12 Aug 2018

 The growing market for glamour has given the likes of Ms Olebogeng Moreki a lift in life.

Like any other business minded person, Ms Moreki has found a niche in the cosmetic beauty treatment for fingernails and hands termed manicure, which appears to be a booming business on the streets of many malls across the country.

As a result, many women have turned manicure into a source of income to fight unemployment and tackle poverty.

The 44-year-old Ms Moreki has found a strategic spot for her manicure workshop near Mochudi Rural Administration Centre (RAC), and it seems to be working to her advantage as the area attracts many people from different lifestyles, social backgrounds and different financial status.

Her clientele ranges from tertiary students, wedding crews and other individuals who prefer manicure. Explaining the secret which keeps her business going, she said she does not demand exorbitant fees for her services, but ensures that the service she provides left a happy smile on customers’ faces.

The talented beautician said women prefered regular manicure as it kept their nails tidy and hands clean. She said it was not only about how lovely the hands and nails looked, but also the purpose associated with it.

“Nails are manicured to prevent them from chipping and cracking while cuticles are cared for with creams and oils to keep them soft and healthy,” she explained.

Explaining further what manicure was, she said it was a cosmetic beauty treatment for fingernails and hands which consisted of filing and shaping the free edge, pushing and clipping with a cuticle pusher and cuticle nippers. “It also consists of treatment with various liquids, massage of the hand and the application of fingernail polish. When the same is applied to toe nails and feet, the treatment is referred to as pedicure.”

 She said since women dealt with household chores where hands were in continuous interaction with water which tended to make nails chip or crack, going for a professional manicure would protect nails from the chipping and cracking.

“The process is undeniably relaxing, from the hand or feet massage to the careful attention of each nail,” she sid. Moreki said although manicure beautified woman’s hands, it has some disadvantages such as the incorrect use of nail gel which might get nails more irritable from the procedure, as they were buffed to remove their natural shine so the gel sticked better to them.

She noted that their removal was harmful as you needed to soak them in pure acetone which dried the fingers, cautioning that from wrong procedures, one might get some infections.

To ensure that she provides professional service, Ms Moreki enrolled for a short course on body massage at Shahnaz Herbal Institute where she was equipped with nail technique, pedicures and facials.

 “Then later I started my business in 2016 on self-sponsorship after working for many years at several beauty spas in Gaborone as a beautician,” she said.

She highlighted summer as her favourite season as she made more profit given that the period was popular for celebrations among them weddings when women prefered to beautify their general look with a manicure.

Ms Moreki said she has opened a business account where she saved some of the profits to be used during rainy days. Although the business is doing well, she said competition from others in the same business was a challenge, but that she has resorted to social media for marketing.

“I use social media platforms to advertise my business and it is really working for me as I am able to acquire many clients from Facebook. It has motivated me to now look for different advertising mediums in order to get more clientele,” she said. ENDS