FROM helping her older sister remove polish from clients' nails, to now having her own thriving nails business, Lecah Maloney's life has come full circle. And now, the 33-year-old boasts of winning two categories at the international competition Nailympia.
Maloney is not from the region of Trinidad and Tobago her name might suggest, but, rather, hails from Salazar Trace, Point Fortin – an area commonly called "Mora."
She attended Vessigny Secondary School, followed by UWI, St Augustine where she did a bachelor's degree in leadership and management.
She told WMN she was always been interested in anything related to art, and doing nails went hand in hand with that. She can also draw, paint and sculpt.
She said for public holidays and during school breaks, "I would have been going to work with (my sister Liselle) as the little sister and sit there while she’s working and the interest was there from about six or seven years old."
When she was around ten, she said, she began to help removing polish from clients' nails "and probably get my $1 tip."
She laughed as she recalled where it all began.
"I grew from that to helping buff the nails or probably putting a top coat as time went along."
From her teenage years, she was able to teach others under her sister's guidance.
"I would attend expos with her, I would do demos...I was always inquisitive and researching for myself.
"Art was always my love so anything artistic, whether its craft, drawing, anything like that, I would always be draw towards it. I love to demonstrate my (artistic) talent."
She then began doing nails along with her sister for the business.
[caption id="attachment_1088711" align="alignnone" width="768"] Lecah Maloney won the Realistic Nails category as well as the Joy of Nails category in the 2024 Nailympia competition. -[/caption]
"While attending UWI, people would see my nails and like it and I would send them by my sister in Chaguanas. I would go there to do the nails or she (my sister) would do it.
"But then my sister was like, 'Instead of you coming down to do nails and sending people by me, just do it up there and make money.' And I was like, 'That's a nice idea!' To this day, I thank my sister for that."
She used this as a way to earn income to help sustain herself while at university, but had not been considering making it a career.
Job hunting proved to be a challenge after graduating in 2012.
One of the first jobs she managed to secure was at a company in Port of Spain which paid $1,800 a month.
"I said I would take it for the experience and I worked hard. I'm never of the belief that (if) a company is (paying me a low salary), I will not work hard.
[caption id="attachment_1088729" align="alignnone" width="828"] Nails by Lecah Maloney. -[/caption]
"You can take the experience you gained at these places and expand and move on to things that can make you more money."
It was during the time she worked at the Point Fortin Hospital as an on-the-job trainee (OJT) that she made the decision that doing nails
