Salon Chat series serves up opportunity for beauty pros to relax & converse

Two techs, from two separate UK locations, have come together during lockdown to deliver a relaxed & fun community chat four days a week.

Salon Chat takes place on Instagram LIVE at 8pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays courtesy of Kelly Colley of Lavish Nails, Cheshunt and Isabel Porter of The Beauty Garage, Buckinghamshire.

This regular live spot was created at the end of March with a relaxed nail chat delivered on a Monday, tech time on Tuesday (showcasing work, playing games and running quizzes), with Wednesday and Thursday offering free nail tutorials. Kelly contacted Scratch to spread the word after the audience ramped up to an average of over 200 views per session and she realised it was delivering a formula that techs were craving. “It has taken off beyond our wildest dreams and we’re being showered in amazing feedback too,” Kelly explodes. “We’re hearing comments such as – ‘You’re not just keeping everyone sane and creative, but also bonding an entire community’. As you can imagine this has really inspired us to continue and grow the content each session.”

Offering fantastic prizes for the Tuesday quizzes, there’s more incentive to participate than just gaining education and information for viewers.

From the moment the show was launched, it was clear to these techs that when a product was featured in a tutorial, its sales were boosted, which has led to product being sent in for use as well as brands offering discount codes to viewers. “After we saw products flying off the shelves when featured, we got in touch with some brands and succeeded in getting discount codes from Dixie Plates, Navy Pro, Nail Stamping Queen, TNBL (Apres nail system), TAFS and the Willow Academy, for our followers.”

What gives this nail friendship a rather interesting slant, is that Kelly and Isabel have never actually met. “Isabel and I act as the best of friends and speak every day while we discuss our idea for the coming Salon Chat, yet we’ve never met in person!” laughs Kelly.

“We met via private message, after I posted a video clip of my baby Jonny tipping Quavers all over me. Isabel found it so amusing, she messaged me and our friendship grew from there.

“Before lockdown, we talked about whether we should shut the salons or not and went live so others could join our conversation. We advertised it as a ‘salon chat’ and that first time we aired, we had nine viewers. We were buzzing from the experience as everyone seemed to enjoy it, so we aired again and made it a regular feature. We began sharing our work and then invited techs to send in theirs so we could chat about it as a community. It proved really popular and has been enormous fun every week.

“The feedback has been outstanding too and we feel like we’re really bringing people together. It really has given strange time a good focus and community spirit.”

Follow Salon Chat at 8pm every Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs on the @lavishnailsss or @bella_beautygarage Instagram pages.