Airbrush System: From Dream to Development
The airbrush is, and has always been, my nail art weapon of choice.
I am personally not much of a hand painter. To be honest, I’m pretty horrible at it! Back in the day, when I ran my own business and salon, I used my airbrush non-stop to create the abstract nail art looks that I loved. At that time, it was the nineties and an airbrush was a clunky piece of equipment. It had to be used with a huge compressor, a long hose and it made a ton of noise. On top of all of that, airbrushes then were very expensive.
Flash forward to just a couple years ago, where as Director of Global Education for Young Nails as well as having my hand in developing products, I was perusing a nail trade show when I stumbled across something familiar that caught my eye. It was a twist on the old classic; a sleek and modern airbrush unit that made the one I used to use look like a busted old heap! This one was a beauty- and handheld! It sported a cordless compressor, operated without a hose and ran quieter than I could have ever imagined. I was so excited by this discovery! I reminisced back on my salon days when I would swear by my airbrush.
The thought of bringing it back, better than ever, for nail techs to use made me ecstatic! I had to get my hands on it…
After a year of waiting (as the model I happened upon that day at the show wasn’t designed for nails and had an exclusivity on it) I finally had a sample of the airbrush unit to try out for myself. I couldn’t wait to test it and finally see if all of my airbrush dreams would come true!
And… they didn’t. Well, not at first anyway. Testing the initial sample we received, the airbrush didn’t have enough PSI. PSI indicates how much air is being pushed through the compressor. For airbrushing nails, a high PSI is needed to create small paint particles that result in a soft spray. Too low of a PSI causes large paint particles to come through, which creates too rough of a look. So, we went back to the drawing board. This time, requesting the alterations that were needed. The company didn’t think keeping the same design while switching to a stronger motor would even be possible, but luckily for us, we were sent back our updated airbrush in only a month and it was time for our second moment of truth.
This time, it worked! It was everything I had dreamed come to life! After two years of biding our time and troubleshooting an airbrush model fit for nails, we were thrilled to introduce the Young Nails Airbrush System to the market!
Myself and Greg and Habib of Young Nails
When we did release the airbrush to the public, our initial reviews were mixed. We were criticized for trying to bring something old school back again- and we were! We wanted to make what was old school, new school! This happens all the time in creative work. For instance, take the world of fashion and cosmetics.
They are constantly recreating retro-inspired things: the cat eye, acid wash jeans, tie-dye, fringe, etc. The list goes on and on.
Not only were we attempting a comeback of a nail technique popular over two decades ago, we were also aiming to provide nail techs with a more cost effective and efficient tool for labour intensive nail designs. Take the ombre nail design- it can eat up a lot of time and be highly involved. But with the use of an airbrush, it can literally take less than five minutes to execute.
As a nail tech myself, I believe that we should be able to run seriously lucrative businesses. With a product back on the market like the airbrush system, nail techs can create designs for their clients quickly and effortlessly- without any of the hassle while still charging the same amount for the service. What tech doesn’t want to work smarter, delivering beautiful nails with precision and speed while making a healthy profit?
Even though myself and our team at Young Nails were behind the airbrush system and what it would provide for techs everywhere, with all the less-than-positive feedback we were getting off the bat, it became easy to second guess ourselves. After so much time, energy, money and resources put into the system, the stress and worry that it wouldn’t do well loomed over us.
Still, we went forward! We decided to pre-sale the airbrush on Black Friday and it ended up selling out in under three days! Of course, we were extremely happy with this and very relieved.
Bringing the Airbrush System back to the industry was an old dream of mine that was made anew and came true.
However, as you can see, it didn’t happen overnight. Developing a product, like any big project, starts with a dream; a vision, continues with research and a team as well as trial and error and finally, after all this over time, it can come to fruition.
