About
About the studio
A small, loud, extremely clean nail room on Sunset Boulevard.
Our story
We started because nobody would take our nails seriously.
Poppy Lacquer opened in a narrow storefront on Sunset in 2018 with two chairs, one autoclave and a wall of colour that we could not really afford yet. The idea was simple and slightly annoyed: nail work is a skilled trade, so it should be practised like one — proper prep, proper ventilation, proper sanitation, and artists who are paid enough to stay long enough to get great.
Seven years later the wall holds more than three hundred shades, the two chairs became eight, and we added lashes because our clients kept asking who we would trust with their eyes. The answer turned out to be someone we had to hire.
What has not changed is the pace. We book the real length of a service, we do not double-stack artists, and we would rather turn a walk-in away than rush the set in front of us. It makes for a quieter Saturday than most Silver Lake studios. It also makes for nails that are still intact three weeks later.
Where to find us
3312 Sunset Blvd, Suite B, Silver Lake
Metro Line 2 and 4 stop at Sunset & Micheltorena, a 40-second walk from our door.
By the numbers
- On Sunset Boulevard
- 7 yrs
- Shades on the colour wall
- 300+
- Average client rating
- 4.9
- Single-use files & buffers
- 100%
Standards
How we actually work
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01
Sanitation you can watch
Every metal implement is scrubbed, bagged and autoclaved. Files, buffers and pedicure liners are single-use and opened in front of you. Our basins are pipe-free, so there is nothing to hide inside.
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02
Structure before colour
A beautiful set that lifts in nine days is a failed set. We dry-file, we respect the cuticle line, and we build an apex that matches how your nail actually grows.
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03
Better air to sit in
Medical-grade source-capture extraction at every desk, low-odour monomer-free systems, and HEPA filtration. You should not be able to smell where you got your nails done.
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04
Honest timing
Our booking slots are the real length of the service. We would rather quote you 105 minutes and mean it than run 40 minutes late on a Saturday.
Milestones
How we got here
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2018
Two chairs on Sunset
Opened with a borrowed desk lamp, a secondhand autoclave and a colour wall of ninety shades.
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2020
Lashes join the menu
Built out the back room as a dedicated low-light lash suite and brought on a full-time lash director.
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2022
Source-capture everywhere
Retrofitted every desk with medical-grade extraction and moved the whole studio to monomer-free systems.
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2024
The apprentice bench
Started training licensed techs in-house, two at a time, on structure and freehand work.
About
The artists
Three artists, all licensed, all here long enough to know your ring finger cracks first.
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Founder, since 2018
Naomi Duarte
Founder & Lead Nail Artist
Naomi trained under a Japanese gel technician in Little Tokyo, then spent nine years building a following in Echo Park before opening Poppy Lacquer on Sunset. She is the person to see if your nails peel, lift, or break at week two — she rebuilds the structure first and worries about the colour second. Outside the studio she teaches builder-gel workshops for licensed techs across Southern California.
- Builder Gel
- Structure Repair
- Colour Matching
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Joined 2020
Tess Moreau
Lash Director
Tess came to lashing from film-set makeup, which is where the mapping habit started — she draws your set on a chart before she picks up a single extension. She works almost exclusively in classic and hybrid, and she will politely talk you out of a volume set that your natural lashes cannot carry. Her retention record is the reason half our lash clients drive in from the Eastside every three weeks.
- Classic Sets
- Lash Mapping
- Brow Lamination
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Joined 2021
June Park
Nail Art Specialist & Educator
June paints. That is the short version. She works freehand with a liner brush rather than stamping or stickers, which is why no two of her sets come out identical, and she is faster than that sounds. She also runs our apprenticeship track, so if you have ever sat next to a second chair during your appointment, that was June teaching. She keeps a running archive of every set she has painted since 2021.
- Freehand Art
- Chrome & Cat-Eye
- Aura Gradients
Vagaro
Come see the colour wall.
Bring a screenshot, bring nothing, bring a set you hate. We will figure it out at the desk.