My Story

My nail journey has started in Dublin, Ireland where I moved in 2007. In 2009  I qualified in Acrylic Nails first, whilst still employed at McDonald's. I fell in love with doing nails and I kept enrolling in more courses. I quickly moved onto Gel Nails and Gel Polish. I was rushing my progress by taking on more courses to offer services to my clients and get more people in. At that time, there were not that many videos on YouTube, Facebook was just taking off and Instagram didn't exist. I struggled with doing nails. I loved doing acrylic nails, didn't like doing gel nails at all, as they are two completely different systems. I had tried so many available brands, bigger brands, smaller brands, my acrylic nails lifted all the time. I had few random clients coming, but they never came back for infills. No one ever told me to stick to one company and make it work, instead I was constantly looking for new products as I was blaming products and not myself for the bad work I thought was good at the time. I was doing way too many promotions to get clients in that it was not worth doing nails in the end. I spent so much money on products I had never used & was constantly practicing, and practicing, and practicing... yet getting nowhere. I wanted to give up!

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An opportunity arose to train with a nail technician back in Czech. At that time there were just basic courses everywhere and no one was offering up-skilling courses to get better. I was with my trainer for one afternoon and I learned so much. When I came back home I practised again but at this time I was progressing my skill as she explained to me the structure of the nail and I knew skills I didn't before on how to make nails last. I started having more clients, and more returning clients! This was the turning point for me in my journey. 

I found a little gym, where I could rent a space. It wasn't ideal, but I grabbed the opportunity and I went part time working on my own in this salon and part time still in McDonald's.  It was a good starting place. I gained more clients & my skill was getting better. At that time I tried enrolling in more beauty courses as i wasn't 100% sure I wanted to just do nails. After months I realized I only want to do nails and specilize in acrylic nails. I found a hair salon closer to home and rented a place there. That decision alone got me more clients in. At that time I was working only 3 days in McDonald's to have a stable income. In this place I was doing so well and after being there only a few months, someone else took over the lease and they let me go without any notice.  I wanted to give up!

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But I picked myself up & started working from home keeping most of my clients as mobile clients. That was a really tough time trying to balance my personal life, work life, working from home, being mobile and working at McDonald's. but after hard work word started spreading quickly and I could leave McDonald's for good! My nail skill was improving with almost every single client, as I could work more, but I was still nowhere near the level I wanted to be. After months of juggling my work I was offered to work at my friend barber shop, with my own room close to Dublin city center.

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That's literally where it boomed. I was so busy, I was taking every single client I could.

In 2014 I decided to start teaching and signed up for educator course with the brand I was using,  I also signed up for Irish Nail Competition. Somewhere in between I have broken up with my long term boyfriend and my sister was having a baby girl in the UK. I was coming to the UK so often that one day I decided to move over to the UK permanently. I didn't even have time to practice for the nail competition as I was packing up my stuff, closing salon, doing last appointments for my clients. the day of the competition came and I don't know how but I did very well, I placed 3rd for A&P nails and 2nd Salon Nails! In the whole of Ireland! I was so chuffed! There wasn't time to celebrate though as the following day I had my one way flight to UK.

When I moved to UK I got a job at McDonald's again and started straight away working there. I thought a little break won't hurt. It took me 2 years too start wanting to do nails again. After starting over in another country doing the occasional new friends nails at home, I found a newly opened tanning shop that was looking for nail technicians.

Here I was again, starting from scratch in a new country. This journey was long and stressful but within 8  months I had good  clientele and 4 months after that I closed my books. I took on way too many clients and slowly I started burning out. This was a tough time as I spent all my energy at work and didn't enjoy life outside of work. I didn't know my limit and when to give my self a break. It effected my mental health & my relationship. 

I trained my sister to do eyelashes and nails, we worked together for about two years and this helped lessen the work load but i was still over working.

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I moved to a new home in 2017 and I had summer house ready to use as a home salon!  I turned it into little nail  place. I was hoping when I move I will loose some clients naturally as I hate letting people down and didn't want to tell any of them I couldn't do there nails anymore. I didn't move that far, just 20 min drive to next town. I only lost 3 clients in the move! I knew when I moved I wanted to teach and I started working on my manuals at that time.

Without having any proper time off and working all the time, doing the manuals was really slow progress. But bit by bit I was adding and ensuring they where filled with all my knowledge. I developed back pain issues and I had to let go few clients to ease the work load as years of overdoing it was starting to catch up with me. When I finally got to the nice balance of work & life stability it was 2019 and very soon COVID hit us. I have recharged batteries during first three months of lock down, when I came back I lost so many clients I thought I will have to go and find a job again.

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But things calmed down and I managed to stay open. I was lucky. With lock downs I have realized, that there is more to life then being at work from 8am-8pm 6 days a week. its overwhelming when you finally get to where you always dreamed of and find it too much, I ended up with a 2 year wait list, clients didn't want to leave me & I didn't want to leave them. I focused all my energy on work and again struggled with my mental health. Maybe it is because I am older now but i realize we have to have balance. This is something I am passionate about helping people with, I don't want new nail techs getting themselves into the position I was in where you feel like you have everything you wanted but nothing at the same time. Your time is important too and it took me too long to realize this. In 2022 I have closed my place for 2 months to recharge batteries and get better as I was overwhelmed with work. I had time to put work into my manuals and I fall in love typing them up. This is the way I can help others to fill in knowledge gaps from their basic course and gain knowledge and confidence! Something I didn't have when I started doing nails.

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From my journey I have learned to educate myself where I can. This is more important then to have 400 colors to offer for clients. First you have to have good nail skill, if your nails last and they look good, your client will comeback! This is half the battle, strong returning clientele.  Do not spend money on products you will never use because you don't have clients. Perfect your skill first. I learned not to rush my progress and perfect the skill before moving onto another course.  I learned also a lot about nail products as I tried so many! And I also learned to look after my health. I have burned out few times and I always come back stronger as I had another target to work towards to. And my next target is to help you on your nail journey.

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Now I can offer you up-skilling manuals ! There will be always more to come !