technician or licensed professional prepares the design of the month and they usually use that as a menu, so they have a fixed price.
So if you learn something specific from a class, like a certain technique, let's say marble, then you want to use it or you go buy a new color.
Then you can use that towards the Art of the Month and the clients will choose those with the discounted price.
I would say, so that's a type of salon promotion or the marketing here in Korea.
So, a lot of nail salon owners will post their Art of the Month on their Instagram or social media.
So the clients can see what they can get and you can also bring your own nail art ideas and the nail technician can do that for you.
That all depends on what your salon is going for, like what kind of design, what kind of vibe you have and the clients know that you can do certain type or you do certain types of nail art or you have certain different vibes as well.
So clients do, like I said, they do their homework researching and all that and that's easily doable by just looking at their social media, because it's obvious they have a certain color that they do, a certain design that they do or certain length or a certain type application they do.
So, every salon is unique and every salon has their own unique vibe and design.
So would you say, as an interesting point to make here, are salons quite competitive within their community?
If you're going to go to all this trouble to have all this beautiful art out and have your nail trends of the month.
Are you trying to outwit or out art the local salon down the road?
I would say so, I mean everybody's competitive here as well.
So, but really if you're getting long nails, you like to get extensions and the salon that you you used to go to doesn't do that.
Then you're going to go look for those salons that specifically do the extensions and the arts that are made for the extended nails.
So every salon has a little bit of different uniqueness to it and unique style of doing their service.
And the clients already know when they walk in.
So, there's a salon recipe, but the ingredients change.
Yes.
Okay.
So now we've got a good handle on all of this.
I think we should look at the salons that Seeun has unearthed for us here.
So I think if we start with looking at Bandi.
So Bandi is.
did you know, it's a nail brand?
I didn't know .thank you.
So no, I wasn't aware.
Thank you.
Tell me more?
Bandi is one of the largest professional nail brand and manufacturer in Korea and their salon is called Bandin house.
And that's what we're looking at and they have a specific concept throughout their store.
So this is called the flagship store.
A couple of the shops are owned by and operated by Bandi and then they franchised out to some professionals, so there are different branches.
a total of 15 branches.
and growing.
What's unique about these stores or the Bandin House salon, is that they exclusively use Bandi products to service their clients and the clients can purchase the at homecare products that are from Bandy in House.
So they will shop and get services done in one area and then the entire branches, all the branches, have the same concept, which is eco-friendly concept.
Oh brilliant, so it's 15 different branches and expanding.
And so when we're looking at that massive wall of gel polishes, every single one of those comes under the Bandi umbrella?
Yes.
Wow, that's a huge range they have.
And they have a few different homecare products as well, like the lotions and pedicure products and scrub, oils.
their scented amazing.
There are scented beautifully and you can purchase the newest product from a salon itself.
So the client doesn't have to go and look for those because each salon will have the brand new products.
Wow, well, we started with a really fascinating one.
That's amazing.
Well, let's move now to go and look at Maximum Nails.
This is a typical, large-scale nail salon, privately owned.
Many nail technicians work there.
so you can serve multiple clients at a time .at once.
The salon owner actually wanted to accentuate their use of lighting, in their interior, because as you can see, it's very warm.
And the use of light is very clever as you can see, it's huge, enormous scale of a salon.
You can can probably see from the picture.
There is a glass room.
That is a classroom.
So the owner of this particular salon trains the other salon owners or one wanting to be a salon owner.
So she hosts a training class where she teaches either technique or everything about opening a salon and operating salons as well.
Okay, brilliant.
This is a really great insight we're having here.
Well, I want to move on now then, to I believe Haze On.
I don't know.
Is it run by Chang JeeSook?
Yes, so JeeSook is a one of our judges for Nail Pro Asia, but she was also a competitor in the United States.
So she has won a couple of medals from the USA when the Nail Pro competition in the USA was huge and she was a teacher, so she trained a lot of nail professionals at the private institution.
And now she owns her her own smaller salon.
This is a rather private size salon.
You know what I found interesting about this one particularly, because this stood out for me a little bit, because I felt it had a little bit of a US 50's style.
It felt a bit 50's style to me.
When you look at the corrugated elements on the reception desk and then you see the color that she's chosen for the actual façade outside.
That's almost that 50's green.
And I love the texture on the lamp shade and for me, I felt there was a hint of another culture coming in there, so that ties in and I obviously spotted well there.
