Spring Cleaning at the Nail Salon

 It's that time of the year again...Spring Cleaning at the salon! The obvious is to go through all of your products and discard anything that is expired, reevaluate any areas that may have become cluttered and if you're like me, get out your label gun and go hog wild sorting, organizing and labeling like your life depends on it!

But what else can you do to spruce up your salon and make the most of your efforts? 
Here are some helpful hints:

Leftover lotions and Scrubs – Gather up any remaining scrubs or lotions you may have lying around the salon. As with nail polish, all of us have creams, lotions, and scrubs that either weren’t a client favorite or we never finished using. Combining them together can save you money as well as create a new signature product for your salon.

Tips

• Organize products into scents that complement each other. For example, pair fruit fragrances together instead of with almond or vanilla. 

• Mixing lotions with opposite consistencies can make the perfect pair.  Combining a “too-thick” cream and a “too-thin” lotion can ultimately produce the optimum consistency for your new “signature” cream.

• If your scrubs are partially dried out, you can add the last drops of cuticle oils to the mixture or even standard olive oil to improve consistency. 

Nail Polish – We all have those bottles of nail polish that are only about 1/4 full and will inevitably thicken beyond saving or dry up and will have to be discarded. Why not do what many of the celebrity Nail Techs do at Fashion Week and create your own custom colors by combining these leftovers? All you need are some empty nail polish bottles (and ball bearings for mixing) from your local beauty supply store (or you can easily order these on Amazon or eBay).

Tips

•  Have fun and be creative, but try to mix colors that will complement each other so you don't end up with an unattractive shade that no one will want to wear. As a rule, try not to mix more than 3 colors together.

• Purchase a small plastic painter's palette at your local art supply store so you can test your color mixes with small amounts of polish to make sure you like the results before you use up all of your resources.

• Keep records of what products you mixed together and in what proportions so you can recreate a color that becomes a hit with your clients.

• Make homemade labels for your bespoke color creations and give them fun, original names!

It's All About the Nails...

My love affair with nails has existed for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is getting in trouble when I was four or five years old for climbing up a bookcase and sneaking the red nail polish out of my mother's manicure supply basket so I could paint my nails. Luckily, when I got caught my Dad took the blame by asserting that he had given me permission. As I got older, the obsession grew and I moved into elementary nail art using decals, toothpicks and glitter polish. By eighth grade, my plastic two-tone Caboodle makeup case was brimming with all of the makeup and nail supplies that Wal-Mart and the Dollar General store had to offer.

Years later, I began work at a tiny satellite office of one of the world's largest international nail companies, KMC/Dashing Diva. The path I took to this career was most certainly the scenic route, yet somehow it seemed that I had been destined for it. I instantly thrived in the environment and quickly became a valued member of the staff. When they learned of my background in writing, I was drafted to compose the monthly newsletter for the company's signature brand of professional nail products. Soon I was also writing copy for advertisements as well as spearheading the social media presence for the brand. Not long after, I was approached by an executive at the company and encouraged to enroll in beauty school to acquire a New York State Nail Technician license...and I did.

In July of 2010, I began the four month long Nail Tech course at Christine Valmy International School of Esthetics, Makeup, and Nail Artistry. For four nights each week, I raced from my office to a tiny classroom two stories above Fifth Avenue and immersed myself in all things nails for several hours. My classmates and I were guided through our studies by the course instructor, Ms. Sheila Ando -- a gifted and knowledgeable Nail Technician. During our course of study we were presented with the opportunity to volunteer as student members of the Butter London Nail Tech Team at NY Fashion Week. At the same time, I was drafted by the lead Nail Tech at Dashing Diva Professional to work as a student member of their Fashion Week team. Thus began my continuing adventures at NY Fashion Week.

NY Fashion Week Spring 2011

Butter London Nail Tech Team Backstage at the Alexander Wang Runway Show

A full year later, I have graduated and completed all of my state exams. My Nail Tech license arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Over the past year, I have attended beauty shows to do product demonstrations for Dashing Diva and Nail Bliss, was elevated to the Butter London Pro team for NY Fashion Week Fall 2011 and have continued to nurture my passion for nails by converting the spare room in my apartment into my very own nail salon. Now I'm sharing my thoughts and experiences through this blog as I have learned that there are precious few that understand the multifaceted world of the professional nail industry. It is creative and thrilling and brutal at times, but regardless, the nails always look fantastic. And let's be honest...it's all about the nails.