Don't Drown in an Ocean of Products

Please tell me I'm not the only one overwhelmed by the vast number of nail art designs & the corresponding products on the market? The number of vinyls, stencils, foils, stamping plates, acrylics, & dips is enough to make my head spin (and don't get me started on the millions of different polishes, I have over 200 and counting)! Browsing social media is an exercise in willpower because I'm loving everything I see, and want to buy it all. The problem is, I can't wear it all at once. I'll try to incorporate as many products as I can into a manicure, then keep adding and adding until I'm scaling a mountain of glitter & nail polish, while also using up half of my decals or vinyls! The excitement of using these products may make me a wee bit overzealous. Maybe. Isn't that the point, though? Flooding social media with products, guides on how to use them, and the gorgeous end results of using said products, all to push people into becoming monster consumers? Especially with the "limited time only" or "seasonal" products & colors. It puts a sense of urgency into the potential buyer, knowing they only have a certain amount of time before a product they may want is gone, for an undetermined amount of time. I digress. I'm not here to point out marketing ploys (rather, not only here to do so),and of course the machine of commerce and economy must be kept running smoothly. I don't want a financial apocalypse just because companies use working strategies to make money 🤨 I'm not that petty. I'm definitely not above being drawn in to the bright lights and multitude of products via the videos and photos I see on social media. Nor am I above using those techniques to sell my own products. I have a Holo addiction like nobody's business, and a monthly fund to be able to purchase from my favorite brands, but that's my process. I've forced myself to narrow down the list and even forgo some products I *really* want, because otherwise I'm going to drown in products and debt. Like I said, I can't wear every polish at once, or use every dip, vinyl, decal, or embellishment at the same time. I mean, I can try. I have tried. It's hideous, but hypnotic. Streamline your process, keep your head on straight while perusing social media, & realize that everyone, including me, is trying to sell you something, and maybe you won't get sucked into the mire. Maybe you'll learn to navigate it, and your bank account or credit card will thank you.

Did I come at a bad time?

I think the internet has taken nail art to an entirely different place than it was when I was just starting out as a nail tech. Then again, I'm going on 34 and I got my license when I was 18, going to college for Psych (tch, that worked out well). I had fun with it, it was a job I enjoyed much more than working in an office, but the internet wasn't as huge and social media was...well, it wasn't as great, nor as packed as it is now. I was disappointed when I started having seizures and had to stop working in salons, but I have children, and how they were coping with my illness was far more important to me at the time. I could always find another means of making money, I could always find another outlet for creativity... I was more than disappointed, okay? I just buried it deep, deep into the Abyss. Years pass, and although I never stopped painting my nails, following trends for nail art, polishes, the newest & best things about the nail art world, I wasn't really part of that world anymore. It took a pandemic and a lockdown to get me off my butt and involved again. I started watching tutorials, browsing social media specifically for anything nails. Acrylics & wraps were the biggest things when I was a tech, but my,oh my, have things changed (for the better). I was giddy looking at all the products & videos, just trying to figure out where I wanted to slip back in. So, I went with acrylics, my old go-to. I got a starter kit of a well-known brand and some tips, a practice hand came from Amazon, and I set up my desk like old times...only to break out in a horrible rash! My hands and face swelled up, and a trip to the hospital later determined I was allergic to something in the nail liquid. Since I know what I used is a good, high quality brand, I wasn't worried it was caused by cheap monomer. I don't want to use names, because that's not fair to the companies. I tried a bottle of a second brand equally trusted brand juuuuust in case it was a bad batch the first time around. Nope. Now my local hospital staff think I'm an idiot. So where does that leave me, a nail tech with no means to do acrylics? A broken nail gave me the idea to order some medim length, coffin shaped nail tips. Full coverage nails, so that I could protect my nubby nails while they grew back out. I couldn't just leave them unpainted, so after watching a Simply Nailogical video on YouTube, I did some research on her brand, and immediately fell in love with holographic polish and the HoloTaco brand. I ordered a bunch of their polishes. When I got my batch of HoloTaco,I used non-acetone to strip my nails of the basic nude polish I put on while awaiting my package, and puzzled out a design. It took about an hour (but what decent nail art doesn't?) and I had a set of nails I was proud of. Pictures went on social media, and suddenly I had requests from friends and family for sets of their own. Okay, cool. The next thing I know, I'm trying to start a business based on my sets of press-ons, and come to quickly find out I'm a very small fish in a big, big pond. There are thousands of Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, just so many people plying press on nails, nail art, acrylic sets, and their brands. Do I have a place in this whirlwind of PR, major brands, and veteran nail techs who have had the benefit of not being cut off from the nail world by a diagnosis of debilitating illness? I don't know, but I'm determined to find out. I tell people all the time, I may never have a steady hand, but I have a vast imagination, a strong drive to succeed, and I refuse to quit when things get tough. If those qualities aren't a recipe for going far in life, I'll never know what is. Finding others like me in various groups across social media platforms has been a blessing. It seems the nail art community as a whole is very supportive of one another (you always have a few bad apples, but so does every group), and the people I talk to have been very welcoming and willing to offer advice. It's made me feel more at ease coming back into this line of work, and while I'm still a newbie, I don't feel as overwhelmed anymore. I'll do my best to grow an organic following, get the right kind of attention, and try to help spread a positive message in a very negative world. I'm back, baby, and happy to be here!