Local Celeb Katie Cazorla 'Nails' It on Reality Series

A Sherman Oaks business owner has become a television celebrity. Katie Cazorla, owner of local salon The Painted Nail, is the star of the reality TV series The Nail Files on TV Guide Network. The show follows Cazorla as she creates a party scene for her customers, including complimentary cocktails included in treatments.

Cazorla spoke with the Television Critics Association during the biannual TCA press tour. She shared some dish about her celebrity clients, including fellow Studio City resident  and Toluca Lake's Hilary and Hailee Duff, and hinted at scandals with review site Yelp! and the Better Business Bureau. After the presentation, we stayed to chat with Cazorla, like good neighbors. The Nail Files airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m., and you can visit The Painted Nail right on the border of Sherman Oaks and Studio City.

Q: What year did you open?

KC: I opened it March 8, 2009.

Q: Where are you located and what shops are your neighbors?

KC: We’re on Ventura Boulevard in between Dixie Canyon and Fulton. It’s basically right where it turns into Sherman Oaks. By Menchies and Casa Vega. Everyone knows where is. It’s kind of like a tiny little block, kind of fun. Maria’s Kitchen, now Oak Fire Pizza, that has a bar, so I’ll be there. [Laughs.]

Q: What are your specialties?

KC: Basically all the stuff is food-based: We have an Ice Cream Sundae manicure/pedicure. We have a Sorbet Sugar Mama, which is like strawberry, vanilla or chocolate. It’s all food based because I’m a big dessert person.

Q: Who are your customers?

KC: My customers are younger and fun. We get little kids. We get a lot of actresses and we get their moms. We get a lot of moms, like young moms, hip moms. I think the older moms don’t really get it, which is fine. We always say we are not a spa. If you come in here and think you’re going to hear water dripping out of bamboo pipes, this is not going to happen. It’s a full on fun, like going to your girlfriend’s house getting ready to go out.

Q: What are your hours?

KC: We’re open from 11 until 7 o’clock. I can’t open early. Early is not my deal.

Q: If someone calls for an appointment, will they reach you directly?

KC: No, because now with the line coming out, it gets to be really crazy busy. Without having all the show stuff involved, it’s very busy anyway. I’m literally trying to do phones, trying to do this, trying to do that and I’m going bananas.

Q: But could we get an appointment with you?

KC: Oh, I physically don’t do nails. I just run the store, do all the books. I’m like a one woman show but I do have some really good manicurists that work there.

Q: What do you love about the neighborhood?

KC: Oh, well, the neighborhood’s amazing. It’s Studio City, Sherman Oaks. My neighbor is Joe Walsh from The Eagles and Lily Tomlin and Tony Danza. It’s kind of a crazy neighborhood. I look around, I see Neil Patrick Harris walking his dogs with his boyfriend. I love where I live and I don’t think I would want to have opened the store in any other city or town.

Q: So you live here too?

KC: Yeah, I live in the area. I’m a local. A local yokel.

Q: Did the Duff sisters enjoy cocktails when they came to The Painted Nail?

KC: I think they were more glass-of-white wine girls. They came in, just relaxed, and they usually leave it. They have a couple sips and it’s just to relax.

Q: And you don’t need a liquor license to serve drinks?

KC: No, because it’s complimentary. You can go shopping at Christian Dior and they bring out a glass of champagne for you. If you have a liquor license, you can’t give out free alcohol. You actually have to mark it down. But I have been paying regular price for alcohol. I don’t get a distributor price so it is cut of my budget.

Q: What did the people at Yelp do to you?

KC: Oh my God. They called me for a couple weeks saying I had good views and ratings and all that. Then they wanted to get me to advertise and it was like $300+ a month and I was like, “That’s a lot for a small business.” I was already advertising on Citysearch. Then when I said no, they basically put my ratings down and filtered out all my good reviews and a bunch of one star reviews start showing up. I was like, this is really fishy.

Q: What about the Better Business Bureau?

KC: Same. My rating, I didn’t want to pay.

Q: Does having cameras in the salon interrupt your business?

KC: We filmed in there before and it’s such a small space that literally, you can only film so much. There’s only so many angles you can get. Either you’re going to stand there or you’re going to stand there. We’ve been telling our customers, “Look, we’re getting ready to film a show in here so we’ll let you know that we might be filming that day. Feel free to reschedule or we can do at home services too.”

Q: You do house calls?

KC: Mobile, we send a little smart car up there. It’s the Nailmobile.

Q: Can you believe this is all happening for you?

KC: I think it’s a good reminder of that is my friends. I keep my friends really close to me and my family, so I don’t become one of those crazy Real Housewives where it’s like, “Look at all my sh*t. You don’t have anything.” That probably won’t ever happen because I do have pretty cool sh*t, but I’m never going to be throwing it in your face.

Q: What were you doing before The Painted Nail?

KC: It’s funny, I was a stand-up comic for a long time. It’s a really hard, hard career to be in. After 10 years, I was like wow, I really don’t want to do this anymore. It just happened. It was not a dream, so I gave it all up and who knew after 10 years of busting my ass, “Hey, we want to do a show about you?” Doesn’t it always work this way? I was standup comic for 10 years and I used to do really basic things like Jimmy Kimmel. I was a regular on there. It was basically one job a month and a million auditions for one job for five minutes. Finally when I said forget it, I just want to have a normal life and a normal job and get a normal paycheck, these guys approached me. I’m like oh my God, who would think after 10 years of eating top ramen, I’m going to get my own show.

Q: How did you support yourself during the stand-up years?

KC: Well, the jobs, I was in the union so it was pretty good. When you book one job, it’s a couple grand and I’m not a very flashy, fancy person. So it’s just turned into I just saved a lot of money. Then when I went to open The Painted Nail, I just had a nice little nest egg of cash.

Q: How long did it take to get it open?

KC: Like a month. It was lots of people and lots of free sushi for all my friends.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about your store?

KC: I’m just excited about people really getting into it and knowing that this is not just some little chop shoppy like ooh, I opened a nail salon, you want to watch my nails dry? It’s a real, fun, you can do it too type thing. It didn’t take millions of dollars. It was a very small amount of money, a lot of involvement from me, sleepless nights and just running with it and always being involved.

The Nail Files air on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on the TV Guide Network.