Manicure for Kendall Jenner and Zendaya: how a Russian woman opened her own beauty salon in Los Angeles

What do you think Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Zendaya have in common besides their worldwide popularity? Manicurist! And not ordinary, but from Russia itself. Now Lisa Cohn (real name - Olesya) is a famous master among celebrities. But it all started a long time ago with couchsurfing and receiving clients at home. Lisa told the publication her success story BFM.

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Lisa Kohn started doing manicures when she was a student. In 2017, she and her husband won a green card and went to live in the United States. Having traveled half the country, the couple made their choice in favor of living in Los Angeles (California). In advance, Lisa began to recruit clients on Instagram and began to receive them in a rented apartment. Despite the high prices, there was a line of people who wanted to get a manicure, because the beauty standards of American masters, according to her, are very different from Eastern European ones.

A year later, she managed to rent a room for a salon, and she began to receive clients already there. Due to the large concentration of celebrities in California, stars began to contact her, including Kendall Jenner, Svetlana Loboda, Vera Brezhneva and others.

Liza told how Russian manicure differs from American, why she needs her own store with manicure supplies, and how the salon survived the lockdown.

Green card and relocation

Lisa graduated as an accountant at Tver State University at the correspondence department. At first she worked as a waitress, but in her second year she began to do manicures and realized that it was hers.

“When I got married, we moved to Shchelkovo. I worked for two cities, because in Tver I already had a solid client base and the girls simply would not let me go. I had to go to Tver at least twice a week,” says Lisa.

At this time, they considered the option of moving. My husband liked the United States, and after a tourist visit, Lisa also fell in love with this country.

“We decided to take part in the drawing for a green card. We tried three years in a row and won for the fourth time, ”recalls Lisa.

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“In 2017, we went to the US without a return ticket. Traveled for the first six months. We wanted to see as many places as possible and choose where to stay. We traveled to more than 40 cities, met a large number of local residents and visitors from other countries, ”the Russian woman shares.

During their trip, the couple asked many people where, in their opinion, it is best to live in the United States. Many answered that it is worth choosing Los Angeles. The main arguments were convenience in terms of nature and climate, as well as many opportunities for business development.

“When we moved, we had $20 for two. The first six months we traveled, however, very budget. Housing was found through couchsurfing. There we had a good rating, so almost everyone answered positively, and in the end we chose ourselves in which part of the city we would stop. When we traveled around Florida, we took part in a bike race. We traveled all over Florida on bicycles and didn't even spend anything on transportation. In addition, they didn’t go to restaurants, they usually bought groceries in the store and cooked at home, ”says Lisa.

Starting a business

When the couple decided that they would live in Los Angeles, Lisa prudently created a business account on Instagram and began to look for potential clients. I went to the pages of other masters, watched who liked and commented on them, then added them to myself.

For six months, she already had a waiting list, and after 2 months of work - an appointment for 3 weeks in advance. The first year she received clients at home.

“My manicure services aroused such interest because there are big problems in this area. In the US, they do not teach "beautiful" manicure. To work as a master, you need to get a license. To do this, you need to take a special course, which teaches more about how the body works, what are the names of certain bones, what diseases are. Everything is aimed more at ensuring that you do not harm a person than give him a good manicure, the master explains. “They are not taught how to work with cuticles. Here it is simply pushed aside, not processed by the apparatus and not cut off, as we do. They have very different standards of beauty. Clients are used to coming for an express manicure every ten days. Most of them do not know that something better can be done, it will just take an hour and a half, but you will need to go once a month.”

Lisa says that when Americans try Russian manicure for the first time, they no longer want to return to local salons and are ready to pay more because they see the difference.

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“We decided to open a salon about a year after I started getting my nails done in Los Angeles. A couple of months before renting a separate room, I began to cast a bait to familiar craftsmen. So I got a team of three or four employees, - the owner of the salon shares her experience. — It took us about $20 to repair and purchase all the equipment. The building had good walls and ceilings. We just made cosmetic repairs and bought furniture.”

