Ella Driscoll ‘26 always loved getting her nails done. One day in her junior year, she bought some supplies, watched videos and after a bit of trial and error, started her own business. Now, Driscoll has around 20 regular clients.
Driscoll said she got to where she is now largely because of word of mouth.
“Most of my clients are people who knew my friends, or my clients’ sisters, or even mothers,” Driscoll said. “It has been great getting to know so many new people.”
Driscoll also has 754 followers on her Instagram account @naileddby.el.
“I started my social media when I did the first set I was actually proud of,” Driscoll said. “My friends inspired me to start my page.”
Driscoll said she looked to creators on TikTok like “Pretty & Devine” to model her business after.
“She (Pretty & Devine) is an independent nail artist and works on her own while doing social media,” Driscoll said. “That inspired me.”
By watching nail artists’ videos, practicing on her hand and her close friends and posting her work to social media, she started attracting paying clients.
“I started seeing my clients for, like, really cheap, and I did, like, a $25 off back-to-school deal. And so I would do like, $20 sets,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll said the more clients she got, the more supplies she would have to buy and that forced her to raise prices.
“[But] then I started getting a better clientele, like people would come back every three weeks,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll has always been surrounded by entrepreneurs. Her grandmother has an office business and her aunt has a restaurant, so the idea of starting her own business was not out of the question. But why nails?
“My family has always told me how artistic I was, and that made me want to continue creating art in a way that I enjoyed, so I started doing nails,” Driscoll said.
“I would sit down in my basement like every day, all day during the summer,” Driscoll said. “I just kept getting better and better.”
Now Driscoll is looking to get her cosmetology license and get a suite to do nails in instead of her home. One day, her dream is to start her own “hair, nail and more” salon.
