A trip to the nail salon can leave you feeling like a walking art piece, and totally at peace. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith sits in at Natalie Tan’s Savage Nails.
Would you like it bow-themed, Brat or Bluey? Perhaps a set that looks like sushi? Natalie Tan’s Savage Nails isn’t your regular salon – the solo nail technician spends hours perfecting the nails of her clients’ dreams, sending them away with artworks on their fingers, a Hi-Chew in their hands and a smile across their faces.
Clients slip out of their shoes and replace them with socks, then slip into the small room where she operates her salon. The walls are pink, one side with hand-painted flames and a neon “S” sign – for savage – and artworks by Tan on the other. She has run her home salon in Auckland’s Mt Wellington for four years, building her business on the power of the Instagram algorithm.
Tan says home salons have been on the rise in the last few years, which could be a Covid hangover, or a sign that consumers are wanting nails that are a bit more personalised. “Commercial nail salons are very fast paced, and I think there’s a certain type of work that you do that is all about speed,” she says. “People keep telling me that they want art, but at commercial nail salons, they couldn’t find options.”
“There’s a lot of people that are getting into nails now because of the artistry of it,” she says. “It’s not about being in and out, it’s about the experience as well, and taking the time to produce work that you can really be proud of.”
She remembers the first time the sight of a row of nails changed her life – a French tip set on an older woman riding a train – and how she turned to her nana and whispered her awe. The nail kit gifted to her twin sister at Christmas soon became hers, and a love of painting nails blossomed.
Tan worked as a graphic designer before venturing into nails, swapping her digital canvas for actual digits. Her illustrations on the wall prove she hasn’t limited herself to any one medium, but painting nails provides a more social connection. “Doing nails is great, because it’s art for someone else,” she says.
In a black velvet Juicy tracksuit, Tan welcomes her first client at 9.15am for a set of French tips with diamante crowns. Wednesdays are usually for new customers, so this is the client’s first time in Tan’s salon, which she found by Googling “best nail salons in Auckland”.
They chat like old friends, catching up on the latest news from the morning’s kindergarten drop-off. The intimacy of Tan’s small salon creates the perfect stage for a heart-to-heart over family matters, or passionate discussions about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The sessions are soundtracked by Beyoncé, and once Tan gets to the painting stage, she turns on Buffy the Vampire Slayer for her client’s enjoyment. Tan says she’s already converted a few of her regulars into Buffy, Modern Family and Charmed fans.
Her clientele is mostly women in their 20s to 40s, but she’s had some regular male clients in the past too. The client she serves first is a mother of two young children, so she gets a thicker top coat to stop the rhinestones from falling off and ending up on the floor, or in tiny fingers.
If you’ve never experienced it before, one of the best things to do when you’re in the middle of getting your nails done – and afterwards – is to splay out your hands in front of your face and admire the work at every stage of the process. “I think I’m going to be doing this all day,” the client laughs. I believe her.
Tan had dreams of opening a travelling nail salon in a caravan, but moonlighting as a home-to-home nail tech before she opened the salon showed her the value of having a set location. The time to pack up equipment and travel took hours, meaning the call-out fee would sometimes be higher than the cost of the nail treatment.
Instead, she opened a home nail salon in her old Onehunga apartment, set up in the middle of her living room. Tan had been toying with the idea of doing nails professionally for a few years, and push finally came to shove after she was made redundant from a graphic design job during a round of Covid layoffs in 2020. She moved to Mt Wellington two years later with her partner, who has made a pledge to wear matching nails with her on their wedding day.
She says her redundancy turned out to be a “blessing in disguise” – she was looking for the right moment to follow what she felt was her true calling, and hasn’t looked back since. Although, her parents didn’t instantly see her vision.
They had hopes she would choose a “high aspiration job”, but despite their inhibitions, Tan says she was “loud and proud” about her new career path. Her parents – Malaysian-Chinese on her father’s side, and Panamanian on her mother’s – eventually warmed up to the idea. Mum is now the business’s accountant, partly paid in nail sessions, while Dad has proudly sported some superhero-themed nail art from his daughter.
The biggest challenge in owning a home nail salon is promoting yourself, Tan says. She sets goals at the beginning of each year, and this year’s focus is to stay on top of Reels and play the algorithm game. Fewer photo posts, more video clips is the key to cracking Instagram’s algorithm, she says.
“I’m always staying on new trends, staying on top of the new equipment, teaching myself new styles – you always want to stay current,” she says.
Wearable art on your fingers is a great vehicle for self-expression, but Tan says her regulars are mostly just looking for a moment to treat themselves. “It’s their one thing they do for self care and to spoil themselves every month,” she says.