Growing from 0 to over 300K followers in one year, Sarah, aka @heluviee, is the nail IT girl of the moment. You may recognize her effortless nail designs from scrolling on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.
Celebrating her first year as an influencer, she is launching her very first gel nail polish collaboration with us! This collection of 3 shades is not only trendy and versatile, but also perfectly matched to Sarah’s creative personality.
We invited Sarah over to Barcelona to celebrate this launch together and she gave us the down low on her influencer journey:
Sarah, we first discovered your Instagram account when you had less than 1000 followers and now you’re over 300k and growing!! Can you tell us what your journey as an influencer has been like? How did it feel to grow so quickly?
I truly didn't expect this kind of growth at all, nor did I ever think this would happen! My intent when starting out wasn't to become an influencer or do this full-time, It was just a fun way for me to document my at-home nail journey. It still feels very unreal and definitely takes me by surprise when I think about the number of people following me; growing so fast was super exciting but also nerve-wracking at times since It was all super new (social anxiety would get in the way a little here and there). But honestly It's amazing that I can create content like this on a daily basis and have so many people genuinely be interested in what I put out!
We would love to know what a typical day looks like for you!
On a typical work day I'll wake up and check my socials and emails first thing while drinking my coffee, then I'll post content onto my platforms and spend some time responding to comments and interacting with everyone. I generally like to take things slow in the morning! My afternoon will consist of classwork and some studying for my MBA program, as well as a workout my fiancé will drag me to; he likes to make sure I'm not cooped up in my apartment all day since everything I do consists of me being at home and online. Once I'm back home I'll spend the next couple hours filming content and creating designs, snap lots of pictures, and then make dinner. Afterwards I'll take a break and either meet up with friends, watch a movie at home, or read a book. I think I get super focused later at night versus in the mornings, so an hour or two before bed is when I'll edit my content (tutorials and videos), finish up with emails, and then get ready for bed.
Are you a full-time influencer? What tips do you have for someone starting out who wants to grow their nail account?
I guess I am! Definitely plan on officially embracing the title of full-time influencer once I finish with school in a couple months.
My biggest advice would be to post consistently (with the same general aesthetic for a more cohesive feed), engage with others often, and share more about your personal life outside of nails! Sometimes nail accounts start to all blur together with such similar content, and I think allowing people to glimpse into your personal life gives them more to interact with and allows for them to get to know you better.
What’s the most surprising thing that you have discovered in your life as an influencer?
The most surprising thing for me was finding out how much work truly goes into making a career out of this. Before starting this account, I use to think that influencers had It easy (have fun doing absolutely anything they want with their days, and make money by showcasing this on social media). But there's so much more that goes on behind the screen; emails and negotiations with brands, planning out content and posts, hours spent on filming and editing for a single video, and the stress of essentially being a freelancer and not knowing if you'll do well financially for a given month. While rewarding, I had no idea how time-consuming and demanding this was!
Now that we’re kicking of Summer 2022, can you tell us what nail art looks you’re planning to create? What’s trending in terms of designs and/or shades?
Mix and match manis, plus lots and lots of swirls! Summer is when you can go wild and create fun and playful looks, and I definitely plan on creating designs that mix and match lots of elements; french tips, swirls, and florals. Like all previous summers, bright colors are a must, but I've been noticing some fun color combos make an appearance! Green & pink, pink & orange, and blue & orange are some that I've been loving.
Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
A lot of my inspo comes from Pinterest - I like to be able to curate content based on categories, like design ideas and color schemes, to compare between and go through later when planning out my next design. The seasonal changes are also a great source of inspo! The colors are changing, the weather impacts our moods (hot and sunny makes me want to create playful designs, while cold and shorter days makes me lean towards darker and more elegant looks), and elements from seasonal fashion trends sometimes play a part in my designs as well.
What are your top 3 Le Mini Macaron all-time favorite shades?
Milkshake, Wild Peach, and Lilac Blossom! White is always a must and milkshake is the perfect consistency and transparency for accent lines, wild peach is such a pretty, peachy pink, and lilac blossom is a beautiful pastel that compliments so many other shades well.
You came to Barcelona recently with Bader (your fiancé) and met the LMM team in person! Can you tell us how that experience was for you? (We LOVED hanging out with you guys and getting to know you!)
It truly was amazing. I already loved the brand to begin with and had such great interactions via social media with them, so It wasn't like I was expecting anything to be bad about the visit, but It went so much better than I had imagined. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming towards us!! It felt like I was meeting new friends versus It being a work visit, and I loved finding out that a lot of the LMM girls were good friends outside of the office too. Interacting with everyone and learning more about them and the brand was a blast, and you could tell they have a great company culture - I actually couldn't help but wish I was part of a fun team like this.
What were the 3 most memorable things about your trip to Barcelona?
The photoshoot - felt so surreal to have a professional photographer taking photos of me for this collab! But the best part was the LMM girls; I was actually so touched by how kind they were, they had all helped me get ready and fix myself throughout and It just made the whole process (my very first photoshoot) so fun and comfortable.
The architecture - coming from a small college town in Kansas, the architecture and lively atmosphere in Barcelona was such a breathtaking contrast. It's such a walkable city and literally every street has beautiful buildings and sights to see. I'm pretty sure I said "wow," and took photos of every building I walked past.
The first LMM office visit - finally meeting the people I've been chatting with online in person, and seeing the setup they had prepared with all the products of our collab made everything so real for me! It was very much a 'pinch me' moment.
