For Jamika Phillips, getting your nails done should feel like more than another appointment squeezed onto an already crowded calendar.
She wanted a place where the person doing your nails knows your name, remembers what you drink, what colors you like and maybe even what was happening in your life the last time you sat in their chair.
“I kind of wanted to be the ‘Cheers’ of nail salons,” Phillips said. “I wanted clients to be able to have a community where they could come and know their nail techs, know that they were getting quality care with their nails, and know that we would give them education.”
That vision became Shades The Nail Bar, the Sienna-area salon Phillips opened in January 2022 after leaving a career that had nothing to do with the beauty industry.
A dream decades in the making
Phillips spent more than 20 years in corporate America, working in software engineering and global process management. Her background is in computer science, but the idea of owning a nail salon wouldn’t go away.
“I have notes back from probably 2000 where I would think about the names of the salons that I wanted,” Phillips said. “I still have these pages, and I look back at them and thank God for them every day.”
While working full time, Phillips enrolled in manicurist school, attending classes at night and on Saturdays until she earned her license.
“I would work from 9 to 5. I would go to school from 5 to 9 Monday through Friday, on Saturdays from like 8 to 2,” she recalled.
“There were a lot of people that said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’…’ `There’s a lot of competition’… ‘Typically, not a lot of Black people own nail salons.’ I refused to let that stop me.”
Jamika Phillips
After moving to Houston with her husband, Phillips prepared to open a salon in the city. She was about a week away from signing a lease when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I thank God I did not sign the lease,” Phillips said.
The setback redirected her closer to home. While driving through Sienna, where her family lives, Phillips spotted an available space, pulled over and called the number. Shades The Nail Bar was on its way.
Creating a different kind of nail salon
Phillips knew she was entering a crowded industry, but she also saw an opportunity as a Black woman entering a business where few salon owners looked like her.
“There were a lot of people that said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’” she said. “There’s a lot of competition. There are nail salons every two miles from each other. Typically, not a lot of Black people own nail salons.”
Instead of discouraging her, Phillips said the skepticism became “ammunition” to keep going.
“Black women spend tons of money in the nail care industry,” Phillips said. “So it was something that I said, we got to do this.”
Even the name Shades was intentional.
“I wanted shades to represent not just the nail polish colors, but I wanted it to represent different shades of nail technicians as well as clientele,” she said.
Today, her staff includes Black, Hispanic and Asian nail technicians, reflecting the diverse community the business serves.
The salon is acrylic-free, offering alternatives including builder gel, polygel and Gel-X. Phillips researches products and often tries them herself before introducing them to clients.
“I’m always looking at new ways to make Shades different.”
Those differences extend beyond nail services. Shades offers complimentary beverages, cleans clients’ rings during appointments and emphasizes sanitation and nail health.
Going viral and building community
Phillips’ attention to customer service recently earned Shades an unexpected boost when a TikTok video by Andrea Hilton went viral, introducing the salon to a much larger audience and bringing new customers through its doors.
“She was a blessing to my business,” Phillips said of Hilton and the attention her video generated.
For longtime customers, however, the appeal goes beyond social media attention.
“I love going to Shades,” customer Lolita Smith said. “They are super professional and relaxing, and I love the music playing while I’m enjoying my services. I’m just honored to be able to support.”
Phillips said building those relationships has always been her priority.
“We’ve seen them have babies. We’ve seen them lose their babies. We’ve seen them lose their parents. We’ve seen marriages, divorces,” Phillips said. “I mean, we are there for them.”
Staff members send cards and cookies during important moments and often know a regular client’s preferred drink before the client asks. Shades also supports local schools, churches and Fort Bend-area charitable efforts.
Corporate lessons meet entrepreneurship
Phillips may have traded software engineering for nail polish, but she didn’t leave her corporate experience behind. She said the leadership, teamwork and organizational skills she developed in corporate America became the foundation for running Shades.
Entrepreneurship brought its own lessons, from finding reliable vendors to managing finances, building the right team and maintaining strong customer service.
Phillips credits her husband and children with supporting her through missed family dinners and soccer games. She also credits mentor LeeVera Smith, a business adviser with the Small Business Development Center, with helping her develop her business plan.
Her girlfriends also pitched in, proofreading her website, organizing supplies and offering encouragement when the challenges of entrepreneurship seemed overwhelming.
For Phillips, the journey from corporate America to salon ownership has been about more than changing careers. It’s about creating something meaningful in the community she calls home.
And whether customers discover Shades through a viral video or a friend’s recommendation, Phillips wants them to experience the same personal attention that inspired her to open the business.
“We really do try to build and bond a relationship with our clientele so that they know that, hey, we are here for them,” Phillips said.
