Nailsxmar

Day one of our Russian manicure masterclass is complete 🌸✨

Today we spent 5 hours going over ALL things Russian manicure prep — cuticle work, e-file techniques, retention, sanitation, my personal tool list, and the details that truly make a manicure look clean, luxury, and high-end. 🪽

The girls got to work on a live model and received a full Russian manicure kit with everything needed to start creating beautiful structured manicures 💅🏼

I’m seriously so proud of them already 🥹

Tomorrow is DAY TWO and we’re diving into soft & hard builder gel application ✨ structure, apex placement, shaping, and creating flawless luxury sets. 🌟

I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never shared on social media before. 🥹

Hi, I’m Maria — lot of you don’t know this, but I’m an immigrant. 🇨🇴 I was born and raised in Colombia and I moved to Elgin when I was 9 years old. It was always my parents’ biggest dream for me to go to college and become a profesional.

I have worked full time and done college full time since I was 19 years old. I worked at a law office during the day 8-5 and did night school 6-9pm at ECC. I became a paralegal at age 20 and it was one of the darkest most stressful times of my life — so much so that I got cystic acne and was so ready to quit on my journey to getting my degree.

When I was I transferred to Illinois State, law offices wanted to pay me no higher than $13 an hour — as a self-made girly that was not gonna pay the bills. So my boyfriend said why not turn my for-funsies hobby into a side gig and see how far I could take it.

This is how my first nail room came to be 🦋 and little did I know it would become the one thing that carried me through some of the hardest years of my life.

Five years of college. COVID. Moments where I wanted to give up. Nails were my constant.

I’ve done it ALL.

Home-based. Garage-based (shoutout to the garage girls because you KNOW the hustle 😭🫶🏼). Suite-based. Salon-based.

I’ve had over 8 locations throughout my career.

And then I became an educator.

Now I get to fly to teach something that completely changed my life, and sometimes I still can’t believe it.

I don’t talk enough about the pressure that comes with being the daughter of immigrants. Watching your parents sacrifice everything for a better life and wanting so badly to make it worth it.

That’s why nails have never been “just nails” to me.

It’s my career.
It’s my passion.
It’s the thing that gave me purpose.

And making women feel beautiful? That is something worth pursuing every single day.

So to the nail tech who is exhausted, discouraged, ready to quit, or wondering if it’ll ever happen for you…

I started in a garage.

And now I’m here.

If I did it, you can do it too. 🤍

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Las uñitas de mi clienta #1 que ha sido mi compañera desde el primer día 🌸💕 le encantan sus uñas naturales ✨ utilizamos TRIANGLE DE .tm puedes usar el código MARIPOSA para una descuento 💫

Quien quiere más videos en español?! Hahaha este video está dedicado a mi prima que cada rato me pide videitos — voy a seguir 🫡🫶

it’s an experience 🤍 come try it for yourself 🪽