Vivian Ezike: Redefining Beauty With The Nail Artiste

Vivian Ezike recently launched the Nail Artiste studios in Lagos, Nigeria. Since its launch, the fashion mogul’s studio has been subject to rave reviews. The Guardian Life spoke with her on her plans for customers.

You recently launched your nail art studio (@thenailartiste_ng), what informed the decision?

The nail artist was founded by Vivian Ezike and Vivienne Aghoghovbia Adekoya. It was created with the love and passion we have for beauty and self-care. We had just returned home from Canada and the UK and had always had the dream of creating a state-of-the-art nail studio to match international standards. We took our time to research in Canada and the UK to see how the best studios are operated over there and learned some skills so we could train our workers on the recent techniques and styles.

Looking at similar businesses in the industry, here in Nigeria we realised that there were a lot of loopholes in the industry and were head-bent on filling in the gaps in the industry and providing each client with a seamless and unforgettable experience.

We launched the salon on the 16th of December, 2020. It was only befitting that we had a grand launch to commensurate the opening of our studio to Lagos and the world at large. The launch was very successful, and the business has been doing very well.

What are these loopholes you speak of?

One of the major reasons the nail artiste was birthed was to fill certain gaps in the beauty and hospitality industry. We realised that a lot of similar businesses lack competent staff who are well skilled in their areas of expertise; be it administration, nail techs or assistants. At the nail artiste, every staff is carefully selected and trained to the highest level of professionalism attainable, to perform to the maximum capacity required.

In addition to our prestigious staff, we take pride in our world-class services. One of our signature services is our “one of a kind” luxury jelly pedicures, which come in 5 different flavours. We are the only salon in our demographic that offers authentic jelly pedis.

Provision and maintenance of a state-of-the-art ambience: This is another vital loophole in the beauty industry. We realised that most salons/ studios lack a world-class ambience we provide or launch with a decent space and after a few months the salon/studio looks very unkempt and run down. At the nail artiste, it’s of utmost importance that we maintain an aesthetically pleasing ambience. Our space was tastefully curated with class and can compete with any of the best studios across the globe.

Lack of Good Customer Service: As cliche as this may sound, this is something that we see a lot of businesses struggle with as it could easily make or break a business and is an area we decided to take headfirst to ensure that we do not lack in this regard. At the nail artiste, our customer service is A1. We take pride in ensuring that every customer who is offered a service/s does not leave our space without feeling extremely happy and satisfied. Some of the additional things we provide are refreshments such as snacks, tea, cold drinks, alcoholic beverages and mints.

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Loyalty programs: In every business, Customer Relations is very important. We found that a lot of businesses in our industry lack customer skills and relations. We pride ourselves on having a huge turnout of returning clients who have not only become clients but family members of our institution. We believe in relating with each customer, and giving them incentives and rewards to keep them excited and loyal to us.

Do you have any surprises in the box for new customers?

We have surprises every week! I mean, what fun would it be without surprises? When a new customer comes into our space with a friend, they are entitled to a discount on their service/s. This usually encourages them to come back with a friend.

We also have the 4K Tuesday menu, where all the services we provide are N 4,000 only. Tuesdays are usually one of our busiest days because most clients love to participate in this promotion.

As regards our other surprises, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we listed them all right.
But we usually have monthly campaigns that we run at the nail artiste, inclusive of holiday promos, which we always celebrate at the mail artiste.

One of the other promotions we offer is student discounts. We realise that as a student, one is entitled to a limited income, and every student wants to look good and well-groomed. In this Light, we offer discounts to all students who come into the salon with their student ID.

Who is the perfect model for your brand?

Our ideal model/target audience for our brand will be the middle to higher income working-class male or female, who resides within the island demographic (Lekki, Ikoyi, Victoria Island) and enjoys self-care and pampering themselves frequently, and will not settle for anything but the best services.

The Nail Artiste is located at 18 Fatai Idowu Arobieke Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, or visit their Instagram page @thenailartiste_ng