Anna qualified in 2023, built her home salon from scratch around her family, and has become a passionate hard gel specialist with a deep belief that beautiful nails should never come at the cost of nail health.
Meet Anna
Where is your salon/studio based, or are you mobile?
I work from a salon that I have converted at my home address in Blofield Heath, Norwich.
How long have you been in the nail industry? How did you start and why?
I became a qualified nail tech in 2023. My children were then starting school and nursery and I was looking at a change of career that would offer me both flexibility and the chance to be my own boss.
If I am honest, I feel I pretty much stumbled across the opportunity to do my training, but I have not looked back since. I never dreamt that I could have found so much enjoyment and passion in creating nail sets for clients. It has been the best and most fun job I've had.
What is your speciality?
I have done further training to specialise in Hard Gel application. For my clients who come for regular maintenance appointments hard gel is always my go too. It offers such good reliability and is very hard wearing for busy people, as well as being versatile to extend length and fix any breaks.
Who or what inspires you in your work?
I find a lot of my inspiration comes from fellow nail techs. It is a friendly and supportive community that keeps growing, encourages further training and expanding knowledge and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. For me, I find this keeps my business fresh and encourages me to keep up with the latest information that is out there, especially when it comes to nail health. I feel very passionate that we can have beautiful manicures but we do not need to compromise our nails to achieve it. By selecting top quality products we can actually improve our nails and give them support and care to make them healthier and stronger.
What would be your biggest piece of advice for someone just starting in the nail industry?
"For someone new to the industry, your initial qualification is just the beginning. Aim to grow your knowledge and your confidence will follow. Practise as much as you can and don’t let your mistakes hold you back. We all make them, but they better us if we allow ourselves to learn from them."
What’s your top tip for nail applications?
My top tip for nail application is take your time and nail prep thoroughly. I allow 2 hours per set and this means I am not clock watching or panicking. I can concentrate on my work fully. I spend the majority of my time in prep work, and your clients will thank you for this when 4 weeks later their nail retention is still perfect.
How long have you been using Light Elegance products? What led you to use the brand and why do you continue to use them?
I have been using Light Elegance for about a year now and safe to say I am fully converted!
A fellow nail tech recommended the brand to me and, since changing, it has transformed my business and in turn my confidence. With my previous brand, I was struggling with retention issues with clients which caused a lot of stress and worry trying to work out what was going wrong. On changing products to LE, these problems disappeared.
I find all of the gels so reliable and even on those couple of clients with more challenging nails, the ability to mix and match the products to find the personalized combo for that particular client is an absolute game changer.
As discussed earlier, my big passion is nail health and LE take this very seriously. I find that this is a big selling point with my clients and many have remarked how their nails feel so much better since having LE manicures.
One lady in particular has been having regular JimmyGel Builder Gel overlays with myself. We had to remove them though as she was having an operation, so for 5 weeks she had bare nails. She suffers from onychorrhexis (a vertical split down the middle of her nails) and very quickly without the support of the gels these opened up again. Once she had recovered and we could redo her manicure again, she was so happy to be able to get the gel overlay back on as she felt it gave her nails so much support and protection from the splits. I feel this just shows that when you have good quality products it really can be used to support and help your clients, as well as looking beautiful.
The other reason I love being with LE, and actually this is a really important one, is the amount of customer care and support they provide to nail techs. I have not seen this with any other company, the amount of free education and information that LE provides, from little Instagram videos of showing how to use different products to the LE UK Insiders Club which is so informative.
What are you Top 3 Light Elegance products and why?
This is a hard task to just choose 3… but for me they are the Lexy Line hard gels, Extreme and Builder in particular. They are my go to hard gel to use, as they are strong and reliable.
The VitaPrime is another one, for those few clients who are a bit challenging with retention this will solve it!
Then of course the Buttercreams! Oh my, for those who love nail art these little tubs of loveliness are amazing to do tiny flowers and designs. I love how the viscosities change depending how much you agitate it, so you can also easily use them for painting on a full nail colour too.
I do have a fourth… Super Shiny topcoat! The shine lasts so long, leaving manicures looking just as good when clients return as they did when they had left!
Lexy Line Extreme Gel
Lexy Line Extreme Gel
Lexy Line Builder Gel
Lexy Line Builder Gel
ButterCream Colour Gels
ButterCream Colour Gels
VitaPrime
VitaPrime
Super Shiny
Super Shiny
You can follow Anna on Instagram or Facebook @theorchardrooms
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