One mum has successfully turned her artist side hustle into a lucrative job which brings in £1,500 a week.
Kassie Payne, 34, evolved her nail art hobby into a new career for herself and is now an entrepreneur.
She paints elaborate designs onto press-on nails with some designs being as small as just two centimetres.
Examples of the type of art she does include famous fictional characters, including Disney’s Mulan.
The 34-year-old charges up to £900 for a set and says “98 percent of people” online are supportive of her work.
Despite this, Ms Payne recognises that she has some critics and certain designs take up to 45 hours to complete which makes the job taxing.
Outside of nails, the side hustler also sells specialist brushes and hosts TikTok Live sessions to connect with her customers.
On top of this, her business has expanded following the launch of her own range of paintbrushes.
Ms Payne explained: “It’s like a hobby that I’ve turned into a job – I’ve quit my old job completely and decided to sell stick-on nails.
“Everyone was saying it was really good, but you can’t make any money from nails, and no one would pay for them.
“I do occasionally sell the full sets, I’ve had worldwide orders – a full set including four portraits would cost £900 and would take about 45 hours.
“I’m best known for my magic colour-changing nails – I did a Snow White set where the mirror reveals a face when heat is applied.
“I sell them in frames as well, they’re like collectable pieces of art rather than nails you wear.
“98 percent of the comments are positive and encouraging but I always get a few comments asking who would pay that for nails.
“I just say that I’m not selling nails I’m selling art you can wear on your nails – that’s the big difference.”
According to Ms Payne, she has always had a love for art but she was forced to put this passion to the side after having her son. During lockdown, the entrepreneur decided to revisit this lost love by painting once again on the side.
The businesswoman added: “I always was good at art growing up – my whole life I’ve been good at it and I did art at college.
“I had a child young – I was 17 when I fell pregnant and completely forgot I was good at art, my whole life changed to look after him. I had to do jobs that I didn’t really enjoy just to get by – I’d forgotten I could even paint. Then I started doing my own nails and got good, and then I started painting pictures onto my nails.
“The Sleeping Beauty set is my favourite that has sold – the lady who bought them took them all around Disneyland Paris and made a video.
“She had the nails in front of the castle and all the little scenes, but I do hate when people buy them because I have to let them go.”