Actually JeeSook dresses very feminine, and she actually fits right in this salon, like her personality and how she dresses and you know, actually goes with the entire salon.
So when I first visited there, because I went there to get some services done and she did as well, I was like, oh this just fits her, like she fits right in and this is her other self.
That's what I thought.
And then another remarkable thing for you to see is, even the tiniest salon like this, Haze on Salon.
They have over 10 different brands on their shelf.
So in fact she probably has more.
That's typical.
Yeah typical stock.
Of the amount of different brands and that's because of demands from the clientele.
Wow.
It's incredible.
It's such a great Insight.
I'm really enjoying the journey, and I'm learning so much about nail culture in Korea.
It's amazing.
So if we go to the last salon that you found for me Seeun.
I think it's called for Forsy Nail, but I'm confused because it says Forsythe.
So talk me through Forsy Nail?
So in Korea, in Korean in our pronunciation, it's actually called Pochi nail.
This is the insight, so as you read, it's reading Forsy.
However, because of it's pronunciation the owner of this salon particular franchise is trying to change the English spelling.
That's in the process at the moment.
So this is a small Insight.
What Andrea said, the Forsy is probably from a Christian Bible, because the owner of the salon is Christian.
The franchise.
Forsy Nails has over 75 branches In Korea.
75?
Yes.
So this is a franchise.enormous.
and they have a membership type of pricing so.
.it's kind of like a gym where you pay a certain amount and then you get discounted services.
.yearly or something like that.
So they run their salon and because this is a franchise they have memberships as well that are available to purchase and you get a certain percentage of discount.
The corporation who owns this franchise imports products from overseas like the spa products and like Barielle, I believe that's a UK brand.
And some American brands as well.
So they bring some good products from overseas and they use it within their salons in all branches.
So they do import and use on client and sales as well, just like Bandi but in a different manner.
They use mostly Korean gel colors within their salon because of the demand.
75 salons is an enormous amount.
and growing.
Wow.
And.
they're all enormous sizes.
So they're in major malls in Korea.
Like the mega-sized malls, like a huge shopping mall.
I've seen a few actually when I went to some different malls with my family.
They have adopted the sanitation process from the United States.
They had the slogan called 'Clean & Healthy'.
So they've been using disposable products only on their clients and really trying to advocate how clean they are and how important sanitation is, Yeah, we could see that they had the packet coming out that looks like the tools implements have been autoclaved and then put into a vacuumed-pack bag, which is sensational.
That's exactly what a client wants to see.
Fantastic.
I'm actually really intrigued about how you would have a salon membership.
Can you tell us just a bit more about?
So she thought those membership services are available in other countries.
No?
I just pointed out that's all, and she's just like.
'what it's not available anywhere else?' So this is one unique thing.
Okay, I got it.
So the memberships are a type of gift card, so there are different levels of gift memberships that are deferred by the amount and let's say you purchase a $1000 Membership.
Let's say that, then you're like a VIP, so you get different perks.
So you get different discount amounts, you get different services, you get a little more services or different product, like premium care type of thing.
And then you can also purchase products at a discounted rate.
And you also receive gifts from salons.
These membership type promotions are for the salons to build their clientele.
So you deposit it, let's say, you know $50 at this salon, you want to use the $50, so that you're money doesn't go away, so they have to come back and get more services.
So they do it in larger quantities in some of the salons.
Smaller salons to the same as well, and the profit sharing process within this big franchise and the nail technician who works in there.
is that you get commission.
Brilliant, I like this idea.
We're used to the idea that you may have a card and every time you have a manicure you do 6 manicures and then you're 7th will be free to say 'thank you'.
You know, we call that a loyalty card.
And that idea works very well.
But the idea that you would buy, you know, a gold, silver, bronze membership and it would give you different discounts across products and give you gifts and give you luxurious treatments.
I think this is a real winner of a business idea.
Thank you very much for sharing.
Okay so they want your loyalty ahead.
So they don't want you to come back 7 times and hoping that you'll come come back like 6 times.
Yeah.
They guarantee that you're going to come back.
You're gonna come 6 times and get yourself.
because you're paying for the 6 times.
Okay.
Well, we've had an incredible journey through finding out how the nail culture across Korea is working.
How savvy the clients are and how the actual structure and set up of salons is done and with some hot business tips too.
