Meet Anna Zakablukovskaia | Self-employed Nail technician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Zakablukovskaia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
First of all, I want to say, that I didn’t really plan on starting it that soon and it
happened due to circumstances such
as Covid and closure of all the salons.
You would think “Covid ruined all the businesses”. But as we all know
“crisis is the best time to start new one”. As I didn’t have jobs as salon’s nail technician anymore I had no choice but to start working for myself. I had like 20 choice colors but people still wanted to look beautiful and came to me. What I want to say – I didn’t really have too many thoughts it was more like necessity. Of course , I was scared but it all worked out in the end. I’m a full-time nail technician working for myself , traveling whenever I what and can afford it too which is important.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a nail technician specified on hand painted nail art and design. What’s different between me and others? It’s the quality of the materials and precise work that I do. I take more time then everybody is used to , but I also use specific techniques that I learned back home in Russia. It allows manicure and polishes last up to 1.5 months still looking good. If you ever try it , you never want to come back to regular salons. And materials are the other thing- I try everything that I see and choose the best. All if my bases I order from back home , it takes about 2 months to be delivered but I truly believe it’s worth it especially seeing happy faces of my clients.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would definitely go to Malibu cafe for the evening, it’s super pretty and you can visit Malibu itself on the way there and drive canyon roads which are my favorite. Then I would bring my friends to “Perch” in downtown for taking pictures of beautiful skyscrapers and eat the best tuna tartar. Santa Monica is very basic but still it’s always nice to have a glass of wine with truffle bread and Brie and take scooters to enjoy ocean breeze.
For the beach I would go to this hidden “thousand steps” beach near laguna. It’s a little far but it’s the best !

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I actually moved in United States only 2.5 years ago by myself and the very important person for me here is Victoria Petrova. She was the one who encouraged me , believed in me and always said that I was able to start my business. Moreover , she was the first one who came to do nails with me and paid(!) for the service. She even the amount that at that time I didn’t think my work was worth of. Even we weren’t that close yet as friends. I’m so thankful to her and now I’m trying to do the same for everybody else who is trying to start business. I feel it a very important not to use them and ask to do service for me for free, but pay even more then the cost is . That’s what people should do to support each other. And of course my family always supported me with the words remotely too. Thank you, my family and Victoria for being such a big help throughout all of this time .

Website: https://instagram.com/zakabl?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nails_shifu?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=