months in the salon, I was
moment when I fell in love with teaching.
and a hand model for world champion, Tom
Holcomb, and ended up working along side
him for 17 years. He inspired me to push the
boundaries in everything I did, from nails to
life. During that time, I was obsessed with
competing and with his work as everyone was,
and more importantly breaking it down so I
could understand it and teach it to others. I
helped him innovate new products and we
tested everything we could get our hands on.
In 2005, we launched a new line of professional
products and I went on to win the World
Championships in Pink and White Sculpture.
Tom Holcomb passed away and I felt a
responsibility to get back into the professional
market and give back what he had given to
me. It was then that I took on my current
EVP position with Artistic Nail Design.
the passion I have for this business and giving
back all it has given me. I'm dedicated to helping
technicians working in salons every day and it
was this that led me to create the Rock Hard
Director, David Daniels
invented Gelish as the first
gel polish you know?
Danny and I used to own
6 nail salons when we graduated
from high school and though we followed the
conventional route and started working in a
salon, we soon ended up getting the opportunity
to make our own brand. We worked there for
20 years. We sold that business in 2003 and
then Danny started Nail Harmony and I joined
later with Gari-Dawn Tingler. When he invented
Gelish we really exploded. The whole idea of
Gelish came from Danny when he travelled
to Japan. The cost per traditional gel service
there was about half that of the acrylic, but it
took the same amount of time. So one of the
customers in Japan asked us if we could make
the procedure faster, so they could cut the
time in half and the cost. That's when Danny
started working on a polish application that
would make the gel work more like a polish.
It took him a couple of years to perfect it so
Industry-changing Invention
on this platform that I can give the best of what
I know to other technicians around the world.
that has a liquid and powder system and also a
hard gel system inside, so you are able to use
the products together. It is the only system
that has ever been created to all work together
on the same nail. Basically, what that means,
is that in the salon when you are working on
your different clients and you have all those
different concerns you are able to solve the
problem with that one system instead of going
and buying all those different systems. So
you can put the gel on the base and get the
adhesion you want and then put a on a liquid
and a powder which is going to give you the
strength you want and then you can put the gel
over the top to create that high-shine look.
about it, they were like, "of course we can
do something like that" and I was like "I don't
know why somebody didn't do it before."