This has been an absolutely brilliant journey, and I've learned so much guys, so I want to thank you very much for joining me today on Salon Stopover and sharing all your nail wisdom with me.
Thank you so much.
Andrea just said that she would love to invite you, at some point, so that we can do this type of thing, so we can also exchange our insight from UK or overseas to Korea and it was my pleasure to be in this meeting as well as translating and being able to learn more about Korean nail salon culture because I'm really in California, so I don't really know much about Korean nail culture.
So it was a learning curve for me as well.
Brilliant.
So we've all had a very nutritious nail experience together.
Thank you very much.
And I really look forward to the next time we talk and I accept your invitation.
Thank you.
Nail Culture in Korea
The nail culture of Seoul, South Korea is explored through the eyes of nail experts Andrea Park (editor Nailholic magazine & organizer of Nail Pro Asia) & Hemi Park (nail artist, educator & co-ordinator Nailpro Asia nail competition). Together, Andrea & Hemi showcase four nail salons from vast chains to boutique high street suites & reveal how the Korean market operates & what the average client expects from a salon menu.
Want to see your salon featured in an episode of Salon Stopover? We are looking for fabulous salons & unique services to showcase from around the globe. Contact us for details.
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An industry veteran, Michelle Soto, AKA chellys_nails, began her journey into nails at the age of 12, and by 16 in Puerto Rico, was already trained & had built up experience working in a salon. Now, over 20 years later, Chelly is one of the brains & creatives behind the Valentino Beauty Pure nail brand. Acting as one of its top educators, as an influencer & product developer, celebrity & award-winning manicurist, Chelly is a driving force behind the direction of the brand & an inspirational pull for those searching for a brand that speaks to them. Nail art is Chelly’s forte & her funky, elaborate & intricate styles are simply awe-inspiring.
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Lisa Boone
Hi, welcome to Peel Back The Polish on Glossarylive.com.
I'm here with my best friend Lisa Boone, and she has been in the industry for.
I don't know forever.
And she's done so many amazing things throughout her career.
She has been a salon owner, she's been a world champion hand model, she's been a competition judge.
I mean, I can't think of anything that you haven't done.
You've also been a manufacturer.
created innovative products.
So there's so much stuff that this woman has done in her career in the nail industry and we just want to dig in and find out exactly how this whole journey started and where did your love and passion for nails come from.
because basically you've spent your entire life in the nail industry.
Yep.
Where you're from? Okay, so I'm an only child, born and raised just outside of Chicago, Illinois.
And I always.
I was that kid in grade school.
So I'm going to tell a real quick story.
We used to have desks, the old school desks in third grade and they had a pencil tray in them.
Great.
Well while everybody else was paying attention in class I filled mine with Elmer's Glue.
Let it harden overnight.
the next day I cut them out with scissors and I realized if you re-wet the glue, you can put them on like nails.
So I was literally making nails for people since 3rd or 4th grade.
That's such a great story.
It's a weird story because I've always been pretty obsessed with nails.
I remember looking at my mom's hands, how beautiful they were, and how pretty her nails were and that passed down.
It did actually.
Thanks, Mom.
And then I like in 6th grade, then I was polishing my nails to match my outfits, which I mean, I should have been doing my homework the night before, but I was matching my shoes, my homework, my outfit.
Let's just get real.
I'm just one of those people that was more interested in in nails and learning things by watching and doing, than books.
So That's it in a nutshell.
It's funny when I run into people from grade school, that see my nail art and some of the things I do on on social media, and they're like, yeah, it doesn't surprise us.
We knew you were obsessed with nails from the time you were in grade school'.
So it's funny.
But I always took care of my nails and then I went off to college, because my parents really wanted me to go, and then as soon as I left, my mom had gotten sick and being an only child we were super close, so I came home for her surgery and nobody said anything but I knew something wasn't right, so she took ill and nobody told me that she wasn't going to be around for very long, but I got that feeling, so I finished out the year of my first year of college, and then I came home.
I went to Upper Michigan and I didn't want to go back.
I wanted to spend as much time with my mom as I could.
So not knowing what I want to do with my life, I wandered into this nail salon.
That was not far from my house, and this was back in the 80's.
So it was probably 15 nail girls and a nails-only salon in an environment where there was no one like that, right? It was.
you got your nails.
the nail person was the after thing in the beauty salon, you know, she sat in the corner over there and whatever.
this was all nail girls and I watched these girls sculpt nails with acrylic and I was obsessed from that moment.
