The Story Of NDU & The Woman Behind It.
Hey girl hey! So I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to anyone who doesn’t know me & of course my business & what I’m all about! Here's a little introduction and some background on the woman behind A Nail Techs Beauty Guide and my nail pictures you see online.
(Perfect time to grab a glass of wine or tea)
First things first, I’m Brionna! I consider myself creative, sarcastic, sensitive, independent, forgetful, thoughtful, very specific about certain things but super chill about most of life’s curveballs. (Can you guess my sign?) My life has always been unpredictable and it’s taught me to go with the flow and keep my faith and positivity.
Thats My Momma in the back :)
I grew up in a single parent household. It was always just my brother, my mom and myself. I’ve always seen my mom make a way and hustle her butt off, working multiple jobs and making so many sacrifices. Which is definitely probably something that helps factor in my ability to make things happen in my life. (Okay lets get back to the story)
I had no idea what I really wanted to do when I grew up, doing nails kinda just happened. I have had hella retail jobs and I guess I thought I might as well go to school for it. I attended The Art Institute of Pittsburgh for Fashion Retail Management, whew that was different and an experience within itself but I met some pretty cool people. I stopped attending once I found out I was pregnant (Shout out to my daughter Lorren) and decided what a perfect time to go to beauty school since my mom wouldn’t let me go straight out of high school anyway. I guess some college is better than no college? NOT, student loans are the devil and I think they shouldn’t exist…..Hello free education. Okay getting back on track, before I get all over the place. I finished beauty school and thought why go back to college when I could make a career out of nails? Which is pretty much what happened to sum that part of my life up. Once I knew I was really able to make a career out of being a nail technician, I started to invest in myself by attending trade shows and 1 on 1 classes with some great nail techs in the industry. (My faves include Kandi & Thao)
Lets fast forward a bit, I graduated beauty school and took my test to be licensed but I was still doing nails on the side. Business was booming until my mom decided to move down south to Atlanta closer to my brother who was currently in college. Gee thanks. I needed more time to perfect my craft so I called it quits, at I swear was my longest job ever for an insurance company getting yelled at by people who were in accidents which wasn’t my fault. So I guess I would be a little upset too but not with the representative on the phone. Okay, so yea I quit that stressful job and started doing nails full-time out of my kitchen. I started doing nails initially out of my moms front room. That didn’t last very long, I guess I was in the way lol so my mom and boyfriend at the time who is now my husband created a space for me in her basement (hence the name Nails Down Under) but when she moved to Atlanta I had to work from my apartment kitchen.
My husband and I eventually moved into our first home together, to give us a little more room. We created another area in our own basement for me to work in and do nails. We moved into our home in June and by October State Board was knocking on my door asking if my home was running a nail salon. Lord Jesus! I thought that was just scary school talk….Nope they really do come to your house, (only if people tell) Which they did and two days after they showed up to my home we were burglarized by people. At this point of my career I felt a little defeated and my privacy was definitely invaded, but that positivity and faith I mentioned at the beginning is what kept me going. Within one week of that all happening I found a small space to work out of and call it my own! I opened my business officially January 2019 to the public. Always keep in mind that what God has for you, will ALWAYS be for you!
If you’ve read this far, please leave me a comment! I would love to hear from you. Thank you so much. The best part of this all has been being able to connect with YOU! I’ve been blessed to cross paths with so many people. I hope you read this and feel even more connected to me than maybe you did before.
With Love, Bri.
