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How it all began

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 04:03:37 GMT

HISTORY OF ZULIMAR NAILS

B y the end of February 2011, Zulimar started learning how to do her own manicures by herself. Since she had two little kids at that time, it was nearly impossible for her to go to a nail salon to get her nails done. She decided she was going to learn how to do acrylic nails herself and started learning about it by watching video tutorials online. She then started doing her own manicures and acrylic nails by herself.

During that time she lived at an apartment building so every time that she wanted a new set of nails she used to go out to the building hallways to make her nails sitting on the floor to avoid making her babies sick with the strong smell of the nail products.

That is when her neighbor (a 13 year old girl) saw her doing her own nails and asked if she could do her nails as well. Zulimar was skeptical at first because she was not too good at doing nails yet and she told her neighbor that she was not feeling really confident yet to make another person’s nails. The neighbor insisted and said that she did not care if the nails came out bad she just wanted to have acrylic nails done.

That is when Zulimar told her that if she was able to buy a little acrylic kit from the drug store she was going to use it to make her nails for free as a practice and the neighbor agreed. That same day later at night the neighbor came to Zulimar’s apartment with the nail kit and she proceeded to start applying the nail set to her neighbor. This was the very first experience that Zulimar had making nails on somebody else, and they turned out really good for being a first timer.

Here's some pictures of Zulimar's very first set of nails on somebody else.

A fter making her neighbor's nails, the neighbor's mother also wanted her nails done by Zulimar so she accepted and also made the mother's nails. Unfortunately we do not have pictures of that set.

A couple of days passed and then one day Zulimar heard somebody knocking at her apartment door and when she opened the door there was a lady asking if Zulimar could also do her nails. Zulimar felt scared and intimidated by this request since she was still learning how to make nails and was not confident at all to do people nails. She explain to the lady that she was just playing with nails and that she was not confident doing other people's nails yet. The lady proceeded to tell Zulimar that she saw her neighbor's nails and she like them. She said "please I want the same design that you have on your nails or whatever design that you can create".

Zulimar felt a little confident with the requested design since she had already practiced that on her own nails before. She agreed to make her nails and warned her about timing. That day Zulimar made her first set of nails on a total stranger. They both spent 6 hours in total making that set of nails. It was so hard for Zulimar because it was the very first time working on a stranger's hands with very little experience. Also the "client" wanted the design on every single nail and that made the process a lot harder as well. Zulimar always have been a perfeccionist so every time the design looked bad to her eyes she just erased it and re did every single nail until she was happy with the results.

She did not had an electric nail drill and all the materials used to make that set of nails were purchased at the drug store. So the quality of the products was not the best so she really struggled while making that set of nails.

Here is a picture of both Zulimar and her very first "client'. Zulimar always call her first client because this was the first time ever that somebody gave her money for making their nails. That day the client gave Zulimar $20 for this set of nails and she was very happy for it.

Zulimar's nails (left) & Client's nails (Right)

A fter making this set of nails Zulimar started to get random people knocking at her door asking for nails. She used to say the same thing over and over again "I don't really know how to do nails I am just trying to learn", but people did not care too much about spending hours and hours at Zulimar's apartment just to have nails done by her.

T hat is when the passion grew more inside Zulimar. She started noticing that every time she did set of naiks she liked it more than the one before and she was able to get more and more experience with every single set of nails. She never stopped looking for information about how to get better and perfect her craft so she can make better nails every time.

A fter a long time (3.5 years aprox.) learning and practicing nails on her own, she decided to enroll to the nail school. She wanted to enroll since the begginin but she was afraid because of the language barrier. Her native language is spanish and she was not able to find any nail class in spanish near her. So in May of 2014, she went ahead and enrolled to the nail school and her journey as a nail technician became even better after that.

