The two people standing at our table on August 23

C8 runs demos most months. This one is different, and the difference is worth saying plainly: one of the two people working the table did not learn the product. He made it.

David Hoàng

David Hoàng. Photo: Chisel Nail Art

David Hoàng

FOUNDER OF CHISEL · CERTIFIED CHISEL EDUCATOR

FOUNDED

Chisel, 2014

KNOWN FOR

The 2017 dipping ombré powder

TEACHES

Ombré, dip technique, color control

AT C8

Sun 23 + Mon 24 Aug, 9AM to 7PM

Hoàng started Chisel in 2014. The company is open about where the idea came from: the Vietnamese pioneers in Sacramento who turned nails into a trade that could support a family, and then a generation of families. Chisel has stayed a Vietnamese-American company, and if you work in a salon in Orange County that lineage is not an abstraction. It is your own.

The product that made the brand arrived in 2017. Chisel's dipping ombré powder solved a problem every tech recognizes, which is that a gradient done badly looks muddy and a gradient done well takes three times as long as the client will sit for. The company still leads with it. Their own line is the world's best ombré powder, which is a big claim, and August 23 is the day you get to make him defend it in person.

Since then the range has widened well past powder: 2-in-1 and 4-in-1 systems, builder gel, cat eye, the DapLaGhien acrylic line, and tools most brands do not bother with like 3D stamps and edgers. Hoàng runs the company with Phong Tran on quality, Tran Hung as COO and Thong Vu in R&D.

He is also a genuinely experienced demo educator, not a founder being wheeled out for a photo. Chisel lists him as one of three certified educators, and he has run two-day demo shows at supply stores around the country and livestreamed from Premiere Orlando. The format on August 23 is the one he has done many times: table, product, hands, questions.

Katie Phuong

Chisel certifies a small number of educators to demo its product line, and Phuong is one of them. The brief Chisel writes for the role describes exactly what she will be doing here: a skilled nail technician who runs demos at supply stores and trade shows, showing how the product raises a tech's work and a salon's revenue.

In practice, at a two-day event, the educator is the person most techs should be talking to. The founder answers why. The educator answers how, and how is where the money is. Ratio. Cure and set timing. What to do when a color goes cloudy halfway down the nail. The handful of habits that decide whether a set lasts three weeks or lifts in nine days. Bring the specific problem you keep hitting, not a general one.

What to bring, and what to ask

• Your actual failure. A photo on your phone of the set that lifted beats any general question you could ask.
• The powder you already use, if it is not Chisel. A direct comparison in front of someone who formulates for a living is rare and free.
• Your reorder list. Show pricing runs both days, and asking which shades actually move is a better question than asking which are new.
• Someone from your team. Two techs watching is twice the retention, and admission is nothing.

The full event detail, the range we stock and the prices are in the demo days post, and the whole Chisel range at C8 runs to over 700 products. If you want the ombré background first, start with Chisel powder or the top selling Chisel colors.

Are you a nail artist in Orange County? We are building this into a standing feature. Call us at 714-868-7088 or bring your work into the Garden Grove showroom and ask for the marketing desk.