As a child, Lily Tanner had always loved having her nails done. She felt as though it made her feel put together, and she loved the feeling of having polish coated onto her nails. When the COVID pandemic arose, 13-year-old Tanner was met with a dilemma. She could no longer get her nails done. She quickly established a solution: she would do her own nails. Now, five years later, she is living through her dream, and turns the key into her new studio.
When Tanner, a ‘24 Morgan alumni, was a student at Morgan, she remembers being “always artistically driven.” When she began doing her own nails in 2020, she fell in love with it. “When I found something I love doing, I could implement my skills into the activity and pursue it, and that’s what I did with nails,” Tanner explained.
Senior Riley Febbroriello has been one of Tanner’s best friends for as long as she can remember. Once Tanner began doing nails, Febroriello was one of her first clients.
“I was in 6th grade, and she was in 8th grade, and this was when she first started doing nails, and I was sleeping at her house, and she had showed me this little nail kit, and I told her I would let her practice on my nails,” Febbroriello said.
“During my junior year of high school, I started researching schools I could be licensed at and kept doing nails out of my bedroom to build my clientele,” Tanner explained. Although she was still taking family and close friends, she expanded to offering nails appointments, with pay, to anyone who would ask, and began her social media accounts to gain attention. “What I learned is there are really limited options in Connecticut for nail technicians to get licensed at a school, so Paul Mitchell was really my only option.”
Paul Mitchell is a brand which manufactures hair and beauty products, but is better known for providing schooling for teenagers interested in cosmetology and obtaining their licenses. The closest campus of Paul Mitchell is in North Haven, CT, which was about a 30 minute drive. However, there are also campuses in Cranston, RI, and Portsmouth, NH.
Tanner studied at Paul Mitchell for a total of eight months, before inevitably dropping out to pursue nails full time. During those eight months where she attended at Paul Mitchell, she completed and received certification for two courses, a lash course and a nail course.
“In the beginning, I had always been interested in the hair part of the beauty world, so I started the course, before learning it was 14 months of school,” Tanner began. “I wasn’t loving it and didn’t have a passion for doing hair.”
Tanner decided when she had more time she would go back to school to become registered to do hair. But at the time her heart wasn’t fully in the courses, and she believed she could be doing better things, which is when she decided to focus her time on nails.
From 2020, to March 2025, Tanner had been doing nails on friends and family out of her bedroom. But in March, she signed a lease for a salon right on the edge of Clinton and Westbrook.
Although, getting to the salon came with its own challenges.
“There were a lot of permits we needed for the salon, but the hardest part of the whole process was definitely trying to find a place to rent that was a reasonable price and location for me. After that, there was just a lot of signing to be done and a lot of remodeling,” Tanner explained.
Tanner had the option to work underneath someone in another salon, but ultimately chose to open her own salon where she would be her own boss. “I figured working for myself was a much better route than working underneath someone in my industry,” Tanner mentioned.
“I did a lot of research on what nail techs make working under someone, and it is nowhere near the amount I would make working for myself.”
The hardest part for Tanner was the idea of having new bookings of people she had never met before. Up until she had owned her own salon, she was mainly only doing nails for her friends and family. Once she opened her website and opened her salon, she began taking new clients.
“I wasn’t always the best with new social interactions, but I think that is a skill I have definitely developed with time and practice,” Tanner remarked.
Febbroriello shared how she had always helped her with anything she needed, from help around the salon to practicing new design. “Anytime that she would see a cool design that she wanted to practice, I would let her practice on my nails. And whenever someone compliments my nails or talks about getting their nails done, I always tell people to go to her.”
Tanner has taken a huge step from doing nails in her bedroom to now her own salon, but there have been people who were customers through it all. Junior Addyson Beck has been a loyal client of Tanner for around a year, and has seen how far she has come.
“Her salon is definitely more professional, but she never failed to show that professionalism when I would go to her house to get my nails done,” Beck reflected.
Tanner has faced obstacles, and highs and lows throughout her journey to becoming a nail technician, but she is finally at a stable point in her career, taking new clients and having her own website and salon. To book with her, click this link.
“She’s been wanting to do this since I was in 6th grade, and now I’m a senior. I love seeing her thriving with her own salon and seeing all she’s accomplished. I’m so proud of her and it really shows dreams do come true,” Febbroriello remarked.