I was like, I want to work here.
I want to learn how they're doing it and it was a really different technique.
because I don't think.
not many people have seen it.
as old as me and have been the industry.and I still to this day don't know where the woman who ran the salon learned it.
I'm guessing she came out to California or something, but you would put down your bead of acrylic and you'd take a cuticle pusher and dip it in the monomer and you'd use it to actually form the nail all the way down.
So you.
and it got tight on the sidewalls and you got a C-curve.
Wow, and an arch, it was beautiful.
So it was super hard though.
So I quit once because I just got frustrated when I was starting to learn and I remember her calling me at home.
The owner is like 'no, no you can do this', you know, and she coached me back in, because I was discouraged.
They made it look so easy and I thought well I can do this and then once I started I was like, 'oh man, this is not for me.
I can't do this', and I felt like a failure and I was so glad that she called me, talked me back in, I stuck with it and.
it was.
once I got into it, I loved all of it because I love people and I loved clients and just talking to people about their lives, while I got to create and at that point became obsessed with color and polish.
I really loved polishing the nail.
I love sculpting the nail, did not like filing the nail, because it was the old school.
Yeah, nobody likes filing the nail.
And it was the old school acrylic.
So it was super hard.
Oh man.
And and very dusty.
Yeah, it took.
.you wanted to make your application perfect, because otherwise the larger part of your time was filing off what you'd put on to make it look nice.
Yeah.
So and back then there was no nail art.
So your world famous for nail art now, but in those days nobody wore nail art.
No, they tried to get me to use striping tape, which is back in fashion, which I had PTSD from, so I didn't want to bring it out.
And finally I'm like, 'Lisa, you can do this' and it's much easier with gel polish and the technology we have now, but back in the day.
I think striping tape's better now than it used to be.the adhesive is better than it used to be.
The way you can apply it.
All you had was enamel polish.
So if you messed up a polish that was it, you know, you got to almost take it off and start over.
acetone to try to fix it.
And yeah.
So, you went from working in a salon and I know when we first met, almost 30 years ago, you were a world champion hand model.
So, how did the transition go from, I'm a nail technician in a salon and now I'm traveling the world being a world champion hand model? How did that happen? Once again, I feel like fate stepped in, because I really was passionate about the business.
after I'd worked at that salon for about 6 years.
I decided to open my own salon, and so I went out on my own, I brought in another girl with me and we went through two salons.
We expanded, we were so popular.
I went pretty far away a couple towns over, but everybody followed and we were in a small space above a hair salon.
went from there after a year.
We were so busy that we built a bigger place on Main Street in the little town near me.
And so I was doing that and training a lot of girls because I had more room and so I was like, 'let's go the beauty show.
I never been to one', because.
I don't know how long they'd been around, but they weren't so popular for.
at least for the nail industry.
I think they were small.
They were more like hair industry stuff and then you could find nail stuff there, but it wasn't.
back then.
there was not nails-only shows.
Right.
They had just started.
Yeah, so I think it was like the late 80's.
I’m dating myself here, the late 80's and I dragged a couple of the girls that worked for me, to the Chicago beauty show and you know, we're walking around we're looking and I see this huge crowd around this booth and I'm like, 'Wow, I wonder what they're doing over there.
And I see these really hot guys over there standing behind the booth doing nails or whatever they were doing.
There was a couple standing I couldn't see who was at the desk.
So I waited until people moved out of the way.
I got up close and there was, I believe it was Tom Holcomb doing a pink and white nail and it was Danny Haile and David Daniels and I was like, 'oh my gosh'.
I had never seen a pink and white nail sculpted before, I'd never seen anything like that.
I mean it was a one-color .and the funny thing about this story is we know them very well, but for those of you out there that don't know who these three guys are or you're sitting there going, 'Oh, those are the owners of Gelish and Nail Alliance and all that stuff.
But yes, they actually all did nails one time.
So, David was doing nails and Danny was doing nails.
And certainly now the industry's grown so much that quite a few men do nails now, but that was not the case, like so.
I was like wow.
and then to see them sculpt this pink & white, which was just like a unicorn to me.
I waited in this line.
Because everything was one-color.
Yeah.
It was just clear acrylic, you filed it, you polished it.
It was natural, it wasn't really as clear as it is now either.
What was unique about.
