VICTORIA HOULLIS

NAIL ARTIST & OWNER

Victoria Houllis’s deep drive and determination comes across in almost every word she says. From corporate marketing beginnings with a little nail art side hustle, the powerhouse now owns and runs Mannequin Hands – the completely booked out nail house and online store of dreams. From slick editorials, tending to celebrity hands – hello, Dua Lipa – and changing lanes into the product world, Victoria’s eyes are firmly on the prize. She’s candid about the perks of the corporate world, setting boundaries when you’re a people-pleaser and the necessity of taking
a long view on your business. One thing’s for certain, Mannequin Hands is the
small biz to learn from.

Hey Victoria, we’re so excited to chat to you! We’ve followed you for such a long time, and love Mannequin Hands. Your Insta is incred, we love hearing from creatives about how much goes on in the background.

Love it. I was talking to my roommate this morning about this interview, and was saying everything you’ve done has such a good spin on it. I feel like what I’m walking into isn’t going to be the same questions I always get.

Hahaha. Now we’re anxious.

You guys have hit that thing in the middle, where you’re looking at every industry and how it functions day to day, which I find really interesting.

Yeah! We try to get a real snapshot. Let’s do Mannequin Hands – tell us about what you do.

I’m a nail artist. Day to day I see clients and make their nail dreams come true, I guess. Also, I own an online store and I’m pushing the business into a product realm, because lockdown and getting older is amplifying the idea that the physical element of this job is not that sustainable.

Lockdown made me really zoom out and think about all the ways that my lifestyle could change very quickly – overnight. How would I sustain an income if my lifestyle were to change drastically again?

You know, even getting older and thinking about kids: how would I facilitate this job when my stomach hits the table? How long can I sustain my business when my body won’t physically do what it does anymore?

Mhmm. You’ve got the steadiest hands in the biz, so you’ve really gotta think about that long game don’t you. I think Covid really shifted that for a lot of people.

100%. Lockdown definitely made me realise that. I thought about how I want to expand my business and the one thing I’m wary of is moving into having a team of nail techs. As a creative, would I be in a position where I just end up managing? Do you eventually just have to hand over all of the fun stuff – being hands-on with clients, talking to them, creating something beautiful – to the team?

How did you get into nails?

It was definitely what I dreamt of doing. When I was a kid, I was obsessed. I used to go through my mum’s nail tech tool kit; I’d rearrange in colour order, go through all the stuff, and she’d give me the remnants of all her OPI bottles. I was always obsessed with it. But my family was pretty set on me going to uni. Neither of my parents went to university, and they pushed us to. Obviously when my grandparents came to Australia, they wanted us to have access to things they didn’t get to. So when my parents didn’t fulfil that dream, naturally it was on us to do that. When I did my HSC, I made a deal with them. I said “If I don’t get into journalism at UTS, I’m going to beauty school”. And they were like “Alright, alright. Let’s just see how you go.” Anyway, I got in.

Damn it!

I know! I was so pissed off. I did journalism at UTS. There was a nail course at a salon that was above the shoe store I worked at through uni. I was getting my nails done there, and one of the girls was like “Why didn’t you study it if you’re so interested in it?”. So I managed to rope my parents into agreeing to that, and did the course.

I [finished uni and] ended up working in copywriting, first at The Iconic, then Merivale, then eventually I became a marketing manager at Mambo. Then I’d just had enough. I was battling the usual corporate thing – not being paid for the role I was in, but being asked to function highly while not having the team that was required to actually perform in the ways that you envision. My boss at the time had made a few inappropriate comments, and a coworker was kind enough to mention to him that it made me feel uncomfortable. The guy calls me up, like “I’m not that kind of guy, you know that! I’m just joking around, blah, blah, blah.” I was like no worries, left it at that. Eventually the tension between us, the inappropriate comments and him not wanting to pay me more, just… I was furious.

We had an argument, I dot pointed every time he’d been
inappropriate and then I thought ‘Fuck it, I have my clients,
I’m gonna quit’.

I was doing nails after hours at that point, every day. So I went to work 9–5 and then I’d come home, 6–10 see clients, then see clients Saturday, Sunday.

Oh my God. That story! Those after hours! Where’s the time for fun?

I didn’t have any time for fun. It was chaos mode. Everyone hated it; my parents were like ‘What are you doing? Why would you leave a good job and salary?’ But I was doing what I wanted to do.

