How Olive & June Is Revolutionizing The At-Home Manicure

A version of this story first appeared on Forbes.com

In Los Angeles, a town bursting with premiere nail salons, Olive & June has emerged as one of the best ones around. Known for their picture-perfect salons, pretty nail art, and dedication to the perfect mani, Olive & June’s three LA salon locations are at the top of every LA girl’s salon recommendations.

But not everyone lives in Los Angeles or even has access to professional manicures, and Olive & June founder Sarah Gibson Tuttle knew that they were missing out on a much larger market. In 2017 she started thinking about how she could serve a larger market, asking, “How can we make millions of women happy instead of only thousands?”

Enter: The Studio Box, the new product from Olive & June that is ready to revolutionize the at-home manicure.

The box includes everything needed to achieve a great DIY manicure: straight edge nail clippers, a nail file, a buffer, a clean up brush, nail polish remover pot, cuticle hydration serum, a travel pouch, a manicure placemat, 1 nail polish color, top coat, and the Poppy Handle (which makes painting with your less dominant hand a breeze). Even the sustainable box is meant to be used, as it features a built-in cell phone shelf so you can watch nail tutorials, stream television shows, or FaceTime friends all while painting your nails!

Each item was thoroughly tested and hand-picked by Tuttle, who spent all of 2018 giving herself at-home manicures to familiarize herself with all the frustrations of doing your nails on your own.

For example, she realized how difficult it was to paint with her non-dominant hand and noticed that most polish brushes were made for professional, rather than at-home, use. That led to the creation of the Poppy Handle, a flat, round device that gives you a better grip and therefore a cleaner manicure!

Tuttle’s goal with The Studio Box is to empower women everywhere to be able to do their own nails and bring the joy of a freshly-painted manicure to everyone. “At our salons,” Tuttle explains, “we do art everyday, which is amazing, but it is expensive and not something that you need everyday, so we are really excited about this launch for those in-between moments between salon appointments, and also to bring Olive & June to a larger consumer market.”

She doesn’t see The Studio Box as a competitor to salon visits, as a professional manicure is always top-notch, but rather sees it as a supplement for professional manicures, especially in regions where accessibility and affordability hinder women from receiving regular manicures. “We want to give women everywhere the amazing feeling you get after a fresh manicure, no matter where they are.”

Another big goal of Tuttle’s: education. She points out that just like hair stylists teach you their techniques at the salon so you can extend your blowout and achieve the look for yourself at home, she wants to make that the norm for nail salons, too. It’s why Olive & June has also recently launched Olive University, an online database of manicure tutorials that aims to educate fans on how they can do their own nails.

With the release of The Studio Box and all the handy tools that come with it, just about anyone will be able to achieve a gorgeous mani, wherever they are!