I feel like I was at the right place at the right time, many times, but what was unique about the salon I was in, is I remember all the other salons and there was a chain back in the day, and all they did was glue tips on and then slap acrylic over them and they were constantly peeling off.
So the way I learned sculpture really drew me in, because they lasted forever.
if I didn't have that experience.
I probably wouldn't be sitting here.
So I waited in this long line.
And by the time I got up there Danny Haile was sitting in the chair and he put a nail on me.
Well, I give him my hand and he's like, 'holy cow, what's with the nail beds?' And I'm like, I don't know.
I always thought my nail beds were freakishly long and I actually almost tried to hide him.
I would always polish them and keep really short' so they looked normal because they're super long.
Yes.
So he puts this nail on me and now everybody's looking because it became impressive once you got it onto my.
his work and then my nail bed.
and Tom Holcomb's like, 'Oh my, let me see that girl'.
And so they start talking and the next day everyone's taking pictures and I'm like, wow, I thought I'd won the lottery, which I did to be honest, and I remember Danny saying, 'Hey, do you want to come tomorrow and do a competition here at the Chicago beauty show with me? And you'll get in the show free'.
I don't know.
he probably promised me a whole bunch of stuff, but it was a whole day experience that I didn't know it was going to take.
but I was like sure.
Yeah I'll be back.
As my salon was closed Sunday/Monday and I think the competition was on Sunday or Monday.
So I came back and we did the competition and I remember him almost running out of time, because my nail beds are so long.
I don't think many people who've used me.
Same problem I've had it.
You need twice as much liquid and twice as much powder.
and twice as many files and twice as much time.
Yeah, so he didn't win a first place that day, but he knew he could after doing my nails, I think maybe we took second that day, but the whole process of it just blew my mind that now there's competitions, like what is this? Like I had no clue, you know that there was this whole different side of the industry.
I think people are still going through that now.
Yeah.
I mean.
you know competitions are such a big thing.
They're huge in our world, in our eyes, but I think there's so many people out there that don't realize that competitions kind of can change your life in that way.
They inspire you, you get excited.
It gives you this whole new outlook on what the nail industry can be.
Absolutely.
So you started modeling for Danny.
Danny, so for I over a year, and I had a baby at that time, and like all this stuff was going on, but I managed to travel, then he was like, well, let's go to Atlanta.
Let's go here.
Let's go.
so we did.
I probably did 3 or 4 maybe even 5 competitions with them in that following year, year and a half, and he won, he won with them, he either took 1st or 2nd with all of them.
And I remember we were at Atlanta and Tom Holcomb was there and he was like, 'Yeah, you're done.
You're only modeling for me now'.
He told Danny, 'She's mine.
You're not taking 1st all the time.
I'm going to kill it with this one'.
And that's how that happened.
And what was so crazy about it is, I was so nervous all the time.
So intimidated by these these incredible artists, that could sculpt these nails, that I didn't say much, I was really quiet, which you know me now, if you know me, I'm not normally quiet, but just watching them, seeing them, and from then on.but the crazy thing is that instantly working with Tom, we had this crazy connection.
It's on a spiritual level, I start tearing up, but.
not only did I get to travel the world with him, but we had some of the best experiences.
I mean, we love being together, you know it.
when you're with friends that you just it's almost like soul mates.
and I don't have siblings and literally I felt like he was my brother, we could finish each other sentences for one another and our thoughts.
And every minute that we travelled together was just the best time I've ever had my life.
and we made so many friends and so many memories.
and it's.I can't even tell you how blessed.
that I feel to have met you, Danny, David, all these amazing people and the one thing I can say to nail techs out there is.
'Don't say - no'.
So the girl I had the salon with, who partnered with me.
She didn't want anything to do with shows.
She wouldn't go with me and I thought, 'Boy you really missed out because look at my world', it just blew up after that.
I mean, now I'm with some of the top nail techs in the world.
So I'm not only.
and I'm watching every single time.
and you know as a nail tech, you learn better from watching than just anything, and so seeing what they did just raised my level without even having Tom work with me, like just watching Tom, Danny, you do my nails was the most amazing.and every single time I would do a competition with one of you, it just blew my mind.
It was so joyful for me to just watch you guys work.
and I can't tell you enough.
whatever your dreams are.
Just go for them.
Don't let your fears stop you, don't let life stop you, because you never know who's going to come across your path.
