A Noughties-loving nail technician has become a successful entrepreneur selling nostalgic nail art featuring Tracy Beaker, Groovy Chick and Twilight characters from a studio filled with Beanie Babies and Busted posters.
Chelsey Downie, 31, who lives in Lincoln with her husband, Shaun, 31, and their daughter, Indi, two, began designing press-on nails using £1 Primark sets at university in 2012 as she could “not afford” to get her nails done on a student budget.
She then decided to start selling them online and within 18 months had made £10,000 in sales which “completely funded (her) uni experience”.
After graduating, she went on to become a teacher, continuing to sell press-on nails on the side, but after a Kylie Jenner-inspired set went viral she decided to quit teaching and go full-time with her business, Nailed It By Chelsey, in 2015.
Since then, she has sold more than 60,000 sets and in 2023 decided to open her own studio in Lincoln – which is decked out like a 2000s bedroom featuring a 2005 television, a blow-up chair, a Groovy Chick fridge and Mean Girls posters.
Chelsey’s 2000s-themed nails feature characters from Arthur, Shrek, Pingu, Toy Story, Bratz, Mona The Vampire, Snoopy and even cartoon hedgehogs from road safety adverts.
Chelsey told PA Real Life: “I actually suffered quite badly with anxiety and childhood trauma… my mental health is stuck as being a 13-year-old girl sometimes.
“But once I came out the other side mental health-wise, I decided to make that a superpower instead.
“There’s nothing wrong with living in the past.
“I feel like we had the best childhood ever, like the TV shows, we didn’t have mobile phones all the time, it was a better time – so I decided to make the 2000s my niche.
“I just love it – I even have tattoos of scenes from my favourite 2000s chick flicks on my arms.”
In 2012, while studying to become a primary school teacher at Leeds Beckett University, Chelsey used to bite her nails due to her “really bad anxiety”.
On a student budget, she “couldn’t afford to get her nails done”, and even when she visited salons, they would turn her away because her nails were “too short”.
So, she began buying £1 press-on nails from Primark as an alternative.
Chelsey would jazz them up by painting them in various colours and designs which soon caught the attention of her friends, who started asking if she could make sets for their nights out.
Many of Chelsey’s friends said they would pay for her nail designs, so she began selling them at £4 a set on eBay and Etsy.
By the time she graduated she had made £10,000 in sales.
Chelsey then secured a primary school teaching role in Leeds and continued selling nails on the side.
But she found her teaching job “very hard” and “was quite poorly with stress” so she began to consider if she should leave her job at the end of the year.
She said: “Weirdly, at the same time, I did a set of nails inspired by Kylie Cosmetics, when Kylie Jenner just did her first lip kit.
“She reposted it on Twitter and it just went completely viral.
“I ended up selling a month’s worth of orders in a day and I thought it was a bit of a sign from the universe.”
So Chelsey handed in her notice, deciding to focus fully on selling press-on nails throughout the summer holidays.
It was a success – Chelsey began creating nails for photoshoots and collaborated with brands such as Benefit Cosmetics and Missguided.
She said: “I was making more than being a teacher and in lockdown people were looking for alternatives because all the salons were closed and I remember in one week I made £11,000.
“I’ve sold well over 60,000 sets of nails since I started.”
Her basic sets, available on her website, sell for around £20, while her more elaborate sets cost up to £70 due to the time and detail involved.
By 2023, Chelsey “just felt a bit lonely” and decided to train as a nail technician so she could have in-person clients.
She opened a studio in Lincoln and designed it to look like “your childhood bedroom”, embracing a nostalgic 2000s theme.
Her salon features a pink blow-up chair, lava lamps, a Groovy Chick mini fridge, a 2005 television playing 2000s DVDs, Tracy Beaker books and Beanie Babies.
The door is also plastered with Busted and Avril Lavigne posters cut from vintage Smash Hits magazines, and the walls are full of original Mean Girls posters.
She even sourced 2004 Hollister room spray to “instantly transport clients back in time” and she has created cuticle oils flavoured with scents of old Lip Smacker lip balms such as grape soda.
Chelsey creates intricate 2000s-themed nail art featuring characters and references such as Tracy Beaker, Mona The Vampire, Pingu, Shrek, Toy Story, Snoopy, Twilight, Art Attack, Groovy Chick, and even cartoon hedgehogs from road safety adverts.
She charges between £48 and £70, depending on the design complexity, and her appointments can last as long as five hours.
One of her favourite sets is Drop Dead Fred-themed, inspired by her childhood favourite film.
The set includes 3D hearts with quotes such as “snot face” and “mega b*tch”, and she even “sculpted Fred’s flattened head from when he gets trapped in the fridge”.
Chelsey shared it on TikTok under the handle @naileditbychelsey, where it received more than 500,000 views, and Instagram, under the same handle, where it got more than 8,000 likes.
She is also “very proud” of a Twilight set, which features an intricate portrait of Edward Cullen, an iPod displaying the track Clair De Lune from the film, and detailed depictions of the book covers.
Chelsey has even created “Y-2K internet” inspired nail sets which feature the MSN logo, an iPod with a Sugababes track and an old-school pixelated mouse cursor.
Her nails are hugely popular – earning around 117 clients each month – and she continues to sell press-ons while working every day of the week, often until midnight.
Looking ahead, Chelsey hopes to expand her studio, open a flagship store and eventually franchise.
“There’s a huge demographic of people who love experimenting with different fashion and different crazy hair colours and I would love for nails to be a funky accessory,” she said.
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