Work We Do: Vivian Pham, Nails by Vivian

My name is Vivian Pham. I own Nails by Vivian here. I’ve been running this business for about three years in Mattituck.

After working for someone else for years with a lot of support from all my customers, I decided to open my own. It was interesting and a little difficult in the beginning. 

We’re open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Usually I come in early a little bit, to set up and open the salon and warm up the towels and get ready for the appointments coming in.

After we clean up the nail and make the surface beautiful we can apply the base coat and the color.

After that we can decorate with something they like, like this time of year we can do something fun, like holiday nails, with reds, greens and decorations like Santa, snowmen or Christmas trees. Making the nails beautiful makes them happy. That’s my favorite part.

I came to America in 2007. I am Vietnamese. I’ve been here 10 years now.

My favorite thing to do with this business and in my job is to see people every day and make them happy, see them enjoy their lives. I keep up with the new methods and products in my business.

I love this location. I love the people around here. Every day I meet a lot of nice people. I love to see any different time — I see them when they’re young and then they get married. It makes me so happy for them. Any special moments, like weddings, or anything special like that in their lives, that’s my happy thing. To share any special moments with them is the best. It’s the best.

“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing. See more photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes.