Founder Thea Green says innovation has been a key driver in Nails.INC’s growth over 25 years.
Thea Green admits that she’s not one to get nostalgic in business as she charts the success of her British brand Nails.INC, its 25-year journey and the current move to break the US market. Yet the entrepreneur fondly recalls opening the first innovative nail bar concept in London as an “unbelievable experience”.
Back in the late 1990s, Wirral-born Green was travelling back and forth to the US as a fashion editor for Tatler when she noticed that the UK was shorn of the speedy and efficient nail bars proliferating New York. A light-bulb moment prevailed when she also realised a gap in the market to use high-quality nail products.
With £250,000 from private investors and an early business partner in tow, Green, then aged 23, opened the doors to her South Molton Street store in 1999 and went one step ahead from the off by launching a product range as well as a service business.
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For the first 12 months, lunchtimes saw women queuing 45 minutes for a 15-minute manicure with an entry price of £10, while Nails.INC products were immediately stocked in department stores.
Green, 49, admits that her knowledge was “postage stamp size”. She had to quickly understand wholesale, retail, staffing, stock manufacturing, shipping and running a retail operations business.
But having worked in magazine journalism, she knew what customers wanted while she also kept abreast of future beauty trends. Today, company turnover is projected to hit £32m in 2025 — a £12m increase from 2023.
Nails.INC launched its 4-in-1 nail polish earlier this year.
“I had an unwavering belief that the customer wanted to have their nails done the same way that a US customer would want to,” says Green. “That they would be no different in the UK, that women needed to save time with incredibly busy lifestyles but still wanted to look good.
“A few different nail bar chains opened within months of us. So it was definitely the right time that the consumer in the UK wanted this US trend. The only difference between us and them was that we had a range whereas the others remained a salon and service business.”
Nails.INC grew its concessions at House of Fraser and Debenhams and began to spread its customer base over multiple stores. By 2014, it had 50 salons in the UK, exported own-brand products to over 30 countries and had also launched in the US.
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Its salons were loss making in the early days. Green says that once they became profitable, the economics then changed, cost of goods rose and the firm also saw a drop in footfall at department stores. In recent years consumers have upskilled to learn nail polish at home, while Nails.INC launched a new make-up business, Inc.redible, in 2017.
“The biggest bit of Nails.INC is just the resilience and the slog,” admits Green, who received an MBE for services to beauty in 2012.
“For us to do significant business in the US [Sephora was its first customer], it still took over 10 years. Today, with social and the web the way it is, you do that much faster. This was definitely not a get rich quick scheme and it wasn’t easy.”
Thea Green, pictured in 2012, founded Nails.INC in 1999 and is now a mulit-million pound success.
Focusing solely on nails has, though, been the key to success for Green. “We only think about nails,” she says, “so it’s not an entire beauty brand. It’s quite easy to get quite granular and into the detail but we don’t want to put a lot of time on it because it’s not about a broad colour cosmetics brand.
“It’s honed in completely on nails. It’s about being the very, very best in quite a small section of the beauty market.”
Last year, Green sold the business to New York private equity firm Pacific World Corporation for a reported £30m valuation, which has given acceleration to “significantly expand” both its brand and bathing and body venture Holler and Grow in the US.
It’s all a far cry from when Green remembers “having a wobble” in the early start-up days. “It was just so much harder to make money than I thought. I’d also never been in an environment as well where people didn’t show up to work,” she recalls.
Green’s father had a long career with retail group Littlewoods while her mother owned a snooker hall, which meant that the entrepreneur had an early work ethic.
“I had a very unspoiled upbringing in terms of we definitely all had to earn our own money,” she says. “So I think I was very motivated from a young age to go and earn money.”
Once she started hiring her own staff, she quickly learned how to motivate teams to avoid people phoning in sick on a Saturday. Green also told job applicants of the potential for bonuses, bigger salaries and career opportunities.
Thea Green was inspired to launch both a nail product and a service in the UK after seeing there was no brand leader.
“I just remember looking around the room one day going, ‘Well, you just better bloody do it then’,” she adds. “I just needed to lead, get on with it and make it work.
“I’ve since never really felt stressed about being able to pay everyone. I’ve just gone, ‘Of course we are’. And obviously paying for salaries hasn’t been a challenge for Nails.INC for a very long time.”
Over the years, the company has collaborated with big names and brands from Victoria Beckham and Alexa Chung, to Magnum and Marks & Spencer’s Percy Pig. It was also the first to bring ‘gel effect’ nail polish to the market, while its products are vegan and cruelty free.
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One of its best-selling shades in the US is Browsing on Bond Street — it’s most recent launch is called It’s Topless, a 4-in-1 nail polish — which underpins Nails.INC as a London brand. The company employs around 35 staff in London and a similar size in the US.
Meanwhile, Green’s penchant for innovating and staying ahead of the curve in future cosmetic trends means that the mother-of-three’s energy levels in business remains to the fore.
She may be 50 in 2026, but smiles: “I’m not in my early 20s, but my energy when I’m winning I think would compete against any 20-year-old.”
What I know now
A lot of founders have said that naivety gets you through when you’re young. I’m much more fearful when you think about setting up a company now, with all the challenges and everything that can go wrong than I was then. I was pretty fearless.
Building a brand
The success in the beauty industry is ultimately having a product that consumers replenish, enjoy and go back and buy again or buy different versions of something because they trust the quality in the product.
Alexa Chung at the launch of Nails.INC Alexa Manicure nail polish at Debenhams, Oxford Street, in 2014. ·Jonathan Brady, PA Images
Innovation
It is probably my favourite part of the role and drives most cosmetic companies. You’re then involved with all kinds of research, heavily looking at the data, as well as being able to be creatively free. You’re bringing all of those elements in.
Hiring
I probably made more mistakes hiring super-experienced people that came in with their way of doing things, than I have hiring people that are less experienced but become very loyal to the business and progress. They have generally been more of a success for me.
Staying healthy
I love cold water swimming in The Serpentine. It makes me sleepy afterwards, though, and apparently doesn’t happen to many people where most people feel energised. It is still really beneficial because you’ve gone through all the body shifts.
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