By: Elisa Nicole Almeida
Meeting an Artist
It was March 2021 and I had just decided that I wanted to bite the bullet and get my nails done for the first time since lockdown. My former favorite nail tech left town during the main chunk of the pandemic, so I knew I needed to find someone new. Luckily for me, I heard from a few friends that Kayla started her own nail studio and looking at her Instagram, I was instantly hooked.
Living in the suburbs, you don’t often find nail techs willing to do anything other than a basic color and a few elementary-level designs, but all of Kayla’s work struck me as very innovative and unique. It was almost like if she could think of it, she would make it.
Also, another added bonus: she did gelx. That was huge for me. At that point, I had tried every form of nail extension on the market and none of them worked for me: acrylic ruined my nails, gel never lasted me more than ten days, and I could not apply press-ons for the life of me. So I booked with Kayla.
It was almost like if she could think of it, she would make it.
From the minute I booked my appointment, I felt like Kayla and I were collaborating on a piece of art. She asks that all her clients send her reference photos, specific colors stories, detail ideas, etc of their desired final design prior to their appointment, and her and I traded ideas and reference photos multiple times before landing on exactly what we wanted to do. Usually when I go to nail salons, I just show up the day of, pick some colors, show them roughly what I’d like, and hope for the best, but Kayla was so much more interactive than that. Honestly, it really felt like I was commissioning an art piece, which just shows her level of dedication to her craft.
When we met for my appointment, she only furthered this impression. Kayla never rushes her process. When I sat down, we finalized my design and colors together and began. Nail prep, base gel coats, adding the extension, painting and taking extra care with every brush stroke. All the while, we relaxed in my basement watching Booksmart, and it truly felt like a girl’s night in.
When we were finally done, I looked at my nails and could not be more happy with the results. She followed my exact vision and made it even better than I imagined. The confidence gained from having long coffin nails for the first time in a year and having them in a cooler design than I had ever had before was unmatched. And the best part of all? My nails lasted 5 weeks. Longer than any other nail extension I have ever tried, and even the new growth on them didn’t look bad! No chipping, cracks, or breaks.
After this experience, I knew Kayla was the kind of artist and business owner that Caroline and I wanted to shed light on with 1326. When we reached out for a collaboration, Kayla was immediately receptive and had plenty of ideas to work off of, so we knew we had our work cut out for us.
We decided on having 7 models total to showcase her range of designs. For each model, we planned entirely different wardrobes, makeup looks, and sets to represent the character of each nail design. In the weeks leading up to the shoot, we casted our models and hit up our local thrift stores to find 7 monochrome suits of different colors for each model to wear, as well as different props. Kayla created 7 different sets of press-on nails that the models would wear so that she wouldn’t have to do all the sets the day of. When the day finally came, we were ready to go.
Like most photoshoots, it was a little hectic, but the end result was unmatched. We would like to thank our models, Kim, Kerly, Morgan, Bri, Shweta, and Amy; as well as Kayla, who not only designed all of these kick-ass nails, but modeled beautifully in the photoshoot as well. If you like the photos from this blogpost, please feel free to check out the rest of the photos from this shoot in our gallery here.