You're never going to know, you might miss out on amazing blessings.
And, if that's one thing I've tried to teach my children, is put yourself out there.
as scary as it is, whatever it is you want to do or whatever interested in.
You never know who you're going to meet or what doors are going to open for you.
So what a great message because it does, you know change your life when you say yes, and when you put yourself in those positions and opportunities, and I'm going to try to pull myself together.
Yeah.
So you started modeling for Tom and really when we say we've traveled all over the world doing this.
we have traveled all over the world doing this.and I know your story is very similar to mine in that.
Well people don't really believe me.
like people go, 'Oh, what do you do?' And you go, 'Well, I'm an educator for a major beauty brand or whatever' and they go, Well what do you teach', 'Nails'.
They go really.
and they g, 'Well, where do you do it ?' Well, I've been to Japan how many times, I've been to China, I've been to Russia, I've been to Dubai, I've been I've been all over.
India.
I sent her there first because I didn't want to stay there.
I was like 14 days in India, 'Hey Lisa you want to go?' I know and I loved it.
Just so you know, I mean, I I also love to travel and I didn't know that if I'd let my fears get in the way, because I had to go to China by myself.
And I was young and or you know, whatever.
I don't know what's gonna happen when I get there.
I don't speak the language.
But you can't let those things stand in your way.
You know what, 'where there's a will, there's a way'.
It's just like when I first learned to sculpt nails I had to go, 'I'm just gonna do it', and I kept doing it, even though my nails came out terrible until they came out better.
I just kept doing it, kept doing it, kept doing it, because that passion was inside me and I knew once I got past.broke through a certain port.
it looked like fun and it was, once you get to that point, but it's not easy.
People always look at things and go.
Well that's easy for you.
Well, they don't realize how much time and energy and effort.
And yes.
so we can build the test.
Tom Holcomb things probably did come a little easier for him.
He was an amazing talented artist, that in my life.
gifted.
Yeah.
God-gifted.
in my lifetime.
I'll never see another one, but for me everything that I'm good at, I've done a lot and practiced a lot and worked really hard to get there.
Thousands and thousands of hours and practice.
Yeah, and that's really I think the story of 99% of nail technicians.
is you work your butt off to get to where you're at and it's not often that somebody just like, you know comes out of the womb like.
and just throw down nails like Tom did.
Like Tom and then walks away with the 1st place trophy, because I can honestly tell you I've never counted, but I've only taken 1st place with him and look how competitions? I took a 2nd with him, that was our very first competition, he took 2nd and we only took1st from then.
I mean it happens, but it's weird.
We used to go to shows, him and I, and I would model for him and then I'd flip on the other side and do nails and get another model, and he'd have another model, and then the next comp, you know, and we would do like 8-10 competitions in a weekend if we could, you know, he would do my hair and then I'd sit down and model for nails and you know, and that went on too, like you were a hair model for him.
Oh my gosh i forgot.
Right after that.
and then the next year, the Chicago show.
He's like, 'Well if we're doing the nail competition, let's do the hair competition'.
So this was the craziest thing.
We won 1st place at ABS Chicago and that qualifies you for New York.
Yes.
With hair.
And we were both there for that one.
Yeah, and I modeled make-up, right? Yes, but what was so intimidating about that is, every single hair person there had a paid model, model, who was like this big and jaw line and beautiful and had walked the runway, whatever, they were actual models.
Yes, and they're all sponsored by hair brands, right? And Tom's like, 'Oh no, you'll be be fine'.
Like sweat is pouring off me.
I'm just like.
And he had us in those little outfits that 'oh my gosh'.
I have to find pictures because it's amazing, but.
and he made the outfits.
I have pictures don't even worry.
He made the outfits.
But what's so funny, he called me and be like, okay, we're doing this competition.
Sew a skirt and I'm bringing the top and I'm right.
Okay, which was 6 stones one time, right? We chained these stones togther.
He opened this Tupperware bowl and he goes, 'Here's your top', and he pulls this string with 7 stones attached and I was like, 'That's a what? That's a top.' Oh my gosh, we had so much fun.
Yeah, and I remember that competition, I was so into.
.you have no idea, I was shy as a child and then I started coming out of my shell, but once I met Tom it was like, everything was okay.
It was.
And I just pressed.
I was not going to say 'No' to him even though inside I'm like, 'There's no way I can do this'.
