There is a quote from Lewis Carroll — from Through the Looking-Glass — that not many people know. Though the rule it describes is familiar to anyone who has ever entered a professional world.
The Red Queen tells Alice — not as a quirk of this mad world, but as a lesson. As a rule of life: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast.”
I think about this more and more. And when I watch how the nail industry is embracing what is commonly called the Russian manicure, it never leaves my mind.
This technique has many names. Russian manicure. Continental manicure. Hardware manicure. E-file manicure. Dry manicure. Waterless. And this is not simply geography or translation — behind these names lies more than a hundred and fifty years of development. A school. A history. A standard that took decades to form.
And every new name is not just an adaptation.
It is a choice.
When this technique arrived in the Western market — I watched with interest. This was the moment when a long-standing professional standard was finally getting international recognition. It seemed — here it is. The industry will see the difference and want to rise to that level.
But something else happened.
Instead of raising the bar, the conversation turned to renaming it. Dry manicure is not Russian manicure. Waterless is something different. E-file — well, that is just a tool. And behind every such renaming sits the same logic: how to get a similar result with less effort.
The idea that you don’t need to push yourself — is a very attractive one. Especially when it is packaged as care for the technician, for the client, for realistic expectations. But behind it there is always the same question — what comes next? Why invest in equipment, bits, hours of practice, lost clients while your hand is still developing? If you don’t push — the same result can be achieved with a regular file.
It can.
And here is the most painful part. This philosophy is often promoted by the very people who were supposed to lead the industry forward. Not because they wish their students harm. But because they themselves stopped at some point. And now it is easier to explain that perfection is unattainable — than to admit that the path toward it was simply never finished.
I don’t judge. I understand the logic.
But I call things what they are.
Russian manicure is not an aesthetic from TikTok. The goal is not to achieve perfectly clean cuticles for a photograph. The goal is to prepare the nail plate so that the product lasts a minimum of two weeks. To strengthen where a specific client needs it — and leave alone where they don’t. To produce work that even a seasoned professional will look at and feel something. The desire to try it on. Not the urge to scroll past and forget.
We love beautiful things. Homes, cars, interiors. Wedding dresses, makeup, hairstyles, jewellery. We stop in front of windows. We save and screenshot. We want to wear it.
Nails are part of the same world — the world of fashion and beauty. The same detail that either completes a look or undermines it. And it is remarkable how this is the one corner of that world where the industry decided that striving is optional.
Though — not remarkable at all. When those who should be carrying the flag of progress spend their energy making the path easier instead of clearer — the result is predictable. It is like giving a child who wants to read more and deeper nothing but short rhymes. Convincing yourself that novels are built on four-line verses. When in fact every next step must by definition be harder than the last. Otherwise it is not progress — it is standing still with a pleasant name for it.
I remember my first major beauty exhibition in Los Angeles. Many stylish, confident professionals — and most of them were not nail technicians. When we walked into the nail championship hall — the contrast was striking. Not in our favour.
I have been to many shows since. The picture repeats itself.
Hair stylists, makeup artists, brow specialists — they look like people who make a living from beauty. Nail technicians are still learning to believe that they can too. And I don’t think that is a coincidence. It is a direct consequence of what standard the industry considers sufficient.
Until the quality of work changes — nothing else will either. That is not a verdict. It is simply a connection that is easy to miss — until one day you find yourself in that same hall and see the difference with your own eyes.
No one ever stops to wonder why there are millions of seamstresses in the world — and only a handful at Dior. Though the answer is simple. At some point one decided that she was already good enough. And another, at that very same moment, decided her technique could be better.
The best in any profession are not those who got lucky with talent or location. They are those who at some point chose the harder path — and stayed on it.
Knowledge opens the door to skill. Skill leads to a different level of work. And a different level of work leads to a different level of life. Everything else follows.
That is the whole story.