Her Story
About Sky
Sky Kandundu is a licensed nail technician and entrepreneur based in New York, NY. With 12 years in the beauty industry, she specializes in nail arts and nail care, with a particular focus on healthy nail care. Over the years she has dabbled in all aspects of beauty including hair, aesthetics, makeup, and fashion. Prior to her current role she participated in on-set work, session manicuring, fashion styling, and fashion design. Sky graduated from Paul Mitchell School Atlanta in 2011 and holds both a cosmetology license and a nail license. She attributes her success to her family, her biggest supporters, and to her younger self who took the time to learn, grow, and listen to mentors. The best career advice she received came from her mother, also a beauty professional, to treat people as you would like to be treated and to provide the service you would want to receive. Sky values integrity, truthfulness, honesty, and allowing people to feel seen. She advises young women entering the industry to allow themselves to be free, try all things, and love them with all their heart because you never know where you are headed.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sky
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my family. Those are my biggest supporters. And I'll attribute it to my younger self as well. I attribute it to someone who at one point didn't know that I would be doing nails, someone who didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and really taking the time to learn and grow and listening to mentors.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The advice from my mom, who's also a beauty professional, and her advice was always to treat people as you like to be treated. And remembering the golden rule when it comes to being a service provider, the service that you would want from somewhere, provide that same service to the people who support you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Allow yourself to be free. Don't limit yourself to one thing. Try all things. Because you just know what you might fall into. And love those things with all of your heart, because you never really know where you're headed sometimes, and not knowing where you're headed, you find it sometimes in the things that you least expect. So just enjoy.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Biggest challenge is momentum. You're forever learning in the beauty industry because there's always a new trend and there's always a new thing that you need to look into to add services or just based on trends and what's happening in the world and how things change so rapidly. Momentum, staying on top of everything sometimes can be a challenge. But it also is a big journey because the more you stay on top of it the more you also know personally what works for you.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity. Always having integrity and truthfulness, honesty. And allowing people to just feel seen.
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