The now-successful-businesswomen from Novosibirsk had no previous experience of the beauty industry before arriving in Spain. Sofia worked at City Hall and was an expert in child nutrition, while Yulia had her own travel agency. The two women dreamt of living in sunny Spain, and one day they decided it was time to change their lives.
Other Russian women who lived in Spain advised Sofia and Yulia to open a nail salon, as they were complaining about the poor quality of local manicure and pedicure services.
"When we first opened in 2015, it was difficult to find our own clientele, especially in the area where the salon is located. It is a quiet area with a respectable audience and expensive restaurants, adjacent to the Ritz hotel," they told Sputnik Spanish.
Occasionally a few Spanish ladies wandered in the salon. "They looked surprised when we offered them our designs. For them it was bad taste; we were no different from the typical Chinese nail bars in their understanding."
Mostly, their clients asked for express manicure and red or burgundy nail polish and French tips for special occasions. But now their Siberia salon has gained a barrage of clients craving neat and bright custom nail designs. Pedro Almodovar's muse Blanca Suárez helped the fashionable public to get accustomed with "Siberia in Madrid," when she wrote about them in her blog in the Spanish edition of Vogue magazine.
"Thanks to Blanca and publications in magazines and Instagram, we finally found 'our' clients about a year after opening. Now, almost 70% of our clients are Spanish, and almost all of them ask for a manicure with our design. Some of them have even come from other cities to get a nail design in our salon," the Siberian ladies said.
"We are very lucky! Blanca loves nail art and all of our designs. Therefore, if she is not busy filming, she always gets her nails done at Siberia. Even her fiancé Joel, a young and very promising actor, constantly comes to our salon for a pedicure," Sofia and Yulia added.
Oddly enough, their Spanish clients now ask for the most garish designs. "For example, we did all gold nails for Sonsoles, a well-known blogger in Madrid; and she is, by the way, more than 55 years old. We also did bright orange nails with a tiger animal print on each finger to Ana Ureña, former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine," they said.
Now, Sofia and Yulia are sure that the risks and difficulties were totally worth it. They are very happy they moved to Madrid, making their wish come true.
"We had a double stress associated with moving to Spain and adapting to another country, as well as with the opening of our salon and understanding of the southern mentality. Now we have a lot of plans for the future, and we won't restrict ourselves with only one salon," the women concluded.
