TOP speed
Georgie Smedley gives us the lowdown on the best speedy nail art designs to offer in salon and what to charge for the service
Although nail art is popular with clients, having to do back-to-back sets of intricate hand-painted designs can eat into your time and profits. However, techs can now create cool and cost-effective nail art designs that will make customers happy, thanks to new techniques on the market.
Georgie Smedley, award-winning nail tech and managing director of the Georgie Smedley Group, gives us the inside scoop on the easiest and quickest nail art looks to create in salon, as well as covering pricing and advertising your services.
What tools should I use for speedy nail art?
“Stencils and stamping are great to use because they set the design for you, taking away the hard work of drawing it freehand. They’re also ideal for speedily creating the more intricate designs that have come back into fashion, like animal print,” explains Smedley. “A brand I distribute called Aeropuffing is also a really nice, easy way of doing edgy airbush nail art, helping techs create airbrush-style designs without using an airbrush gun.”
How should I advertise the service?
“The biggest mistake I see all the time is techs not doing nail art designs on their own nails – they’re not showcasing their skills. If you’ve got a cool design on your nails then you’re always going to be able to sell that nail art to customers. People will see it and go, ‘Oh, that looks nice’, and you just reply, ‘Thanks. Would you like it on yours?’. It’s the easiest way to upsell,” explains Smedley.
How should I price my nail art?
“For stamp, stencil or airbrushing nail art designs I would charge £1 per nail on top of your standard manicure pricing. However, if you’re going to do all 10 fingers then £10 might feel a bit pricey, so I would discount it to £7. When you’re creating more intricate nail art styles via hand painting, which requires more skill, then I would charge between £1.50 and £2 per nail,” says Smedley.
“There’s nothing embarrassing about charging more for nail art as clients will pay for it, but I know so many techs who don’t do it. They paint their client’s nails and, for example, add glitter onto one nail on each hand but then don’t add this cost on to the final bill. It’s silly because the tech has paid for that glitter and has paid to go on a course to learn how to create glitter designs, yet they’re not charging for the service.”
She adds: “I always advise techs to look at what other salons nearby are charging too and then set their prices a bit higher than them. That way, you will attract that client who is willing to pay more. That’s the type of client you want to make a regular.”
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Georgie Smedley is managing director of the Georgie Smedley Group (formerly Nail Harmony UK). The company distributes Aeropuffing, Gelish, Lash eXtend and Urban Nails, as well as manufacturing its own nail lacquer brand All That Jazz.