📍 New York, New York
Amy Lin is an NYC entrepreneur focused on merging the wellness and nail care industries. Combining her knack for business and mindful living, she’s been recognized as a wellness leader by the likes of The New York Times and Elle.com. Having trained as an aesthetician, Amy discovered that nail care products are full of toxic ingredients. She searched for alternatives but couldn’t find many options, so she teamed up with pharmacists to create sundays, a product line of everything from non-toxic candles, manicure kits, cuticle oils, and polish removers to meditation USBs and self-care growth cards.
Tell us a bit about yourself!
My name is Amy Lin and I’m originally from China and moved to the USA after high school. I originally worked in fashion but wanted to switch to an industry where I could build a business that would really make a difference. I worked in the nail industry for many years. After running my own nail studio, I realized that there were many hidden problems in the industry from toxic products to exposure of clients and employees to harmful chemicals. For this reason, I decided to create a brand called sundays based on the idea that we don’t have to sacrifice health for beauty.
What inspires you to uncover more in your day to day?
I get inspired by hearing the stories from our community. This extends to everyone including all our clients online and offline, specialists and employees. I feel like you can always learn something new by listening to people’s wellness stories, like from our sundays family from the USA, but also everywhere around the world - sudays really is a community.
What was the hardest part of starting your business?
When you start your business you're faced with uncertainty. You’re never sure if people will fully appreciate your vision. I remember when we first opened our studio we had two clients a day, and it was tough not knowing if we would continue to grow but luckily more people heard about us and the risk was all worth it.
How did you decide on locations for your studios?
I opened in Nomad because the area was still up and coming back at the time. I think the people that choose to live there like to discover new things and therefore would be more open to trying a non-toxic nail studio that was offering something different. Hudson Yards is all about community, and so is sundays. We loved the idea of the new community that they were creating, it was a big project and it would give us exposure to a new audience. Again, we feel that the community at Hudson Yards likes to try new things, so it felt like a perfect fit.
What is your favorite product you have released so far?
I really like our soy polish remover. The formula is great, its very gentle and aligned with sundays philosophy about doing things in a gentle way. Since our formula is more gentle, it requires you to take time to remove polish which is aligned with our philosophy to practice nail care in a more mindful way. When you dedicate more time to doing things, you are more conscious. We want to bring a beautiful and mindful experience to polish removal which is why we created a product that comes in a beautiful glass bottle that is recyclable and it smells like grapefruit in a bottle.
What makes the sundays community so special?
From the beginning, we were very consistent in what we were doing. We decided from the start of launching sundays that we wanted to focus on wellness and even if other brands talk about this, we really do take action. People trust our commitment because everything was decided from our launch. The community helped us co create the polish, we got feedback from our studio customers and we worked closely with our specialists to create a product that really catered to our clients needs. Our client's voice matters to us. Every bottle of polish is a welcoming bottle of acceptance, and we want our clients to feel like they feel part of our family.
Find Amy at @amylinglin and sundays @sundays_studio on Instagram
Find sundays at www.dearsundays.com
