Meet Violet Davis | Nail Artist and Gel Manicure Specialist

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

Hi Violet, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think risk is inevitable and necessary for growth as an entrepreneur. Everything about my business and career as a nail artist started with a risk. From the time I was 16 years old until I was twenty-three years old, I nurtured a career in the culinary arts industry. I started as a prep cook, went to culinary school in Italy, and eventually worked for prominent chef Susanne Goin. After almost a decade, it was a considerable risk to admit that I hated cooking professionally. I loved everything about beauty, and I loved painting. What I wanted was to be a nail artist. Once I could admit this, the subsequent risk was getting licensed, leaving my comfy albeit tedious restaurant job, taking a pay cut, and starting from scratch in a new career. Getting my first job with Natalie Minerva at her brand new salon Nail Swag in Downtown LA was so intimidating that I thought maybe I could start somewhere easier. But I took the risk and put myself in an environment where nearly everyone was more experienced than me. These are two examples of a long series of risks that shaped my career today.
While running my business, I have grown accustomed to risk. Now it is calculated, and I know how to read the signs that let me know it is time to take the next big leap and try something new.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It took me a long time to get comfortable calling myself an artist because I didn’t know what that meant. Now that I have been a manicurist and nail artist for eight years, I understand that being an artist and making a living as a creative means leaning into consistency. Being passionate is essential, but it is a high comes in waves. There have been periods of struggle in my career; injury, lack of income, lack of clients, the pandemic, etc., and the thing that carried me through was showing up one day at a time and aiming to be 1% better than the day before.
Being a creative isn’t just in the craft of painting nails; it is the intuitive way that I engage with my clients and solve problems in my business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
What a fun question! Los Angeles is my hometown, so this is easy. For the sake of this question, we’ll say it’s late spring or early summer because that’s my fave. Brunch at Friends and Family on Hollywood
Vintage shopping at SquaresVille in Vermont
Concert at the Greek Theater or a movie at Hollywood Forever
A day at Disneyland and California Adventure, riding the classic rides and eating churros
Then a day at Sixflags Hurricane Harbor to cool off and enjoy the sun.
The best haircut with Audra Tong at her studio, Salon Kingston
Chinese Food at Formosa Cafe
San Gabriel Valley for airbrush nail art manicures with Lila, aka Nails Jerks, shopping at the cute shops and discovering a hidden gem for spicy noodles
Dinner at De La Nonna, and after dinner, drinks, dancing, and hanging with my friends while they play records at the Let’s Go! Bar next door.
Bowling at Highland Park Bowl

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My greatest inspiration and the backbone of the beauty industry as a whole are POC. Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi, as well as LGBTQIA people are perpetually at the forefront of nail technology, art techniques, and trends globally. They deserve all the credit and compensation for their hard work and non-stop creativity.
Michelle Nguyen, a.k.a. Coca Michelle, made it onto the 2023 Forbes 30 under 30 list. Seeing a young first-gen British Vietnamese woman, nail artist, and LA native receive that recognition is important, and I hope to see more of it in the future.

Instagram: instagram.com/oraclenails

Image Credits
all images and art by me