Salon in the Spotlight: Boo Does Nails, Birmingham

During lockdown, Beckie Jones reflected on her career, deciding to take a risk when restrictions eased, opening up her own salon. “It was a risk I needed to take, as I felt a deep need to finally carve out a space where I could be free to do what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, and provide that space for other techs to do the same. I knew that space needed to be colourful, chill and private.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m particularly motivated by ideas of having a huge salon,” she reveals. “Right now I’m still soaking in all that’s happened over the last year or so and figuring out where I want this journey to take me.

“My dream would be to teach small workshops and support fellow nail techs on their journey following qualification in parallel with doing nails part time, focussing on really crazy, fun, detailed nail art.” 

“In my salon, there’s me, Gracie, and Millie,” Beckie beams. “I’m there full time, and take care of the running of the salon itself, as well as looking after all the wonderful clients that come through my doors. I’ve been qualified since 2017, my style is a bit eclectic but I love all things cutesy, hyper detailed and quirky. I’m also a brand partner for Magpie Beauty.

“Grace joined not long after I opened, as a self-employed nail tech. Grace qualified in 2021 and definitely already has developed her own unique style. She loves anything neon and sunshiney, with a touch of psychedelic – think full moon party vibes,” she says. “Millie joined us in early 2022 as a self-employed nail tech. Mills is a jack of all trades, but decided to focus on nails earlier in the year. Mills’ style is very Instagram-trendy, experimental and innovative. She’s the first to have a go at a new method and she’s always looking for new things to learn.”

“I take a lot of pride in the products I use,” she reveals. “Everything is vegan and cruelty free, very high quality and hypoallergenic. I’ve used a lot of different brands over the years, and for me, nothing even comes close to Magpie.

“I have super sensitive skin so when the time came to take the plunge and pick a brand to go in my studio, I knew I needed a lot from whichever brand I chose – it needed to be HEMA free, highly pigmented for nail art and an excellent colour selection. I wasn’t expecting the incredible customer care and lovely community that came with it but it’s absolutely a bonus. Mrs Magpie reached out a few months ago.”

“It’s really important to me that I 100% trust the products in my salon and don’t cut any corners to save time or money. I want to offer nothing but the best for myself and my clients.”

“We do manicures, pedicures and extensions. We’ve occasionally have a tooth gem technician do a pop up in our studio too, which is so much fun, I’d love to have different pop-ups on the regular.

“It’s so hard picking one speciality, but if I have to, it would be nail art,” Beckie divulges. “For something so niche, it’s great to have such a broad range of styles in one place, I love that we each have our own unique appeal and we can offer a wonderful assortment of nail art to our clients.

“The colour scheme for my salon came from a set of nails I did a while back. It was one of those sets where I didn’t have a solid plan, I just grabbed the colours my heart wanted to play with and just fell in love with the combo. I couldn’t get it out of my brain, and rebranded to include it,” she gushes. “When the time came to plan what my own space would look like, I knew I wanted a rainbow arch with my gel shelves under it, with lots of plants and cute prints and a lovely side table so I drew a mock up of my arch and styled the rest of the salon around that.

“There’s a lot of tchotchkes and prints from local independents scattered around, but my pride and joy is my Green Lady print. I found her in an antiques shop many moons ago and just absolutely had to get her. She’s moved around with me wherever I’ve gone for the last 10 or so years and has always been hung up at home but she fitted in so well with the decor in the salon so she was carefully relocated to be admired by everyone in the peach palace.

“It’s hard to pinpoint a theme for my salon, it’s a mish-mash of a lot of different styles and eras, the colour scheme is quite seventies, some of the furniture is very mid-century and the gaps in between are quirky or modern… Let’s just call it eclectic!”

“So many things make the salon unique,” Beckie laughs. “It’s location for one, Digbeth in Birmingham is a day out. We’ve got some wonderful independent shops all around us, there’s fairs and events most weekends, and the walls are caked with these insane street art murals. There’s so much nail inspo all around Digbeth – I’ve definitely snapped a few colour schemes from the walls!”

“I’ve worked really hard to curate a space where absolutely everybody can feel relaxed and welcome. I’m a firm believer in self care for all,” Beckie smiles. “I think the general population doesn’t do enough of it and I love being able to provide that time and space for my clients to chill out, enjoy the view and chat about whatever’s on their mind.”

“The colour peach is just such a happy colour, it’s usually the first thing people notice when they come for the first time,” she concludes. “I think people get the vibe very quickly and tend to go into this fun, easy and happy headspace.

“I feel very fortunate to get to work there every day, to show it to the world and get those happy vibes in return.”

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