NAILS Magazine is officially out of our twenties. I missed our 15th anniversary by one year but I can clearly remember our 20th and 25th anniversaries. And not to sound too clichéd, it really does seem like just yesterday. We are, and will always be, the same magazine you’ve counted on for all these years.

I remember my first day at NAILS (March 8, 1999), the first salon I profiled (The Brass Rose in Blairstown, N.J.), my first cover story (September 1999, “What’s the Hold-Up in Utah”), and my first cover shoot (October 1999 with Tom Bachik…who also shot this month’s cover!). I remember my first Maggie award (for the September 2000 issue), and all three of our major web redesigns (2000, 2005, 2008). And to be perfectly honest, I remember everything between then and now. I’ve had my hands in more than 175 issues of NAILS and I feel truly lucky to have worked on such a great publication with such great people.  

I’ve spent quite a bit of time going through old issues of NAILS in preparation for this issue, and I feel confident the magazine is better than it has ever been. We’re wise and seasoned over here. (Take a look at the list of the current NAILS team on page 114 and see how long many of us have been on staff.) We’ve grown with you. And we know what works and what doesn’t. We’ve talked to literally thousands of nail techs and salon owners over the course of the years and we are always listening so we can make the magazine better for YOU, the reader. Because ultimately, that’s the reason we’ve been around for so many years. We are YOUR industry magazine.

Of course, it’s the year 2013, so we also now produce YOUR industry website (www.nailsmag.com), YOUR industry blog (blogs.nailsmag.com/editor), YOUR industry Nail Art Gallery (nailartgallery.nailsmag.com), YOUR industry video catalog (www.nailsmag.com/nailstv), YOUR tablet-edition of Nail Art Gallery Magazine (www.nailsmag.com/nagtablet), and countless other offerings to help you improve your business and your techniques so you can better serve your clients and make a living. We’re navigating through this new era of social media where people want information as it happens, so now you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

We want to be everywhere you are. So while there are many ways we are the same magazine that started out 30 years ago, we’re not the same magazine as before. We’re better. And you are too. I like to think that we’re getting better together.

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