A young businesswoman is raking in $150,000 a month with her revolutionary gel nail brand that helps women perform ‘salon-worthy manicures’ at home.
Serene Lim, from Melbourne, founded Gellae nail stickers in November 2022 by bringing a little-known technology to Australian shores after seeing its success overseas.
As the cost of living crisis worsens, beauty lovers looking for a budget-friendly alternative to the nail salon have been snapping up Gellae’s sell-out stickers.
Gellae’s stickers adhere to the user’s natural nail shape and are then cured under a UV lamp to become hard and sturdy. It lasts more than two weeks.
The 28-year-old is no stranger to business success having started Gellae with a modest $5,000 investment off the back of her first brand, Cup 49, which sells reusable bubble tea cups.
Serene, a nutrition student, started her brands as a ‘side hustle’ after her university lecturers warned her field had no job opportunities in Australia. She never dreamt of how successful they would become.
Serene Lim (pictured), from Melbourne, founded Gellae nail stickers in November 2022 bringing a little-known technology to Australian shores after seeing its success overseas
As the cost of living crisis worsens, beauty lovers looking for a budget-friendly alternative to the nail salon have been snapping up Gellae’s sell-out stickers
Serene first spotted the nail stickers on the international market and wanted to bring them to Australia having never seen the technology before.
‘I saw the product selling really well overseas and I was like, “I’ve got to bring that here”. We don’t really have anything like it,’ she told FEMAIL.
‘This was something that was completely new in the industry.’
As she was busy with her first business Cup 49, she ‘parked’ the idea until mid-last year when she started developing her own stickers for Gellae.
‘June was when I really looked into it and starting sourcing the products, doing lots of testing, getting all of the websites set up,’ she said.
‘It was important that they lasted long. Some of them we tested pretty much fell off within the first couple of hours.’
After testing and trialling, Serene eventually found a product she was happy to put to her brand and started selling Gellae just 10 months ago.
Gellae’s ‘flexible, stretchy and easy-to-apply’ stickers adhere to the user’s natural nail shape then cured under a UV lamp to become hard and sturdy lasting more than two weeks
It was through the success of Cup 49 that Serene was able to develop and launch Gellae.
She started Cup 49 to get some extra income aside from her full-time corporate job after studying nutrition at university where professors told her job prospects were few and far between.
‘A month before graduating, they told all of us, our whole cohort, that there were just no jobs in Australia and we’d have to go abroad to find work,’ Serene recalled.
‘While I was in my first job, I started Cup 49, but it was only meant to be a side hustle, I never really had the dream of running a small business of being an entrepreneur. I just did it because it was so fun.’
The idea came from the booming bubble tea trend that rose to prominence in the years before the Covid pandemic.
‘Bubble tea was a massive growing industry, especially in 2019. I feel like that’s when bubble tea was popping up everywhere. Now you can find six bubble tea shops sometimes on a busy street,’ Serene said.
Serene was able to develop and launch Gellae through her first business Cup 49 which she started out of uni after being told her job prospects in Australia were limited
‘There was so much plastic waste that came along with that.’
Serene surveyed bubble tea businesses and found, on average, each store would sell around 48 drinks every hour.
‘That’s 48 plastic cups, plastic lids, plastic bags, plastic straws. That’s why we called it Cup 49, because we wanted it to be the 49th and ever-reusable.’
After launching in September 2019, Cup 49 made $178,000 in its highest month and bought in a seven-figure revenue last financial year.
Serene was able to quit her job and become a self-employed entrepreneur full time.
She was also marketing the business on social media and built up a strong community of fans on Facebook with thousands of loyal customers.
Serne developed Cup 49’s reusable bubble tea cups after she notice how much plastic waste was coming from the trendy drink stores
It was those customers and their feedback that helped her get Gellae off the ground.
‘I got them to help me along with making a few decisions, little things like the design of our Thank You cards,’ Serene said.
‘It was a strategic way for me to get them excited about the launch of my second business.’
‘I think it boiled down to the fact that they had a lot of trust, not just in Cup 49 as a brand, but in me as the founder because I was very much involved in the community.’
With the help of that group and a $5,000 investment, Gellae quickly grew to bring in $155,000 in its most successful month.
Serene said Gellae’s nail stickers act as a sturdy layer over the nail that gives a professional-grade DIY manicure that lasts more than two weeks.
‘You peel the sticker, stick on your natural nails and cure it under a UV/LED lamp for 60 seconds. It’ll harden to the shape of your nails,’ she explained.
With the help of her loyal Cup 49 customers and a $5,000 investment, Gellae quickly grew to bring in $155,000 in its most successful month
Serene describes Gellae’s stickers as a ‘problem solving product’ for those who don’t want to spend at the salon or are sensitive to their overpowering smells
‘There’s 20 nail stickers to fit any nail size. They don’t require soaking off as they have an adhesive back that makes it easy for you to gently lift them off your nails.’
She describes Gellae’s stickers as a ‘problem solving product’ for those who don’t want to spend at the salon or are sensitive to their overpowering smells.
‘It differs from press-ons because you will always get the perfect mould to your shape. Sometimes with press-ons, you can’t really find the exact same shape for your nails,’ she added.
Serene said customers have also used them to help grow their nails or stop them from biting.
‘I found out a lot of people bought them because they have issues with nail-biting. The thin, durable layer of gel protects their nails so they don’t bite through it,’ she said.
To get started with Gellae, shoppers can get a kit with two or more sticker designs, a wooden cuticle stick, a nail file and alcohol wipes as well as a free UV lamp for $51.
After hearing feedback from her customers, Serene is now developing a cuticle oil and subscription boxes
Each individual sheet after costs $25.50 and has 20 stickers which can last on the nail for as long as a month.
‘We’ve got customers that have it for more than a month. It really depends on things like if you’ve got really oily nail beds,’ Serene said.
‘We even have quite a few people in the horse community whose job can be really rough with a lot of work with your hands. They were surprised that it lasted so long.’
After hearing feedback from her customers, Serene is now developing a cuticle oil and subscription boxes.
‘This was something once again I never really planned for but it was driven by our community. They were sick of our design being sold out all the time so they wanted something they could subscribe to,’ she said.
‘The cuticle oil is going to be included in those subscription boxes, it has lots of vitamins that are great for your nail health to keep them nourished and moisturised.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .