Meet Lauren

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from all of my past trials and tribulations. I have always felt this feeling inside me, that I am meant to be something great. Growing up wasn’t the easiest for me. I had to grow up failry fast, taking care of my two sisters at the age of 5. By the age of 9, my fathers mom (I call her Momo) received custody of me, and my sisters were placed in separate households with grandmother’s from my mothers side. This was very traumatic as a child for me. Being the oldest, it was my job to protect my siblings, and now we were mandated by court to grow up in separate households.. I lost my only friends and safety I knew at the time.
Once my grandmother got custody of me, I had to deal with an emotional/mentally/physically abusive aunt. She still lived at home with my grandmother. Not only did I have to deal with being abandoned by my parents, and losing my siblings, I now had to deal with an adult bully, who made sure I knew how small I was every day. By 18 I left home to live with a boyfriend at the time, which turned into my first abusive relationship for about 1 & 1/2 years, until I was able to escape safely from it. By age 20 I had met my now ex husband. Our marriage ended after 10 years. From one day to the next, I lost the life I knew, and was now on my own for the first time ever. For so long, I had lost myself in pleasing and puttinf everyone elses needs before mine, out of wanting to be loved and accepted. But that only created more heartbreak, and the opportunity for those to take advantage of someone with a heart and kind as mine. This new self love journey that I have been going through on my own, has shown me just how strong I truly am, and that it has been me this entire time making things happen! I really am THAT WOMAN! Once I chose to heal and show myself all the love I have always deserved, I decided all the energy and time I would put into making sure the people in my life were taken care of, would now be used to take care of me. I owe it to myself this time around, and I know I am the one person I can always count on. Going to school has been such a beacon of light for me in this moment of my life. And I am so grateful for everything and everyone who has tried to break me, and tear me down. Despite the many attempts throughout my life, I have never allowed anything or anyone to keep me from what I deserve. I am so proud of the strength that I have to keep going despite all the odds that were against me. This is why I feel the way I feel. Why is the enemy trying so hard to break my spirit? What does this world have for me that he does not want me to reach it??
Regardless, as long as I am still breathing, I will come out swinging both hands and never stop putting up a good fight for the life that I deserve. I will make it happen one way or another. With or without someone. It may take me longer to get where I want to be, but believe me when I say, I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Currently I am a nail technician student studying for my manicurist license. I started my nail journey back in 2021 after COVID. I would always get my nails done inside salons, and would walk out disappointed most time. I would spend $120 on a set and it would not look how I wanted. I decided to try and do them myself. I am very creative, and I can save myself money this way. Little did I know, I would actually be good at it, and enjoy the creative freedom. I started doing my sisters as well as my own nails at first, from there, I got more and more compliments for my work and people would tell me I should go to school for it.. Fast forward to 2024, I am going through a separation and divorce. I almost lost my life May 2024, from stress. It caused my body to completely shut down, going into severe migraine attacks that caused vision loss, I couldn’t speak, lost my ability to walk, and my husband abandoned me at the hospital during all of this. My sister took care of me during the weeks of my recovery, and when I was strong enough to go home, I had to stand my ground and put my foot down to make things change, I could not afford to lose my life over someone who didn’t even care I was sick to begin with. In return, my marriage failed, and he left September 2024.
The next month, I decided to go for it and use the time I now have to build myself and a career I find so much joy in.
October 2024 I started school at Nuvani Institute, I was a bit nervous but I knew it was what I wanted to do. I am so grateful to have chosen this school, because I have one of the best teachers you could ask for. Mrs.Rachel Robinson.
She has helped me in so many ways on my new life journey, and establishing myself in the nail industry.
While in school I have managed to create my business by growing my online presence using my social media platforms. My Instagram (NailNirvana.X.Nonie) and Tiktok (nailnirvanaxnonie) and also participating in school events such as the Kendra Scott mani pop up event for SXWS 2025. I also specialize in my own line of custom press on nails, which I hope to be able to create and sale online in the future as well. I am currently working on creating an Etsy, and other platforms to reach more demographics. Currently I do work locally, but I am wanting to be able to ship to customers who are also throughout the US. The best part about my custom press ons is, they are reusable. Not only will I offer your basic nail services, but I also perform services on pets as well. Mainly dogs, but I do Pedi-Paw-cures for my fur clients.
I also look forward to participating in future competitions to help me better my skills and have the opportunity to meet other wonderful people in the industry.
In the future, I would love to have the opportunity to help teach other nail technicians learn different techniques and advance their nail art by holding classes they can attend. This is such a dream of mine, and I know one day I will do it!
I am so excited to see what other opportunities will come my way and the many ways I can grow in this industry. Beinf given the freedom to be creative is the cherry on top for me.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities of mine that have been the most impactful on my journey would have to be my self-discipline, creativity, and determination.
Self-discipline because you wont always feel like doing it, you may think, “I’ll put this off tomorrow” but being disciplined enough to still do it anyways. For me, I feel like I dont have time to waste, and each day I don’t use to be productive in something was a waste. Do not sit around wanting, and hoping, GO MAKE IT HAPPEN !!
Creativity is the best part of all of this. Being able to showcase my artistic talents and people get to feel beautiful about themselves in the process is a win win. I love getting to try new designs and techniques, learning what works for me, and creating beautiful work in the process.
Determination keeps me going. Remember what I am doing this for and how far I have come in life helps keep me focused on my end goal. I am determined to be something great, and to have a successful business and products I can take pride in.
You should never lose sight of why you are doing something. You may have your days, where it seems a little more hard than usual, but make that day still count, even a little. Some process is better than no progress at all.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

Someome who knows how to communicate and respects your time.
Having mutual respect is a must, and I also am big about time. Do not waste mine, I will not waste yours. Also, someone who doesn’t try to negotiate prices. We have set prices, so being respectful of the set prices for services is always appreciated.
Also, I like to think of us almost as a confidant. We create long last connections with people and learn all about their lives. Celebrating their wins in life, crying with them and praying through the hard times. We are not just nail techs, we are so much more than that and I love that not only will I get to make someone feel beautiful, but they also feel safe enough to bring me into their world and share it with me. That’s the best feeling ever.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Kendra Scott

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