At 15, This Alberta Teen Runs a Global Nail Business From Her Parents' Home

A 15-year-old entrepreneur in Balzac, Alta., is shipping handmade press-on nails to customers in Canada, the United States and Europe — from a studio inside her parents' home.

Ineet Mattu runs Shine Nails, a nail business she operates out of the family house in the hamlet north of Calgary. Family, friends and a handful of local clients still come in person for appointments. But the growth engine is her press-on nail line, which reaches an international customer base that keeps expanding.

"I'm worldwide," Mattu told CTV News. "People in Canada, United States, I'm global right now. I get a lot of clients from Europe as well, like Italy, Paris. It's crazy."

How did a teenager build an international client list?

The breakthrough came in 2024, when Mattu started posting photos and videos of her custom nail designs on social media. Her following grew fast, and orders followed.

"It went crazy. Everything just blew up from there and I keep on going every day," she said. "I have 80,000 on TikTok and then 745,000 on Instagram."

That's a combined audience of more than 825,000 followers across the two platforms — a distribution channel most established beauty brands spend heavily to build. Mattu got hers in roughly a year, on the strength of her design work.

Her parents are entrepreneurs too, dealing in retail beauty products, so the industry was familiar territory at home. Mattu says she started doing her own makeup and nails as a child, and the interest compounded from there.

What's behind the product?

The skill set is trained, not accidental. At 12, Mattu took formal nail courses to sharpen techniques she had first picked up watching YouTube tutorials at home.

"At first I was practicing at home, watching YouTube videos and stuff, and then when I was 12, I took some nail courses, which advanced my skills," she said.

She chose press-on nails deliberately. They let her focus on what she believes she does best: painting.

"I started making press-on nails because I feel like the best thing I do in this industry is painting, so press-ons are the perfect little canvas to do that on."

The work is labor-intensive. Some of her more intricate designs take up to an hour to complete a single nail in a set of five. Scenery ranks among her favorite subjects to paint, and she draws inspiration from things she sees almost anywhere.

"I'm a very creative person, and when I started doing nails, I learned different techniques and stuff," she said. "So I kept building on that and practicing every day until I became a crazy nail tech."

How does she price it?

Mattu keeps a close eye on the market. She charges about $50 for a finished set of 10 press-on nails, a price point she sets to stay competitive with other sellers.

That pricing discipline matters in the press-on segment, where buyers can compare hundreds of independent makers on social media in seconds. A 15-year-old tracking her competitors' rates is doing what any consumer-goods operator does — positioning on value.

Mattu is a Grade 10 online student, which gives her flexibility to run the business alongside school. The operation also fits a broader pattern: social commerce has lowered the age of entry for product founders, letting teens with design skills and phone cameras reach buyers directly, without a storefront or a distributor.

The scale she has reached in about a year is not lost on her.

"I'm very proud of myself," she said. "If you told me five years ago that I would have come this far, I wouldn't believe you at all. It's crazy how much I've achieved. I'm very grateful."

What comes next?

Mattu has concrete plans. After graduating from high school, she intends to study cosmetology to deepen her knowledge of the beauty industry. She also wants to take business courses, specifically to manage her earnings and grow Shine Nails.

For now, she keeps posting, painting and shipping — one hand-painted set at a time, to clients on three continents.