I left on the Monday, waited a couple days – thought ‘I’ll just give myself a second, sit with this decision’ – put my bookings live on the Wednesday, and I was booked out for the month.

I didn’t put in lunch breaks, toilet breaks – nothing. I was just booked out and I was like FUCK.

That must have been so surreal!

It was pretty overwhelming, I had so much anxiety. People were messaging me ‘When can I get an appointment?’ – I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. Because I was working after hours, I was concerned no one would come during the day. I had this idea in my head, like, who’s going to be free that can afford a luxury like that?

At that point, I was working in my bedroom – it’s such an intimate space. I was so nervous to meet new people, especially in my bedroom, which is kind of strange. But it kicked off and eventually I kind of weaned people off my weekends and I got some of my time back.

It’s definitely a lot harder than I found corporate. Knowing that you’re responsible for paying your own bills and whatever work you put in is what you’ll get out of it in quite a tangible way is hectic.

You hear so often that people have a job they’re unhappy in and they make the leap to something that they love. Often there’s quite a large gap in how much they’re earning plus a whole lot of adjustments. It’s so amazing to hear that you had full books instantly. The validation must’ve been amazing!

Yeah definitely. And that’s where being in a service-based industry, and making that switch, is so strange. Cos there’s no real measure. Like, if it’s product, and your product is selling well, you’ll know when you’re getting to the point where you’re earning enough to offset that. Whereas in the service industry, you’ve just gotta make the jump and hope your regular clients and brand you have is valuable enough for them to jump with you. I was lucky in that. I should also note, if it weren’t for my corporate job I wouldn’t have been able to afford to facilitate that.

Our generation and younger are especially locked on to working for themselves and I think there’s a lot of value in that; it’s nice that people have the drive.

But, there’s a bit of the ‘chase your dreams’ that’s really sweet
but also naive.

You do need money to facilitate making that jump, to facilitate growing your business. I had set myself savings goals. Like I need to save ‘blah’ before I leave. Because, fuck knows! I need to save enough to pay my rent for X amount of time without earning what I used to earn. I was in corporate as a marketing manager, it takes a lot to earn like that again.

I think there’s something to be said for chasing the dream, but humbly at the start. Chasing the dream as though scarcity might be on the other side.

Yeah. Also, as much as we push back on the ‘corporate machine’ and all the issues that come with it, there are very important lessons to be learnt there. And also, plenty of corporate jobs that have actively created – and provide – a culture that’s workable.

Totally. The corporate lifestyle can be really helpful. Like, it’s a lot harder now for me to get time to go to a doctor’s appointment. Or to go to the dentist – fuck, it’s been a minute. If I’m not at my nail desk, it literally costs me money. There’s a certain amount of work I can do away from it – admin, editing photos, backing up content, drafting, whatever – but for the most part I have to be here. When you work for yourself, people think you have the freedom to just take the arvo off. Well, you can, but it costs money.

Annual leave, sick leave, all of that is such a massive aspect of work that you give up. Even just the locked-in working hours. Do you feel pressure to work more flexible hours?

100%. It’s insane sometimes. You have to get really set on boundaries. As a people pleaser, that was a really hard lesson. Obviously, I adore my clients – I genuinely have friendships with most of them, so really had to learn how to say no. Like, ‘Can I just pop in?’ – ‘No’. I want to stop working after hours, cos I want to see my friends after work, watch a movie, see my nephew, go on dates. Like fuck, I’m single now, when am I going to date?

You’re kind of at the whim of people that you really love and people who you want to do the thing for. It’s meaningful and it’s fun to connect, but it’s hard to put those barriers in place. If I take time off my clients are like ‘When did we approve your annual leave?’

How did you come up with your pricing?

Initially I looked at other businesses doing similar things, using similar products, prioritising nail art. I couldn’t really look at shopping centre salons as the pricing wasn’t taking art into account – it wasn’t as common then. And then I bumped it down, cos I was just starting. When I left my job, I needed to offset the loss of a salary. And now, every year since, I’ve bumped it up. If I do training, bump it up again.

Amazing.

And now, I’ve found this woman on Instagram – Maddi Cook – who teaches people in service-based industries strategies how to price.

The lord’s work!

She’s fucking amazing. She’s in the UK and does online seminars, talking through the reasons why you shouldn’t base your pricing on other people’s pricing. Breaking down that it doesn’t matter what the salon down the road is charging, you still need to cover your costs. You have to find your point of difference, then charge for it.

