Meet Julie Huynh of Julie’s Nails in Northwest Suburb

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Huynh.

Julie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s an honor to have this opportunity to share my story. I have been in the industry since 1995 and started my own salon business in 1999. Every day has been a true adventure filled with excitement and fun.

It’s rewarding to give my clients a pleasant experience considering they are always my number one priority. My passion for creating a new business for myself was driven by my partner of 20 years as he encouraged me to pursue my career and support me to open my own salon. I also have an incredible amount of admiration for my aunt who owned her own salon back in 1987 and was very successful.

In 1995 I began manicuring school at San Diego City College in California. After the state licensing exam, my first job was mainly performing only manicures and pedicures. I got to work alongside with some of the most talented technicians I’d ever met.

Julie’s Nails was opened in 1999 and thanks to many first time customers and their satisfying experiences we quickly grew to an eight technicians salon with high traffic becoming extremely busy and an increase in demand leading us to expansion in Jan 2008.

We choose Crystal Lake because “it’s a good place to live” and the school district here is one of the best in the country. Most of all I appreciated the people who are all very down to earth and friendly. Celebrating our 17th year in business last July I have been awarded for readers choice awards 2002-2008 by the best of fox readers.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
During the real estate bubble and recession in 2007-2009, this affecting over half of United States. We lost very few customers and remained the usual traffic volume by working with customers to adjusting prices to fit their budget. I did what I could to lower the overhead cost but to be in the salon business our number one obstacle was to obtain a lease from the property management. It took about three different cities and countless searching until I finally found this location.

I, until this day, am very grateful to be given the opportunity by my landlord, Mr. Kenneth Yoshida. He was a kind, sensible businessman. He was a successful real estate agent and became an entrepreneur when he opened his own insurance agency. He, unfortunately, passed away a few months ago. I continue to donate food to the Crystal Lake food pantry in tribute to him every Thanksgiving.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Julie’s Nails – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My team at Julie’s Nails do manicures, pedicures, gel fills, pink and whites, acrylics, gel, dip gel and eyebrow waxing. We specialize in pink and white, custom design and dip gel. I am proud to share that we always keep up with the new trending demands and always one of the first salons to come up with new ideas to make nail polish dry quicker, protected by gel top coating to prevent smudging and extended lasting longer.

Always one step ahead we provide complimentary drinks: water, soda, juices, tea, and coffee during your experience with us and are currently seeking a liquor license to serve beer and wine. My customers are very excited and looking forward to this opportunity and are very supportive towards my staff and I. This process may take quite some time but again no other salon in the city of Crystal Lake has been approved to serve yet.

We specialize in the following services:
Dip Gel Full Set French $50
Pink and White Gel $50
No chip Manicure & Basic Pedicure $55
Tropical Paradise Pedicure & Basic Manicure $45
Full set Gel with no chip $45
No Chip Gel Manicure $30

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My recent goal has been to obtain my liquor license to serve beer and wine to my customers while they are enjoying their relaxing pedicure services and pampering themselves, as I consider customer satisfaction very important.

I recently added two new collections of gel color with matching nail polish, A handful of most up to date nail art supplies including chrome nail art collections and nail foils.

I personally attended classes to advance nail art skills and increase networking with other professionals to stay competitive.

Pricing:

• Full Set Gel Nails $45
• Full Set Pink White $50
• Manicure & Pedicure $35
• No chip Manicure $30
• Dip Gel Full Set $50
• Tropical Paradise Pedicure $35

Contact Info:

• Address: 5150 Northwest Highway
  Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014
• Website: julies-nails.com
• Phone: (815) 444-9102
• Email: juliesnails1@yahoo.com
• Instagram: #1juliesnails,ltd.
• Facebook: #1juliesnails,ltd.
• Twitter: #1juliesnails,ltd.
• Yelp: #1juliesnails,ltd.
• Other: #1juliesnails,ltd.

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.