Gina Farran had built a successful career in the finance industry as an investment banker in London. As her demanding career progressed, finding time for simple personal pleasures, like getting to a salon for a manicure, became more of a challenge.
In the age of subscription boxes, e-commerce, and personalisation, she felt as if the nail industry was in need of a shake-up – teaming up with co-founder Chris Mosedale, ‘technailogy’ business Glaize was born, and determined to reinvent manicures.
“We create made-to-measure nail gels using computer vision technology,” explains chief product officer and co-founder Chris Mosedale. “We have our own custom, plant-based material which is similar to nail gel. They are laser cut to a customer’s specifications, created from photos of their hands, and they will last as long as a manicure.”
It’s clear from Glaize’s branding that the nail industry disruptor is about convenience, fun, and colour, colour, colour. So how do they go about achieving an array of enviable shades? While still deep in research and development, Glaize has invested in a Mimaki UJF-3042MkII to help bring their designs to life. “UV curing is used for gel nails, and someone mentioned that UV printing is quite common in the signage industry,” explains Mosedale, “so we thought we would give it a shot! We looked at a couple of other options such as screen printing, but UV printing has the durability and ability to customise that we need.”
Bringing a UV machine in-house allows the Glaize team to trial and tweak as they go, something that is crucial for a business with a completely new model and a completely new type of material. Part of their plans to do things differently includes localisation of production, something rare in the nail industry. “It’s all mostly manufactured a million miles away and sold on,” explains Mosedale. Having brought on a chemist full-time, the UJF is seeing a lot of activity, as the business finds the balance between the fine gel and the amount of ink needed to achieve the necessary colours and artistic designs, as well as adjusting the adhesives to accommodate the printed products. “It's running every day right now,” says Mosedale.
How did the London-based nail industry start-up find Josero? Mosedale began his research and before long, through some referrals and recommendations, the relationship began. Once Josero understood Glaize’s unique needs, they recommended the UJF-3042 MkII as the solution. As a start-up, every penny counts – within a couple of weeks, Josero Business Development Manager Nigel Briggs had sourced a second user model that was within budget.
“Nigel has been great since the beginning,” Mosedale says. “Even though our business may be a bit unusual compared to what they are used to, Josero have been very willing to sit down and walk us through the conversation. They’re interested and curious about what we do, and I think we need curious people at this point!”
Glaize is busy working with influencers to establish its presence in the market, and is it prepares for domination of the nail industry, more collaborations with the Josero team could be in the works, as Mosedale explains: “We would definitely work with Josero again, we're already looking at investing in another laser cutter, potentially a larger one.”
Josero Business Development Manager Nigel Briggs comments: “At Josero we love a challenge, and we love to see innovative businesses using the technology we offer in unique ways. Glaize are pushing the boundaries in their sector as well as testing the limits of what their Mimaki UJF-3042 MkII can do for them. It’s inspiring stuff, and we look forward to working with them in the future and keeping an eye on the impact they have on the nail industry!”
For Mosedale, Josero’s end-to-end service, as well as the consultancy and support aspect of the business, are invaluable: “The ultimate point of working with somebody like Josero is they can help you all the way through. We needed a business that was willing to talk to us and work with us at the R&D stage, but also advise as we scale up on what our next steps might be in terms of the best print solutions for our needs.”