Renting the premises costs $2,5 thousand per month. This amount does not include electricity, internet and so on. Renting in the US depends on how passable the place is.

“We have a room on the second floor, rent is cheaper here. Since our salon is open only by appointment, it was not important for us which floor it was, ”explains Lisa.

Star Clients

“In 2020, I began to have stellar clients. The first of these was the American supermodel Kendall Jenner. A well-known Ukrainian photographer Sasha Samsonova comes to me for a manicure. We once gave her a manicure with a design, and Kendall drew attention to him during the filming. After a while, Kendall's agent contacted me and asked me to come to her house to get a manicure. After that, I repeatedly did manicures to famous people, including Russian celebrities. Among them were Svetlana Loboda, Regina Todorenko, Vera Brezhneva. In addition, many influencers come to our salon, who have 3-4 million subscribers, ”Lisa shares her successes.

“I rarely go home to do a manicure. Only to very large stars. I have a busy schedule, and in order to find a window to leave, I need to free up half a day. Star clients don't book manicures three weeks in advance, they usually call and say, "Can you come tomorrow?" Therefore, I mainly receive clients in the salon, ”the master notes.

Home visits cost $500, which is the price without the service. The cost of a manicure and pedicure for such a visit is $1200.

“There are two price levels in the salon. For girls, a manicure costs $80 and up. I have from $200. In California, these prices are above average. On average, a manicure costs $30-40 in an American or Asian salon. Russian-speaking masters, as a rule, charge $40-60, but they often take clients at home, says Lisa. — Now my main goal is to focus on business development. However, it is very difficult to find masters to whom I can refer regular clients. They have been coming to me for years, they are used to a certain level of service, and many of them love nail designs. Not all employees in the studio draw well. But I try to organize the process so that I work less. She has been working four days a week since March. I raise my prices in the hope that my clients will go to my assistants.”

In addition to the nail salon, the Russian woman is developing a store with manicure accessories. The idea came when she faced the problem of a lack of good materials.

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“There was nowhere to buy good gel polishes or tweezers. It is expensive and long to order from Russia - the parcel could go two weeks, or even a month and a half. First, we ordered a batch of nail clippers from Pakistan worth $5. It was quite scary to send money, but the products arrived on time, and everything was good in quality, - the master recalls not without pleasure. - Some time later, we released our batch of gel polishes. The purchase cost about $10. However, there were also difficulties in the production process. We were sometimes not quite understood due to the language barrier. For example, they could mess up with the dosage of the pigment, and the color didn’t turn out the way it should.”

To promote the store, I had to make a request to local nail groups in social networks - both Russian-speaking and American. Gradually it began to work. And when Lisa did Kendall's manicure, there was a very large influx of subscribers and customers, because she reposted in her stories and posted a picture with all the materials that were used for her manicure.

When the lockdown began, for the first two or three months in Los Angeles, everything was very strict with restrictions. The salon could not work, but the rent had to be paid. All salons with a high rental rate closed.

“About three months after the start of the lockdown, my husband and I began to come to the salon and shoot training videos so that there was at least some content. At that time, I started running TikTok in order to somehow occupy myself, - the Russian woman shares her difficulties. “Since all the salons have closed, people have been thinking about how to remove their coating or how to do a manicure at home on their own. Everything related to manicure was sold out on Amazon. We also had a boom in our store, almost everything was over - brushes, gels. We have never had such sales, their number has increased by about ten times.”

Now the salon is open again and ready to receive customers.

“As for our social circle here, it is easier for us to find a common language, of course, with the Russians. The difference in mentality is very noticeable. Americans are very nice, but if the question comes to some kind of help, most likely they will find a hundred and one reasons how to refuse you. This does not mean that they are bad, they just have such a mentality. Of course, not all, but most of them are very superficial - they will smile, ask how you are, and immediately forget about you. It’s easier to be friends with Russians and ask for help knowing that they won’t refuse you, ”explains Lisa.

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