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.