Zulimar Nails first nail setup (2011)

Zulimar Nails first nail drill machine

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 04:03:37 GMT

ZULIMAR NAILS VERY FIRST NAIL DRILL MACHINE

In March 11 of 2011, Zulimar started making acrylic nails on her neighbor's nails and herself. She did not had a lot of products and all of her very little materials were purchased at the drug store near her apartment. She started working with all the basics, regular unexpensive nail polishes, nail files and some acrylic kits from the drug store. She was not financially able to invest in a nail drill machine just yet so she decided to work with what she was able to afford by then.

She started doing nails with hand files (the cheap ones that are not even for acrylic nails). Those hand files were so hard to work with and that is why she spent a good 6 hours on every set of nails that she made by then. She was learning on her own and also the low quality of the products made the whole experience harder for her and for her "clients" as well. She really wanted a nail drill machine with all her heart but unfortunately she was not able to afford it.

That is where one of her oldest sisters called her and told her "I have an old nail drill that I am not using, I can bring it to you in December when I go visit you". Zulimar was very excited and happy because she was going to finally have a nail drill machine. She knew that she needed it in order to make set of nails faster.

In December 23rd of 2011, Zulimar became the owner of her very first nail drill machine. This nail drill machine was given to her as a gift from one of her oldest sisters named Caroline. Caroline flight to Wisconsin (from Puerto Rico) to spend a couple of weeks with Zulimar and her kids. She gave Zulimar this old nail drill machine as a gift.

You may be wondering why her oldest sister had an old nail drill? I will explain it to you. Caroline started learning how to do nails years before Zulimar did. I don't remember exactly the year of this but I believe it was around 2004-2005. Caroline used to do nails to family and friends for a little bit and she got that nail drill (used) from (I believe) a friend of her. She did nails for a little bit and the she stopped so she actually kept a lot of nail stuff in her house for long time.

Zulimar's very first nail drill machine

W hen Zulimar finally had her first nail drill machine she felt really happy and excited to try it. She did not cared that the machine was old and already used because for her it was all that she wanted and needed so she was really happy having it.

She started using it on every person that wanted nails from her. She was able to use that drill for like a year. By that time she realized she needed to spend money in a better quality machine since most of her clients used to complaint about it. The machine only had two options low and high. Low basically did not worked well for acrylic nails and high was really painful on people's finger nails. Around that time she met somebody, it was a new customer for Zulimar and they became friends after a little while This friend had a daughter that also wanted to learn how to do nails. Every time that this friend went to get her nails done her daughter and Zulimar spent time talking about nails and how can she (her friend's daughter who was around 13 year old by then) learn about it from watching Zulimar working on her mother. This little girl really had a passion for nails by that time and Zulimar wanted to offer her this nail drill so she use it to learn how to do nails. Zulimar bought a new nail drill and gave this girl her very first nail drill.

One day Zulimar and her sister Caroline was chatting when she (Caroline) asked "Where is the nail drill that I gave you years ago?". She was so sad when she learned that Zulimar had given it away to somebody else. She felt really sad and said " you were not supposed to give it away, that was something special that you should have kept forever". And that day Zulimar realized that she made a huge mistake by giving it away. She was attached to that nail drill but not as much as her sister Caroline was. For Caroline, this nail drill was history, her beginning as a nail technician and her little sister's beginning as a technician as well.

Zulimar then realized that her sister was right, she should have kept it with her forever. So Zulimar contacted this little girl (who was not so little anymore) and asked if she still had that machine. She was not into nails by then and she said yes I have it somewhere in my basement. Zulimar asked if she think that she can have it back and explained to her that the machine had a meaning for her and her sister and the girl said yes you can have it back I just need to find it in my basement.

Zulimar waited months and months without having a response from this girl. She did not texted or called anymore so she just stopped asking for it. Long time after that they met again. She made a nail appointment with Zulimar and that is when they talked about it again. She said the same thing again: "it's somewhere in my basement I need to find it".

After a couple of months one day she called Zulimar and told her she finally found it and Zulimar went straight to her house to pick it up.

Now this machine is a part of Zulimar Nails History and is currently displayed in her nail salon.

More pictures