She’s got a pricing calculator; I think it ended up costing around $100AUD. Admin is the last thing I want to do. So, I spent the money, got the pricing calculator and it is fucking amazing. Best hundred dollars I’ve ever spent in my life. You put in what you want to earn, your tax and the country that you’re from, then your staff, the hours you work, rent, insurance, product, electricity bill – everything! She’s thought of every single thing. And then
*tsk, tsk, tsk* you put in your services, the time they take and it literally tells you what you need to charge in order to earn what you want to be earning.

That sounds like the best hundred bucks ever. Totally invaluable!

Yep! Say it’s coming up to November, which is the time I usually raise my prices, I’m like ‘Alright Vic, time for that pay rise’. I go in, give myself a little pay rise, add any new services, add my new staff member – and it’s done. There are elements I round up or down, but it changed the game on pricing for me completely.

Do people push back against pricing when you quote them?

It’s been really affirming knowing the quality of the service that I offer and knowing how much it costs to run the business. If someone did push back on pricing, I would just be like ‘That is completely valid’.

There are times that people cannot prioritise spending money on nails – it’s a luxury, it’s not for everyone, I understand that – and that is A-Ok. The second I stopped thinking it was personal, and
accepted that it is a business and I need to run it accordingly,
it got easier.

Absolutely. Plus your books aren’t even open to new clients – you’re fully booked with repeat clients. They’ve sought you out, they want you. You offer a specialised, niche service. Has your marketing experience helped you in the scope of Mannequin Hands?

Yeah, my marketing experience showed me the value of a brand, and what I wanted to create with a brand. I worked for companies that really prioritise brand: The Iconic, a space where you’re selling en masse; Merivale, where each venue had its own voice and identity but under the same roof; and Mambo which had a chokehold on surf culture in the 90s. They all made me realise how valuable good branding is. It’s not that the product shouldn’t be front and centre, but people need to understand your product – and that comes through branding.

I worked on branding with my friend Steph, who’s done all my illustration work. I tried to zoom out as much as I could to figure out what the business could be like long term. For the text, I had references from mechanics to fruit shop signage.

I want the brand to have room to be whatever it is, at any point. What if I pivot to be a consultant for beauty brands? What if one day it’s a marketing business? I want Mannequin Hands to move in any direction.

The marketing job helped me see how important it was to have a brand that could stretch, push, pull, change. Plus, at some point I’m gonna age out of my own market, I’m gonna age out of my own brand, I can feel it coming already– it’s terrifying to think about. It’s like, I will not turn 30 and make my branding neutral. Like, no.

You have over 25,000 followers on Instagram. What do you think is helpful about the platform? How did you learn to navigate it successfully as a business?

I think Instagram is a helpful tool for small businesses, but it’s also really dangerous. I think it’s really easy to get caught in the trap of creating content that pushes your business to look a certain way, of seeing what does and doesn’t work in a sense of what your algorithm is giving to you. Like, videos at the moment are going crazy; and there’s a lot from the nail side of things that’s really aesthetically pleasing, you can’t look away. If I just posted colourful French tips for the rest of my life, people would be satisfied. I would feel like dying, but people would be satisfied. You can fall into a trap of not creating work that’s authentic to what you want to make. I can do a set of nails, take a photo of it and go ‘This is going to go off’. And lo and behold, it does.

You can start to tell what will and won’t hit your audience. You’ll get a dopamine rush and then only create work that facilitates a reaction. But it’s work that everyone else isn’t doing that will create hype. Maybe you won’t have a huge audience; some of the most talented nail artists I know have way smaller followings than me. It’s crazy.

A lot of the people that you work with are inherently creative – Flex Mami, Millie Sykes, Rowi Singh, the teams from Poppy Lissiman and Vogue – is there a bit of an exchange in creativity? Do you feed off it?

Definitely. I think there is something really fun about crossing over their references and my knowledge of how we can facilitate transferring that onto a different medium. Creating something beautiful out of that is really satisfying. It gives you a fresh take as well. A lot of the time when I’m asked about doing creative work, it’s like ‘What inspires you?’ and I’m like ‘Fuck man, I work 12 hours a day’. It’s hard to be creative when you’re constantly in a zone of doing, not in a zone of thinking. Like, being and doing are two different things. Working with other creatives brings a bit of fresh blood to the situation, and gets my brain ticking over.