So he asked me to wax off my eyebrows one time, so that he could put a.
and I said, 'No'.
And he's like, 'What', and I was like, 'Yeah.
You haven't heard that often, but that's a no that's hard no.' But when we went to New York, I remember.
I can't remember the hairline that had all these top people they had sponsored to come in and we took 2nd place, they were so angry.
I can't even tell you that this guy came out of nowhere with this older woman.
I mean I was.
you know in my 20's, but I was older than the 19 year old models, and one took 2nd place.
Yeah.
I mean, that's how crazy.
It was amazing.
Yeah, he was gifted at everything.
I know everything he touched.
I mean from cooking to flower arrangements.
I mean, you know, you handed anything to him and it was amazing.
So, let's go back through.
.because at this time, you know now I'm in the picture and I remember us traveling all over and you were modeling all the time.
Yeah, but soon thereafter as life kind of progressed, You said.
'Let's start a nail company'.
Yeah.
And that kind of changed our world, because at that time Tom and I were traveling back and forth to Japan all the time.
We were teaching classes all the time and we were exhausted.
it was a non-stop.
I mean, we'd probably been to Japan 80 times in 5 years, like not kidding, that many times and you know, you were like, 'I'm tired of you guys being gone.
I'm tired of you guys working so hard, I think we should have our own company'.
And I don't think very many people know this story and I think it's an important story to tell, because it's not just an important part of your life, but it is an historic part of our industry, right? Of how Entity Beauty got started, you know, basically, the three of us were together and you're like 'I have the money to start a company and we should work together and we're a family'.
By this time the three of us are inseparable.
Yeah.
So, I'm the little sister.
She's the older sister, Tom's in the middle.
They're fighting, we're fighting and we're going around him, you know, so we're going to start this company.
We're going to do our own nail thing.
It's going to be all about artists and we start developing products, Entity Beauty and the products and everything behind that.
So, that gets started and I think we started that in 2004.
We started developing that product.
Tom was working on formulations and everything.
We started talking to Tom Bachik, and by 2005 we launched in London.
That was our first thing and I mean we changed.
I don't want to brag, but we changed the industry.
Yeah it did.
When we started Entity.
We stepped up the level with marketing.
We stepped up the level with product, packaging, you know, the industry Abbie Award we won.
The first time a nail company has ever won that, the packaging Award, for the beauty industry.
So it was a huge time, you know in the industry and historically and a really big time in our lives of being together and although things didn't really work out like we had expected or hoped, but it was how that started.
It was super exciting to be able to birth something with the top people in the industry, really the top artists, and it was wonderful experience.
We got to spend a lot of time together have fun, instead of just competing, but also building the brand and building the products and photo shoots and traveling and we kind of started doing it all again, but with a different brand and then eventually, I had a baby and.
.and I had a little one, which isn't so little any more.
I can't believe how old I am or my kids are? My kid's age makes me feel old.
Right.
I'm feeling the same way.
So you took that break for just a little while spent some time with your kids, but you're saying you never.
I mean what brought you back into the nail industry.
Err.
you did.
Alisha was like, 'Hey what are you doing?' Because I wasn't really doing a lot and so then you asked me to help you with some projects and do some education and you know, what had shifted in those few years that I had been off, was gel polish.
So that technology was new and I had started playing around with it, because I think I got some products from Danny and the LED lamps, but it was at the very beginning.
So we.
.I'm going to tell them.
I'm going to tell you guys, when I first had her doing gel polish she goes, 'I hate it.
I hate gel polish.
This is the stupidest stuff it never dries, I hate it'.
I was like, 'Figure it out, because I need your help'.
Right.
But over a short period of time, the lamps developed to get better, which they still are, the LED lamps.
You have to remember polish has been made for, how many years, you write the books, a long time.
So nail enamel or regular lacquer polish, that formula's tried and true, but this is a whole new animal, so it's constantly improving.
And not only that, but when I said, 'Okay, number one.
I want you to be an educator, and you're like, I've never taught a day of my life.
Number two.
I want you to use gel polish, which you were like, I've never used this crap.
I don't know what it is.
And number three, I want you to do art with it.
And you're like, I don't do art'.
I don't do art.
So we threw her out of her realm and all of a sudden you became a world famous artist on nails using gel polish.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
That's another thing you couldn't predict, I've always loved to color and draw and I love color a lot.
But I never really thought of myself as an artist until I started working with gel polish.
