JHS senior Hunter Bloom turned her self taught passion project of designing nails into a successful Etsy business. With her previous experience and love of art the talent came naturally to Bloom, she has already become an expert in the craft despite her just starting over a year ago.

“I always had nails on so I decided I’m just going to start doing them myself. I already knew how to paint and stuff so it was pretty easy to start,” Bloom said. 

When Bloom first started making nails she had no intention of turning it into a business, but as her skills developed she created an Etsy shop to sell them online and began to promote the nails on her Instagram @nailsbymidnight. With new customer requests Bloom was able to open herself to more creative designs. 

“I didn’t start with the intent to make money, but I love doing nails so if I start doing more I might as well start making money. It also gives me a lot more opportunities for designs because I’m very specific with what nails I like to wear so doing other peoples nails gives so much of a different base to make nails for not just me,” Bloom stated.

Bloom reports that she has received a good amount of customers on her etsy. On top of school and work Bloom does not have a ton of time to put into her project, she states that if she were able to allocate more time to her business it would have greater success.

“It’s really easy and It has been pretty successful, if I put more of my time into it it would be more successful. It’s not even a side thing for me because I focus mainly on school or work, but it has been pretty successful. I really haven’t had to advertise it a lot. I just use my instagram and people just refer me,” Bloom said.

One of Bloom’s previous customers, Rory Jackson, reports highly of nails she received. Jackson often recommends Bloom’s nails to her peers. 

“The nails I received were beyond my expectations, I loved them. They were so cute and well made,” Jackson said. 

Creating the gel nails is a lengthy process. Bloom first starts with drawing out the designs. 

“I draw the designs first. Sometimes I use goodnotes on my phone or sometimes I will use my actual sketch book. It’s not that detailed, just like a rough draft,” Bloom stated.

Once bloom is finished mapping out the design, she begins the step by step process of creating the nails. 

“First I start off with the nail base, then I will file it down to the correct size and then I will put them on a display thing usually before I paint them because I don’t like doing nails on people. Once I get that set up I do the base colors first and then I will do the top coat and then all the painted designs and then all the gems on top of that,” Bloom said. 

After graduation Bloom could see herself expanding the business. She has grown to love creating nails and will have more time to do so after school is out.

“I could see myself continuing this in the future because I am pretty decent at it and once I get out of school I will have so much more time, so yeah I could see myself expanding and I like doing it a lot more now because I have gotten a lot better at it,” Bloom stated.