This is pretty heavy, but once you become a business person as well as a creative, the creative side takes a hit. That’s the honest truth of it. Working with people who are also creative re-energises me in whatever state I might be in creatively.

Have you had any favourite jobs?

I’ve had favourite sets. Sadly, I’m noticing a lot of them came from when I had a lot more time on my hands. Finding the time to facilitate that is hard. But now I’m trying to carve out that time when I do press-ons. During lockdown, ideas were just like this *gestures above head* it was crazy. I couldn’t move my hands fast enough. I have a list 60 things I want to try on nails – so now it’s about earning enough to facilitate the time to create as creatively as possible. That’s the balance I’m trying to find now. You have to find a place where you’re earning enough money that taking out that time doesn’t feel like it’s costing you.

Are there things you’ve implemented in your Covid pivot that you want to keep doing? Where do you want to take Mannequin Hands in the next couple of years?

I spent a whole chunk of the first lockdown walking three hours a day. I just walked. There was nothing else to do. I had to sit with this deep anxiety of leaving my job not long before, and I was unemployed for the first time since I was 13. Then people started asking for press-ons. I was like, people are sitting at home! What do they want these for? I couldn’t comprehend it. But people wanted them. So I started to make them and then one of my clients made my website. During the second lockdown I was making 40 sets a week. I couldn’t believe how well it was doing – it was keeping me afloat and keeping me busy. I’d been working on things in the back end and they just happened to fall into place at the right time. I was really lucky in that sense, that the work I was like slowly trickling along wit just came to fruition at the right time.

There was risk involved. It’s costly. It’s costly making a website, it’s costly making product. You’re calculating how many you have to sell to cut even, how to pay tax on it – so many things you didn’t think about. It’s stressful, you are quite literally like ‘Here is a chunk of my savings, please, please, please land’.

Moving into the product world has been hit and miss. It’s risky at times, but, for the most part, if you think long and hard about what people want and what makes sense for your brand and for your business, you can do it. Again, having the brand work done meant that it was recognisable to some degree. People felt connected to it.

And having that connection to your business, even if they aren’t in there with you getting the full experience. Like yes, I’m at home, locked down, but I’ve got fabulous nails and a slice of my former life.

100%. It was nice to touch base with people in that way. That’s also something that’s fuelled the desire to do product: like, what’s the point of having a brand that is valued in all these places, but I can’t reach the people?

I can’t see more people, I can’t grow eight arms.

Product is my way of touching base with more people and facilitating grown in a way that doesn’t require me to take a managerial position.

Amazing. Well you’re absolutely killing it, and it’s so exciting to see. You put your drops up and they’re gone immediately. It’s so cool.

Thank you.

How did you come up with the name Mannequin Hands?

Good question! I used to follow these nail blogs on Blogspot – all your readers under 26 will be like what the fuck are you talking about? – and there was one that had a segment called Mannequin Hands.

OMG Blogspot! Amazing!

It was basically the phenomenon of finding a nude colour that matched your skin tone so well that your hand looked like a mannequin’s. And it just stuck in my head from when I was like 15 or 16. I was trying to think of a brand name in 2015, I think, when I started the Instagram, it popped into my head and I thought ‘Fuck it, let’s give it a whirl’. It’s hilarious cos I very rarely do a plain nude nail, but that was the extension of that. I didn’t want to call it like Vic’s Nails or VH Nails. What if I take someone’s last name? Or, I don’t know, what if anything happens and I’ve got my name attached to it?

You’re thinking long term!

I heard Emma Mulholland, who owns Holiday the Label, say she didn’t like having her name attached to the brand because she felt that when the brand is attached to the name it can sometimes feel like it can only go so far with you. I found that really interesting. And it’s the same with not wanting to be too attached to nails in case one day it’s not a nail business. So thinking about all those things… I landed on Mannequin Hands.

It’s so perfect!

I mean there’s even products now that I want to make that I’m like ‘Shit, I’d have to set up a whole separate brand for that’. I’m willing, when the time comes I’ll do it. Just realising fuck, there’s still things I haven’t covered, that can’t be under Mannequin Hands. A whole separate entity.

Oh my God. Not enough hours in the day.

Honestly.

If you can’t get enough of Victoria: read a little more, hit check-out on instantly hotter talons on her vibe-heavy online store, fall down the aesthetically divine blackhole of her Insta (you will be there for hours, don’t say we didn’t warn you)
or park up and learn from the best with these hot tips.

Interview & edit Haylee Poppi & Grace MacKenzie