And once I got into gel polish I realized there's some cool properties about this.
It doesn't dry until you put in the lamp.
So what do I have to lose? Let's try to do something with it.
And and then I started learning, once I became an educator working with you, some of the amazing people in the industry.
Alisha's like you're going to China.
I'm like.
that's fine.
But I show up in China and they're like you're going to do a stage presentation in nail art tomorrow.
And I'm like, 'What?' So, thank goodness.
That's how things happen.
Just say, 'Yes'.
You just have to roll with it.
Even though I don't feel like I'm a good person that rolls with things, It's made me be that person, life makes you be, because the unexpected always happens and I think I was with Sandy Borges, and I was rooming with her and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh what can I do by tomorrow?' And we went through some nail art stuff and we were in the room and she taught me a couple things and I pulled it off.
I was like.
but without her.
I don't know.
I mean I was scared.
Here's the other thing about some of the other countries.
They're more advanced in their art, than we are in.
even in Japan, you know back in the day.
Their 3D flowers there.
I mean, I know you guys brought that over, but they took that and ran with it.to a whole new level.
They were like 3D flowers, were on it.
Right? So I had been thrown to the wolves in Japan several times where they're like, oh I'd go with Tom to be a model, and next thing, you know, he's like well here you're doing demos all day here and you're doing this here.
As long as he didn't make me do any stage stuff, I'd been doing nails long enough.
I could punt and I'd been watching you guys long enough and worked with you.
You know at night, staying up, Tom would train people up till all hours off the night before competitions.
So I mean, it just happened.
So that's kind of how that happened.
And then I really started to get inspired by all the use of all the nail colors and the gel polish and I fell in love with it, something I didn't like, just like acrylic at the beginning.
Fell in love with it.
Yeah.
And you're so good at, not only are you good at actually doing the art, but you're so great at teaching the art, because you share everything, you know, and I absolutely love watching you teach, you know,.
Lisa just did a Master Class for us in the art of theory on color and explaining color combinations and the entire time, you know, I'm just learning still, you know every day, and that's what's so great about taking classes with Lisa and being around her, is that she's just like really open to sharing, really open to educating and teaching, you know, everything that you know, and it just makes color and learning art feel easy.
Yeah, and I you know what, the one thing I loved about this industry from the very beginning, especially about teaching people, is that I was that person once.
I didn't think I could do it and I had enough people tell me I could.
And encourage me and support me and you know without those people being in my life, you being one, you know, a lot of different people along the way have lent a hand to me and just encouragement, and that's what I want to give to people because I had that passion and I see that passion in the classroom, not everybody's as crazy about nails as I was, but there's always one or two along your path that it's like, you know.
wants to do it and doesn't think they can or that there's.
or you think that the only thing you can do is sit in a salon all day and do nails and the industry's huge.
There's so many places for people to find their passion and what they're good at or what they love to do.
So if people want to find their passion and they want to learn from you and they want to take your class, how can they find you where you at? I'm at glossarylive.com.
You are, you're here right now, but if they wanted to follow you or if they want to look for you.
Where are you at? I'm mostly on Instagram.
So it's Laboonedoesnails.
So la.
Lisa Audrey.
b-o-o-n-e-doesnails and I'm also on Facebook.
So I'll post a Facebook also.
I just started a Tik Tok account, but I'm just getting started.
I'm a dinosaur in this industry.
This whole social media thing a mystery to me, but I absolutely fell in love, like a lot of people, with Instagram because it's no BS you just see the beautiful pictures or the little shorts that people do and.
Your nail art is absolutely beautiful.
So if you want to see Lisa's nail art, you can go to her social media.
You can always also go to #glossarylivenails because she's always putting her stuff up there.
You can also, when you teach classes, you let me know and we put them on our Events Page at gloosarylive.com too.
So you can always go to the Events Page and see if Lisa's doing a class or try to follow her on her social media, so you can actually get some time with this beautiful lovely lady that I love so much.
She is an amazing artist, an amazing teacher and my absolute best friend.
So I'm so glad she was coming.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Peel Back The Polish and we'll get to see you next time.
LISA BOONE
Learn the story behind Lisa Boone, world champion hand model & nail art guru. See how this humble nail tech, from the outskirts of Chicago, became a world-famous nail art educator, hand model & award-winning manufacturer. Let Lisa inspire you to take your career to the next level.
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