our story

Nail Your CareerTM was founded in 2024 by Fiona Fox, an industry-leading nail technician, salon owner, educator and writer.

Rewind to 2018. I was a HR Advisor at a large housing association, worlds away from what I do now. I wasn't in love with my job, but HR was where my qualifications and experience lay and I'd just turned 30, so I'd resigned myself to that being my future.

That summer, I bought myself a second hand nail lamp and started doing my own nails with a kit at home. I look back at my first attempts and thank the Nail Gods I didn't give myself some kind of allergy or permanent damage. As much as I loved it, the idea of doing nails as a career was unthinkable because, well, don't you have to go back to college for that? I shelved the idea.

In 2019, I got married. We wanted a family, and I knew that the 9-5 wasn't going to work for us. Resurrecting my dream of doing nails professionally, I did some research and found:
• You don't need to go back to college to qualify in nails and beauty
• You don't have to spend thousands on qualifications
• You don't need to spend months or years studying
• You can be fully qualified and insured in the specific treatments you want to do
• You don't need to study treatments you have no interest in
• You don't have to spend lots of money on kit to complete your course

(I make it look easy here, but learning this was actually a long, confusing, and overwhelming process, and if you're on the same journey I feel you and promise you that you're in the right place now.)

So in early 2020, I did a short manicure and pedicure course with the international training powerhouse SalonServices. Just like that, I was a qualified and insured manicurist. I started working from home, and added to my skills while I earned with more advanced short nail courses, and started branching out with courses in profitable beauty treatments like facials and waxing.

The result? Some great training, some sub-standard training which I then had to fork out to repeat elsewhere, and hundreds of pieces of course material from different training providers.

Our industry is fast-paced and thriving. Anyone who wants to qualify should be able to access training without the overwhelming trial-and-error trip so many of us have found ourselves on. That's why at Nail Your CareerTM, we've put the leg work in and taken the guess work out to give you short, affordable, accredited and insurable courses that you can build on while you work.

I didn't realise how unhappy I was in my old job until I left it and started doing something I love. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity here to help you take control of your future and fall in love with your career too!

In 2023 I qualified as an educator, counsellor, and Mental Health First Aider and Advocate. I started writing as a subject matter expert for Scratch Magazine, the world's #1 nail publication. In 2024 I was named one of the UK's top five home nail salons by Scratch and the top brass of the global nail industry. I test and play with professional products in my award-winning salon, and also get to raise my brilliant family and pursue my other weird hobbies (tap dancing, 80s dance music, and cross stitch, anyone?). All thanks to a short mani/pedi course.

But enough about me. The next move is yours. So... Where's your next course going to take you?