The Team Behind the Slay
Nailsslay is run by two people with very different relationships to nail art. One is a licensed professional who has worked in LA salons for six years. The other is a DIY obsessive who has been doing her own nails every two weeks since she was fourteen. Between them, they cover the technical reality of nail art and the social media world it lives in.
Zoe Reeves: Lead Writer and Nail Tech
Zoe is a licensed nail technician based in Los Angeles. Her six years of salon experience include two years at a high-end nail art studio in West Hollywood, where she worked on competition nails, editorial shoots, and clients who book four weeks out. She has strong opinions about technique and the difference between a clean line and a sloppy one.
The gap she noticed in nail content: endless inspiration, almost no context. Beautiful photos with no explanation of what product was used, what technique achieved the effect, or whether it’s actually DIY-friendly. She writes to close that gap, with honest difficulty ratings, specific product knowledge, and the kind of salon credibility that most nail bloggers don’t have.
Current obsession: Chrome powder application over gel. The effect-to-effort ratio is hard to beat.
Specialties: Nail techniques (acrylics, gel, shellac, chrome, nail art), product knowledge, salon vs. DIY assessment, trend analysis from a craft perspective.
Mia Chang: Contributing Writer and Trend Hunter
Mia has been doing her own nails since age fourteen and considers it her longest-running hobby. She is not a professional. She’s the person in her friend group who always has a different set, sends nail inspo at midnight, and knew about the glazed donut nail before it had a name. She works in social media marketing in New York City, which means she spends a professionally-justified amount of time on TikTok and Pinterest.
What she brings to Nailsslay is social media intelligence that’s hard to replicate without living inside these platforms. What’s building momentum on TikTok right now. What’s about to hit Pinterest. Which aesthetic belongs to which subculture and why. She covers the trend side with the fluency of someone who has been part of this world, not observing it from a distance.
Current obsession: Mob wife nails. The case for going completely over the top is more compelling than most people admit.
Specialties: TikTok and Pinterest nail trends, aesthetic identification and cultural context, press-on nails, DIY roundups, occasion nails.