We were lucky to catch up with Rita Pinto recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rita, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

After Covid we expanded the salon to a second floor inh the same location. Our salon now seats 26 tables.

Rita, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Founded by independent curator, Rita de Alencar Pinto in 2008, Vanity Projects first began as a pop-up, organizing itself in the homes and studios of visual artists, friends, and art aficionados. Vanity Projects quickly received offers to present at art fairs, fashion events, museums, and cultural institutions. In January 2013, MoMA PS1 invited Vanity Projects to do a three-month pop-up within the Confettisystems installation, held in the museum’s duplex.

It was at this time that Pinto developed the concept of the artist-in-residence program. Offering the top international nail artists the chance to engage and experience the exchange of technique and ideas, the program coincided with the salon’s brick and mortar debut in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in July 2013. Since then Vanity Projects has hosted over one hundred international nail artists in both the New York and Miami locations.

Since opening Vanity Projects has appeared in over 50 publications, including being named ‘Best of New York’ by both Allure and New York Magazines. In addition to editorial spreads, our artists have assisted and lead runways shows at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York and Miami Swim. Vanity Projects has been invited to participate in pop-ups at the Pulizer Foundation in St. Louis, The Brooklyn Museum, The Aldrich Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair, NADA Miami Beach, Sculpture Center and the Aspen Museum of Art.

In April 2015, Vanity Projects opened its second location in Miami, Florida

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During Covid closures we launched 2 significant business that no coexist with our salon operations. A hand painted press on nail business where we make both custom and menu of designed press-ons using Apres Gel X and gel. This can be seen both on our website vanityprojectsnyc.com and our designanted IG account @pressonnailsvp

We also launched an online nail education platform Vanity Projects Institute to foster new talent to learn vital nail art skills. Vanityprojectsintitute.com and @vanityprojectsinstitute

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Quality has always been the central driving force in everything that we do from nail artists talent, to the products we use, to the locations we choose and the supporting staff we hire. I think a quality led business will always sustain in hard times and attract other like minded consumers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vanityprojectsnyc.com
• Instagram: vanityprojects
• Other: @vanityprojectsmia
  @vanityprojectsinstitute
  @pressonnailsvp