Nail Tech Talk: Jennie Padbury of Jennie Padbury Nails, Beauty & Training
By Callie Iley | 24 September 2022 | Feature, Tech Talk
Scratch chats to Jennie Padbury of Jennie Padbury Nails, Beauty & Training about reaching her latest career milestone and her goals for her future in the nail industry…
“My signature nail style is definitely salon style acrylic design – acrylic marbling and 3d flowers will always have my heart!
“I’m an ambassador for Glitterbels, so obviously I’m obsessed with their products,” Jennie shares. “I credit them with all my progress over the last 3 years.”
“I absolutely adore that every client is different and reflects their style in their nails.
“In the salon I manage, we all have our own unique client niche, and it creates such a diverse range of people coming in to see us,” she explains. “One client might have hand painted ouija boards, while the one on the next desk may be having butterflies or 3d flowers – the possibilities are endless.”
“My nail journey began in 2015, and I recently hit my seven year milestone. It made me feel so nostalgic,” Jennie reflects. “Years in this industry has changed my life so much. I’ve gone from a boring office job to managing the salon that I trained in and teaching newcomers to the industry.
“I’ve been so unbelievably fortunate to train and work with the incredible Charli Jepson, she truly has made my dreams come true.”
“The most important lesson for me has been to work to live, not live to work,” she notes. “I’ve had periods in my job when I’ve worked every hour I could, but also stretches of long forced closures.
“It’s truly made me appreciate a good work life balance and the ability to work flexibly around my life and my family. I have an 18 month old son and work my hours around him.”
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have a job that affords me this level of flexibility, and wouldn’t go back to running myself into the ground again.”
“The absolute highlight of my career has to be gaining my AET and starting to teach others,” Jennie remembers. “I truly never thought I would be good enough to do this job full time, let alone be passing on knowledge to others.
“It really is so special to me to be able to start others off on their nail journeys the way I did with proper support and in depth training.”
“Moving forward, I hope to expand the training side of my business, dedicating more hours to teaching and supporting students.
“I’m very lucky to work with Glitterbels, and I hope I can continue to for years to come and expand on the opportunities I have with them,” she enthuses. “I’ve been at my current salon for almost five years now, and I look forward to many more years of working with my team and giving the best service I can to our clients.”
“My best advice for new techs would be to take it one set at a time. Nail technicians are the world’s worst for putting themselves down – we see perfection everywhere and expect it of ourselves.
“I spent a lot of years being unhappy with my work and feeling like I was failing, but really, I was failing to see how much progress I was making,” Jennie observes. “I tell all of my students it’s fine to critique their own work and identify what to improve next time, but that it’s equally important to acknowledge the things they’ve done well in every set.”
“We never see our own improvement while we’re looking at the negatives – it’s all in the mindset.”