At the end of June, The Shine Nail Bar is shutting its doors for good.
The Shine Nail Bar is a project that St Luke’s CARES began back in 2015, a social enterprise nail bar to provide opportunities for young people in the local area to gain skills, support and experience and a place which would generate income for the work of The Shine Project. It has been such an exciting adventure over the last few years starting the nail bar, seeing staff grow and develop, giving young people opportunities and being a presence in the heart of the community.
We have learnt more about shellac, acrylics, eyebrows and glitter than we ever thought we would! As the nail bar closes we, as St Luke’s CARES, are still committed to the things that were the heart of the nail bar: young people, the local community and seeing both flourish and these things will continue to be worked out through different ventures and projects.
One of the reasons the nail bar is closing is because it actually achieved one of its aims and staff members have grown, developed, gained confidence and now feel in a position where they want to start their own businesses; we couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome! More to follow on these exciting ventures in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled …
Over the four years the nail bar has been on Beeston Hill we’ve had some amazing times which are certainly worth celebrating. A few highlights that spring to mind have been:
- meeting Prince Charles and chatting to him about a little nail bar in Beeston where he could come and get his eyebrows shaped
- being nominated for Scratch Star awards (equivalent of the nail Oscars!) and getting glammed up for the fancy awards ceremony
- partnering with local business and charities such as DePuy, Joanna, BITMO, Holbeck Elderly Aid to provide nails in the community
- seeing hundreds of girls coming through taster sessions, work experience, drops ins and groups at the nail bar,
- ALL the fabulous nail art designs
- seeing the community rally round to support a local business giving back to local people (and drawing people from all over Leeds who wanted to support girls in South Leeds)
- doing nails at the opening of Victoria Gate
- chatting on BBC Radio Leeds
- loads of super fun kids parties
- and providing Prom Packages for young people in the local area as well as many many other highlights.
We are proud of what we’ve achieved and couldn’t have done it without the support of the community, our amazing customers and our hard working staff so thank you if you are in one of those groups, we have really appreciated all the support.
The Shine Nail Bar has provided such a brilliant space right in the heart of the community to meet with young people, this has been such a fantastic thing so St Luke’s CARES will still keep the building and it will continue to be used as a place for young people to come to groups receive support and advice (including broadening it out to the boys at RISE), as well as leaving space for other exciting community ideas!
The Shine Nail Bar officially closes at the end of June so you have still got 6 weeks to enjoy it as it is and we look forward to sharing with you how the space continues to be used and developed after June.
This post was written by Kate Alty
We encourage anyone living or working in South Leeds to use this website to tell their news. You can either use the Create an article for South Leeds Life page, or email us at: info@southleedslife.com.
