LO Nails is getting the foot traffic it sought and serving customers who appreciate its English- and Spanish-speaking nail techs

Tim Harty, The Business Times 

Liz Ochoa’s goal when she started working as a nail technician was to own her own nail salon inside Mesa Mall.

Little by little she worked toward it, starting with learning on her own how to do nails.

Then, seven years ago, she was able to go to school for it.

“As soon as I was a professional, I was a solo,” she said, referring to her days of renting booths and being the lone nail technician.

She said she “booth-rented” for a couple years, then got her own studio at Sola Salon Studios in Mesa Mall, where she worked solo for another two years.

“And then eventually, after probably four years of being on my own, I decided to grow and have more girls and make it bigger,” Ochoa said.

That’s when she opened LO Nails at 304 North Ave., Unit 2B. Another couple years later, her own nail salon inside Mesa Mall became a reality.

AT&T left its unit near Target, and Ochoa made sure it didn’t sit empty for long.

“I was at a point in my life where I was able to do it, and then my lease was up at the other place, and so it all worked out,” she said.

LO Nails was closed for two months while Ochoa renovated the space to accommodate seven nail stations and seven pedicure stations. LO Nails opened in its shiny new home Oct. 10.

Ochoa takes pride in the fact her nail salon is locally owned, female-owned and Hispanic-owned.

“I might be mistaken, but I think it’s the only or the first Latina-owned, Hispanic-owned nail salon in town,” she said.

In many ways, the business remains the same, offering the same services, but it’s in a more spacious unit that Ochoa said “just feels more open.”

The major difference, Ochoa said, is it’s “just a better location, better setup. … Everything is brand new here. It’s just better for us.”

She added the clients really like it, and there are “a lot of new clients.”

That’s what she hoped for and expected from the mall location. Ochoa said she has a three-year lease, and she acknowledged her monthly rent is more expensive, but it’s worth it.

“We get the foot traffic we have been needing,” she said. “At the other place, it worked, but it was so hidden, and my girls are so talented, we needed to be seen, and this is perfect.”

Ochoa said in addition to manicures and pedicures, LO Nails does a lot of nail art.

“We try to keep up with trends, so we do a lot of fun designs,” she said. “We specialize in Gel-X, which is a newer system. … We do a lot of that here. It’s like a healthier system for your nails. … It’s not as aggressive as acrylic.

“But we do it all. We do acrylics, we do builder gel, Gel-X. We did add some new pedicures to our menu. They’re like luxury pedicures where we use a steamer when we’re doing the pedicures.That’s super fun, so it’s like aromatherapy.”

Another thing LO Nails offers is nail technicians who speak Spanish in addition to English, and Ochoa believes, “It’s something new for this town. I think most salons in town don’t offer that, and we do, and that makes us a little different.”

She said customers have expressed their delight about being able to communicate with her nail technicians, who are part of a staff of four, including Ochoa, and she plans to hire four more.

“What we’ve seen here is that they love that they can really express what they want, and we try our best to do that. They really like that,” Ochoa said. “Like, they bring a picture – ‘This is what I want’ – and we try to do it, and they love it.

“They love that we can communicate with them. They say that a lot.”