Today we’d like to introduce you to ‘Cure Studios.
Hi ‘Cure Studios, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We opened ‘Cure Studios in 2021 by Rachel Daily and Kristin Owen. We wanted ‘Cure to exist in the world for multiple reasons and if you’ve ever met either of us in person, there’s a good chance you’ve heard those reasons already. For the rest of you, we’re stoked to share em!
We met in 2009 working at Austin’s own Do512 and helped people do cool stuff a lot. Austin is our home and we’re deeply invested in building community in everything we do as individuals and as business owners.
‘Cure Studios was built on a single truth: beauty services are an act of self care, and you deserve to feel good while you’re living your real-ass life.
As our careers continued to grow, so did the demands on our time. We were sick of feeling like self-care had to mean putting a fake doctor’s appointment on our calendar, feeling rushed or guilty due to the nail salon being crammed, and sitting in a sterile chair under fluorescent lights during our rare times of “peace.”
We wanted better. So we built it.
Cure Studios opened with a mission to make luxury feel accessible, responsible, unpretentious, and actually fun. We believe in good vibes, better nails, and keeping the whole experience effortless and welcoming — for everyone who walks through our doors.
We’re not into cookie-cutter beauty. We’re into personal expression, bold color, and giving people a moment of calm in the middle of the chaos. And we do it with an edge — because being polished doesn’t mean being inauthentic.
This is ‘Cure. We believe that you can have a high quality manicure without wasting gallons of water or using foam / plastic based single use items. We hold our team to high standards and expect them to hold us to them too. Because of that, we have retained the top nail talent in the city by focusing on fair and transparent labor practices and giving them a safe place where they can work, grow, flourish, and let their talents truly shine. We are fully inclusive and LGBTQ+ friendly, committed to using biodegradable and recyclable items whenever possible, and are open to hearing feedback about how we can continue to grow. We are so excited to celebrate 4 years of being a community self care space on Aug 1, 2025!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Anyone who tells you that small business ownership is a smooth road either did something very differently than us or they’re fudging the truth because let’s be real – it’s tough! Small businesses will never be able to compete with large corporations or VC backed companies in a lot of ways but they can more than make up for that in ways that are tied directly to values that will positively impact our customers and make the space feel more intimate and genuine.
Frankly, we have learned a lot of lessons across the board but we’re grateful for all of them. For example, did you know that acetone eats through steel? Yeah, we did not until we installed a fully custom steel manicure table. Black floors for an industry that creates dust on purpose is also something we’d probably explore differently for a second round as well.
The good news is, most of our struggles along the way have been easily fixable and more or less superficial. We can repair a nail table, no problem! What we have NOT struggled with is our mission statement and sticking to it. We have the ‘Cure Code which is our code of conduct we operate by. This helped us know exactly when we needed to step a staff member out due to misalignment, how we select our product lines we carry, and how we interact with each other internally.
Because we have that ‘Cure Code, most bumps were super easy to smooth out using that as our guide!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Some folks don’t know this but both Kristin and myself maintain full time jobs on top of owning ‘Cure Studios. Why? Well, to be honest we hired a team that we can trust and that communicates so well with us that we’re able to give them that autonomy. It also enables us to pay them more without a long of management overhead. We handle all the business aspects like ordering, taxes, event booking, agency or commercial work etc so that our team can do what they do best which is be detail oriented artists who are exceptional at their craft.
Kristin is the COO of DoStuff Media, the parent company of Do512 and other similar platforms across the country. Her career has been focused on helping people find incredible spaces and building up local communities in the entertainment and locally owned landscape for over a decade. It makes perfect sense for her to be an owner of her own.
Rachel works in technology as a Product Manager and after opening ‘Cure Studios while at a previous company, she switched her career and now works full time for Boulevard, the client experience booking platform that Cure Studios uses itself! During the days, she helps onboard other salons, spas, and self care businesses all across the United States to help those business owners with the reporting, operations, and overall day to day management of their studios. She’s a customer and an employee at the same time and is able to share the perspective of self care providers internally in Boulevard to ensure that the tools made for other salons to use truly meets the needs of the talented workforce that works on the floor all day.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Our ‘Cureists and our clients make us happy. Honestly it really is that simple. Our team is fun, dynamic, and ferociously creative. They have informed SO many of the business and service offering decisions we have made and have been what has set us apart from our competitors to be honest. We have extremely low turnover and our team just so happens to like each other enough that they all hang out outside of work and help each other in their free time with real life stuff. You can’t force that kind of camaraderie. You do have to create an environment where its able to grow, however,.
Our clients also have seen and loved our vision since day 1 and we have so much gratitude for that. You never know when you take an idea off paper and put it into the world how it will land with other people but it just really connected with a certain clientele and that alone has made the entire undertaking worth doing.
Frankly, we don’t push for client reviews but if you look at our client reviews on Google, you can see it for yourself. It resonates with people, we have given them a safe and clean place to come, and we leave them feeling great about themselves. That’s absolutely why we do this and why we continue to show up every day to do more of it.
Pricing:
- We are sustainable and water free and save ~10 gallons of water per pedicure service because of it!
- We use local products whenever possible including Esker Beauty, Butter’d, and Death Valley Nail Polish
- We recycle single use items the city cannot accept with SalonCycle and we take all used chemicals or electronics to the Austin Resource Recovery Center
- Our team all has two days off in a row including one weekend day off
- We’re known for our nail art but that was never our original intention! You can get a simple beautiful manicure or get some fun art – we do it all and we do it really well!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.curestudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curestudios
Image Credits
Photos by Andrea Calo Insta: @andreacalo
