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With a perfect 45 degree angle, Taylee Emerick gently dips her bush into a monomer, a liquid used to bind molecules to form a polymer. After some gentle swipes, she carefully taps the acrylic powder with her wet brush and picks up a bead, ready to apply to a cli- ent’s nails.
Emerick has only been practicing this for a little over a year, and her older sister allows her to practice doing her nails every month. As the months add up, her skill level increases.
“You have to make sure that you lay it perfectly,” Emerick said. “It’s not something that comes over- night.”
When Emerick applies acrylic nails, she places the first bead of acrylic at about the halfway point of the nail, then spreads that out from back to front. Then Emerick has to apply the second bead at the base of the nail.
“It took me about a year to get kinda good,” Emer- ick said. “Every month I would kinda get better.”
Some of Emerick’s friends would let her practice on them.
“She put a lot of time into this, and at first it was rough, but it’s getting better,” said client and friend Au- bree Hansen. “It’s definitely not easy to learn.”
Since these clients were friends and family, Emer- ick only charged them $10 even though the supplies are expensive; a nail brush can cost from $20 to $45.
The daunting cost was one of the reasons Emerick decided to start doing her own nails.
“I love getting my nails done, it’s one of my favor- ite things in the world,” Emerick said. “[I thought] it might be cheaper if I learn how to do it myself, and it was on my part.”
Another factor was that Emerick received acryl- ic supplies from her younger sister as a Christmas gift. Her little sister and her friend’s mom were the ones to first convince Emerick to start doing nails, it was a “hey if I get this for you” kind of situation.
Even though the gift was technically from Emer- ick’s little sister, her mom was the one who paid for it all.
“My mom’s the one who bought everything, and it was not cheap,” Emerick said. “I’m really grateful that she did that. I’ve come to enjoy it, it’s been a fun adventure.”
Emerick sees a career in this and hopes to graduate early this school year, then head to Snow College for her general credits. After that, she’ll head to a cosme- tology school in Colorado.
When Emerick does someone’s nails, they some- times want them longer than their natural nail, which means you need to glue on a fake nail and file it down.
“Filing takes forever. It’s the thing I hate most, when the nails that you glue on the nail bed are too big, that’s when it starts to harm the client,” Emerick said, “so you have to get it just right and if not, you have to sand it down.”
Doing acrylic nails can be dangerous.
“Sometimes when you mess up the client can get an ingrown nail, or sometimes if they’re allergic and it gets on their skin it can cause a reaction,” Emerick said.
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Even with the danger and perfection required, this doesn’t stop Emerick from learning, and trying new de- signs with some spicy colors.
“I really like doing bright colors. The dark ones, they’re just not as fun,” Emerick said. “When there’s dull colors it’s like, ‘wow this is kinda boring.’ It’s fun doing something extravagant.”
