Today we’d like to introduce you to Khadijah Atwoods.
Hi Khadijah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey started in 2015 when a friend asked me to design the nails she already had on.
She knew I was capable because she would always see that I kept my feet done with some type of art design on them. The feedback that she received off her nails is what made me start my journey in the nail industry. I knew I could bring something different to the area that people were not normally getting in regular nail salons.
Since I was young, I have always been a creative type of person whether it was thru dancing, designing my own clothes, or doing different styles to my hair. so, I knew learning nails shouldn’t be too much harder since I was halfway there with knowing how to do art designs.
In 2017, I finally got up enough money to invest in the nail product I needed to practice and became a self-taught nail tech. At the time it really wasn’t a lot of other nail techs my age in the area for me to learn from, so a lot of my influence came from big-time nail industries like ‘Not Polish”, “Karia sky”, “Valentino”, Young Nails” etc. From there I practice day and night trying to perfect my craft trying my hardest for my work to look even close to what I have seen from the top-notch nail technicians I was following.
After I finally got up enough confidence, I started promoting myself on social media and from there I started taking clients out of my home. Throughout my journey I always strive to be different from everyone else, so I came up with the idea of starting my own traveling nail service business in 2020. I was very successful at it, and I end up getting a lot of new clients that didn’t want to leave their homes for nail services anymore due to covid. I traveled to a lot of different towns including Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek, Eutawville, Holly Hill, and even Columbia.
After a while, I started realizing that if I wanted to become bigger and more legit that I would need to get my license as a nail technician. So, I did just that in 2021 and enrolled in Charleston Cosmetology Institute and graduated in June that year. That was one of the biggest accomplishments that I could ever have wanted for myself and even more of having my own nail Studio. In 2022, I was blessed to finally have my own nail Studio called ‘Chocolate Coated Nail Studio LLC” right here in Charleston South Carolina.
I was ecstatic to finally be able to give everyone the best nail experience they can have in one place. In my journey, I realized that I love to make people feel beautiful and relaxed and in this industry, I found I can do just that. Putting smiles on people’s faces and making them feel like whole new people gave me a lot of joy in itself and I loved it.
I’m praying that I can continue to give this joy to everyone that I interact with and in the future give back to teach the younger generation coming up that wants to be a nail tech how to become just that.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not lol. I realize there are always struggles and obstacles when you’re trying to reach any goal in life. For me, my obstacles and struggles were having a child at the age of 18. Since I had my son so young, I didn’t finish High School, but I did enroll in an online school that was able to provide me with my high school diploma. But throughout the years I got very distracted and unmotivated at the time because I didn’t even know what I wanted to do in life. So, when it came time for me to actually make that decision on getting my nail tech license, I first had to finish my online school which took me 6 months to finish.
That was a challenge in itself because I have never really been a school type of person not because I wasn’t smart it just never interests me lol. My love and passion for nails are what gave me the motivation to finish school and I did so in 2021. In my journey of being a nail tech, my family did not really understand what I was doing because it was so out of the ordinary at that time for someone to actually believe you can make money in doing nails and on top of me being a young black woman when it is always known for Chinese or Vietnamese people to do nails at the time.
But I didn’t let that stop me because I knew what I could become if I just kept pushing for it, but the lack of support did get to me at times because I kept questioning whether I was doing the right thing. Another obstacle that I have faced is that I am originally from Jersey, so I don’t really know a lot of people from South Carolina. so, I really had to push my work and my abilities so that people can really believe in what I was doing and support my business.
I realize a lot of people that had businesses in South Carolina would get support from friends and family, but I knew I had to work 10 times harder to get everyone’s respect so that they would see my work for what it was and support my business as well
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I like to call myself a nail artist. Because I love to do anything dealing with art when it comes to nails. What I’m known for is freestyle designs and having very clean applications and perfect shapes.
I’m most proud of the fact that I’m able to recreate literally anything that I see and what sets me apart from everyone else is my passion and determination to be the best nail tech there is. And by doing that I make sure that I’m able to do anything dealing with nails no exceptions.
From manicures, pedicures, acrylic enhancement, freestyle set sculpted set, and much more.
What’s next?
My future plans are to continue to grow my new business so that it becomes a worldwide name for people when talking about nails. I also would love to become a celebrity nail tech, so getting my name out there is definitely a must and a goal for me.
I’m also looking forward to being able to teach nail classes to people and show them easier ways of learning different nail services. And to not set limits on themself to only know how to do certain things when it comes to nails.
I feel like to truly be a nail tech you must know how to do all things dealing with nails so that you’re able to cater to everyone that comes to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ChocolateCoatedNails.com
- Instagram: @Chocolate_Coated_Nails
- Facebook: Chocolate Coated Nails Studio LLC
