May 1, 2017

Meet Nicole Rios and Ellegra Davis of Jewels A Nail Box in Lakeview and Roscoe Village

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Rios and Ellegra Davis.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
We both started our nail art hobby in our teenage years, practicing our skill on ourselves and friends. Legs attended boarding school where her down room doubled as the schools nail salon. Where she would barter manicures for Cup of Noodles. After College and realizing the nine to five office life was not the life for her, she turned to her nail art hobby and made it a career. Nikki also did nails on herself and friends in High School and went to cosmetology school right out of High School, not having much interest in the hair part of school. Nikki excelled in the nail program. After many years in the salon industry, Legs and Nikki crossed paths working together at a salon and after a few year decided to venture out on their own and open Jewels a Nail Box located inside of the Sola Salon Building.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not, opening a business with zero experience and not a ton of money in the bank is risky and we took a huge risk. Someone once told me “if you build it, they will come” I repeat that myself on hard days. We have worked very hard to create a name for ourselves being the first nail art salon in Chicago, and though we are small, we are fierce in our nail game. Struggles of starting a business with little knowledge about running a business is just a constant learning experience, you learn, sometimes the hard way, about licenses, taxes, fees, the never ending paperwork. We have learned so much about business in the last year and so much about ourselves and our personal strength. It’s been hard, but so rewarding.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Jewels A Nail Box – what should we know?
We specialize in nail art and creating mini masterpieces on people’s nails. We offer sanitary dry manicures, and use all disposable products where we can. Disposable files, buffers, pedi lines, pumice stones, and the list goes on. I think the combination of both of those things sets us apart from other salons. We are very proud of how we offer our services we love knowing we are giving our clients the best service we can provide.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Providing the best quality service, we want our clients to know that we are using the best products on them that we hand pick for them, we want their nails to last them with no chipping or lifting. Our clients loving their nails and referring us via word of mouth is the most important part of our success. We genuinely love our clients and so many of them have become friends. We just want to be nice to everyone and provide great service.

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