A working artist's education, built by a working artist.
From a bedroom to SLX Studio.
What SLX is today didn't appear overnight. Three chapters: a bedroom setup, a growing waitlist, and a working studio in Brighton, each necessary to the next, and each still shaping what gets taught inside SLX now.
The bedroom.
It started at a fold-out desk in a spare room, with a handful of friends as first clients and a Kilner jar for tips. The technique came slowly and honestly. The point back then was just to make something better than the set before it.
The growth.
The waitlist opened up. Clients started travelling in from outside Brighton, then outside the UK. Nail artistry stopped being a hopeful practice and became the whole job, with the pricing, the standards, and the workload to match.
SLX Studio.
SLX Studio opened in Brighton as a proper working space: two desks, real light, real quiet. Everything you see under the SLX name today, from SLX Combined to the retreats and the collective, grew out of what was already being taught inside these walls.
Sarah trained as a nail artist in her early twenties and spent the first years of her career quietly obsessed with structure: the apex, the arch, the sidewall, the finish. Everything else, she believed then and still believes now, is built on top of that.
Her aesthetic sits between editorial and wearable. Considered shape. Precise finish. Colour work that reads as intentional rather than decorative. Clients started travelling for the work, and other artists started asking how it was made.
SLX began as a way to answer that second question properly. Not a livestream, not a weekend workshop, but a full system: the same principles Sarah teaches herself with, taught in a way another artist can actually take home and use.
The philosophy is simple. Nail artistry is a craft with a real career attached to it. That means the technique deserves full attention, and so does the business of turning it into a life you actually want to live.
Today SLX runs from a two-desk studio in Brighton, serves nail artists internationally through online courses, and hosts small-group retreats in Marbella. The through-line is the same as it was in the bedroom in 2015. Make the work as good as you can, and treat the people learning it like the professionals they are.
Milestones
- 2015First client set
Sarah does her first paid client set from a bedroom studio in Brighton.
- 2018Waitlist opens internationally
Bookings extend beyond Brighton. Nail artistry becomes the full-time job.
- 2020ABT accreditation
The signature technique is formalised into an ABT-accredited course structure.
- 2023SLX Studio opens
A dedicated two-desk studio opens in Brighton, home to client work and in-person teaching.
- 2026SLX Retreats & Collective launch
The education arm expands to Marbella retreats and a monthly membership for working artists.
A selection of work
