University lecturers told me I had little chance of scoring a job in Australia – now I’m 28 and bringing in $150,000 through my stick-on nail ‘side hustle’ Gellae

A young businesswoman is making $150,000 a month with her revolutionary gel nail brand that helps women perform “salon-worthy manicures” at home.

Serene Lim, from Melbourne, founded Gellae nail stickers in November 2022 by bringing a little-known technology to Australian shores after seeing its success overseas.

With the cost of living getting worse, beauty enthusiasts looking for a budget-friendly alternative to the nail salon have been snapping up Gellae’s sold-out stickers.

Gellae stickers adhere to the user’s natural nail shape and are then cured under a UV lamp to become hard and sturdy. It takes more than two weeks.

The 28-year-old is no stranger to business success, having founded Gellae with a modest investment of $5,000 through her first brand. Cup 49that sells reusable bubble tea cups.

Serene, a nutrition student, started her brands as a ‘side hustle’ after her university lecturers warned there were no vacancies in her field in Australia. She never dreamed how successful they would become.

Serene first saw the nail stickers on the international market and wanted to bring them to Australia as she had never seen the technology before.

‘I saw that the product was selling very well abroad and I thought: ‘I have to bring that here’. We don’t really have anything like that,” she told FEMAIL.

“This was something that was completely new to the industry.”

While working on her first venture Cup 49, she ‘parked’ the idea until mid last year when she started developing her own stickers for Gellae.

“In June I really looked into it and started buying the products, doing a lot of testing and setting up all the websites,” she said.

‘It was important that they lasted a long time. Some of those we tested fell off within the first few hours.”

After testing and trying, Serene eventually found a product she wanted to add to her brand and started selling Gellae just ten months ago.

It was through the success of Cup 49 that Serene was able to develop and launch Gellae.

She started Cup 49 to get some extra income on top of her full-time corporate job after studying nutrition in college, where professors told her her job prospects were slim.

“A month before we graduated, they told all of us, our entire cohort, that there were just no jobs in Australia and we had to go abroad to find work,” Serene remembers.

‘When I had my first job, I started with Cup 49, but it was only intended as a side job. I never really had the dream of running a small business or becoming an entrepreneur. I just did it because it was so much fun.”

The idea emerged from the booming bubble tea trend that came to prominence in the years before the Covid pandemic.

“Bubble tea was a huge growing industry, especially in 2019. I feel like bubble tea was popping up everywhere back then. Now sometimes you can find six bubble tea shops on a busy street,” Serene said.

‘There was so much plastic waste involved.’

Serene surveyed bubble tea companies and found that each store sold an average of about 48 drinks per hour.

‘That’s 48 plastic cups, plastic lids, plastic bags, plastic straws. That’s why we called it Cup 49, because we wanted it to be the 49th and always reusable.”

After launching in September 2019, Cup 49 earned $178,000 in its highest month and purchased seven-figure sales last fiscal year.

Serene was able to quit her job and become a full-time self-employed person.

She also marketed the company on social media and built a strong community of fans on Facebook with thousands of loyal customers.

It was those customers and their feedback that helped her get Gellae off the ground.

“I got them to help me make some decisions, little things like the design of our thank you cards,” Serene said.

“It was a strategic way for me to get them excited about launching my second company.”

“I think it came down to the fact that they had a lot of trust, not only in Cup 49 as a brand, but also in me as a founder, because I was very involved in the community.”

With the help of that group and a $5,000 investment, Gellae grew quickly, bringing in $155,000 in its most successful month.

Serene said Gellae nail stickers act as a sturdy layer over the nail, creating a professional DIY manicure that lasts more than two weeks.

‘You remove the sticker, stick it on your natural nails and harden it for 60 seconds under a UV/LED lamp. It will harden to the shape of your nails,” she explained.

‘There are 20 nail stickers for every nail size. They don’t need to be soaked as they have a self-adhesive backing, making them easy to remove from your nails.’

She describes Gellae’s stickers as a “problem-solving product” for those who don’t want to spend money at the salon or are sensitive to their overpowering scents.

‘The difference with press-ons is that you always get the perfect mold for your shape. Sometimes with press-ons you can’t really find the exact same shape for your nails,” she added.

Serene said customers have also used them to grow their nails or prevent them from biting.

‘I discovered that many people bought them because they suffered from nail biting. The thin, durable gel layer protects their nails so they don’t bite through them,” she said.

To get started with Gellae, shoppers can get a kit with two or more sticker designs, a wooden cuticle stick, a nail file and alcohol wipes, as well as a free UV lamp for $51.

Each individual sheet costs $25.50 and contains 20 stickers that can last on the nail for up to a month.

‘We have customers who have had it for more than a month. It really depends on if you have really oily nail beds,” Serene said.

“We actually have quite a few people in the horse community whose jobs can be very tough and involve a lot of hands-on work. They were surprised it took so long.”

After hearing feedback from her customers, Serene is now developing cuticle oil and subscription boxes.

“This was again something I never really anticipated, but it was driven by our community. They were tired of our design always selling out, so they wanted something they could subscribe to,” she said.

“The cuticle oil comes in those subscription boxes. It contains many vitamins that are good for the health of your nails, keeping them nourished and hydrated.”