Today we’d like to introduce you to Mylani And Yenchi
Hi Mylani and Yenchi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Mylani: I grew up in Rosemount, MN and as a child was always one that loved drawing and creating my own picture books (which mostly involved dogs which I was and still am obsessed with). As I grew up, I did the typical path of going to college and jumping into my career in Accounting. As I was growing my professional career, I would occasionally find time to paint my nails with simple designs. Jump forward a couple years from starting my career in July 2017, I rescued my dog, Nikki, a German shepherd mix and in November 2017, I met my now husband, Tim. After a couple years of dating I made the leap of faith to move with Tim to Seattle for him to pursue a job opportunity. In Seattle when the pandemic hit, I found myself immersing back into the art world by doing more nail designs and doing some painting. Eventually during the lockdown, we decided to move back to the Midwest as we were missing our close friends and family. We chose to move to Kansas City, MO as it was a good middle spot between my family who were all in MN and Tim’s family who were in OK and St. Louis, MO. We lived in Kansas City for a few years where I continued to grow my nail art skills and where my creativity flowed into new crafts. One of which was bracelet making which came from, you guessed it, prepping for the Eras Tour. I loved designing and creating bracelets for the concert that even after the concert was over I found myself still wanting to make bracelets. I continued to make more Taylor Swift-themed bracelets and also made personalized bracelets for my bachelorette party. The other craft I found was flower pressing; 2023 was the year Tim and I got married, and in that planning I knew I wanted to preserve my wedding flowers. My wedding bouquet was my very first flower pressing frame. Come 2024, certain circumstances brought my husband and I back to Minnesota which was the start of the venture with my cousin, Yenchi, into selling our crafts through our shop, M.Y.CollectionsCo.
Yenchi: I grew up in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, 25 minutes away from Mylani. While education had the major impact on my life, my parents also encouraged and supported my creative hobbies. Music was initially pushed but I couldn’t handle the type of discipline that musicians were taught. Instead, I gravitated to visual arts, specifically drawing and painting. I even made my own storybook about horses. I also had a manga-style art phase during middle school and high school. It was in high school that I first took a ceramics and sculpting class and fell in love with that type of media. I love my homemade trinkets so I continued to sculpt and paint my pieces. On the other hand, nail polish was something I got into as a child, but nail design was something I started dabbling with in college. To balance the pre-medical lifestyle while attending St. Catherine University, nail design was a way for me to itch that part of my brain to express my creativity. As a break from studying, I would watch several YouTube and Instagram tutorials to pick up and practice nail tips and tricks. I continued to sculpt and do nail art while I buffed up my résumé during my two-year gap year. In 2019, once I got into medical school in Jonesboro, Arkansas, nail art turned into a little reward and part of my self-wellness time to counter the rigors of medical school. My nails were something that my patients would compliment and appreciate, which brought me joy while I endured my clinical rotations. When applying for residency programs back in 2023, I listed sculpting and nail art within the “Hobbies” section which interviewers from half of the programs I had interviewed with asked about. I then would happily show off a set of nails I was working on at the time over my Zoom interviews. Earlier this past year, I discovered that Mylani and Tim were moving back to Minnesota. While ecstatic about the news, I was uncertain of where I would end up for residency. Despite this, we decided to open an Etsy shop. In March 2024, I found out that I will continue my training as a resident physician nearby my hometown. Not only was I thrilled by the fact that I could return back to Minnesota to serve my local community through medicine and be surrounded by my support system which consists of friends, family, and boyfriend, I was also overjoyed that I would be able to work alongside Mylani to grow our small business.
Mylani & Yenchi: Growing up from a very early age, we were both very close and always excited to see each other at family functions. We would draw together and shared our previously mentioned storybooks with each other. As we got older (and more busy), we stayed in touch by sharing our nail designs through text and snaps until early 2019 when we decided to create a private Instagram account to easily share all of our designs with each other. This allowed us to sustain our relationship while we were living in different states. In 2022, Mylani startled playing around with gel polish to be able to create longer lasting designs. After working with gel for awhile, Mylani convinced Yenchi to also try gel polish. While Yenchi was working with gel polish, she decided to look into press-on nails as she wasn’t able to have painted nails at work. We created many of our own nail press-on designs throughout the rest of 2023 and even gifted press-on nail sets that we designed for each other. While planning for Mylani’s wedding, we found we enjoyed working together and coming up with ideas for the bachelorette party and wedding. We both separately were thinking about sharing our crafts with the public but were hesitant as it was a big endeavor. Yenchi initially mentioned to Mylani wanting to sell her Desk Buddies as a way to continue to sculpt. In response, Mylani shared that she had also been thinking for awhile about opening a shop to sell her bracelets and offer floral pressing services. Finally, in January 2024, we decided to open our Etsy shop, M.Y.CollectionsCo. After six months of planning and creating (and appointing Nikki as our CTO, aka Chief Treats Officer), we launched our shop on June 1st.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has it been a smooth road? No, not really. The biggest challenge for both of us has been trying to maintain a good hobby shop/work/life balance. We both have professional careers so maintaining that plus our relationships with others and to each other was already a challenge. Adding the title “Business Owners” was another level of strain to our own individual lives. However, our faith in our products is the rate-limiting factor that pushed us to be small business owners. It was a steep learning curve to perform administrative work and make decisions, such as setting fair prices for our products and creating designs that both we and our customers would love. It definitely helped that we had each other to collaborate and divide the work. Another challenging part for the both of us is creating and maintaining social media content. Neither of us have a strong social medial presence but we knew that it was going to be one of the major ways to showcase M.Y.CollectionsCo products. We refuse to let social media be the “dreaded” side of our business and devote ourselves to creating content to not only sell our products, but to also be something for us to be proud of, as well as, entertainment for our customers. Every business will have some sort of challenge, it’s just a matter of having the willpower and plan to overcome it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our products include: custom made-to-order press-on nails, sculpted pen rests (affectionately named, “Desk Buddies”), customizable bracelets, and framed pressed florals.
Together, we design and create various nail designs and sets. We offer pre-designed nails, as well as, the possibility of working with customers in creating their dream nail set that can be worn over and over again. We find that art should be infinite and is always a shame to see the art get filed away. We enjoy interacting and getting to know our customers while creating their nail sets, and it is always a joy to watch them become estatic when they receive their custom sets.
Desk Buddies are handmade, dried, painted, and packaged by Yenchi. Desk Buddies are sculpted pen holder pieces that instantly add character to your workspace. Many people have beloved pets at home or a favorite mythical creature. Whatever it is, our customers can either upload pictures of their fur babies or request a favorite animal/creature to be sculpted and painted so they can bring their Desk Buddy to work or to add to their personal workspace at home. Names or short messages can also be added at the bottom of each Desk Buddy to add a personal touch.
Florals are received, dried, and arranged into pressed keepsakes by Mylani. Floral pressing customers can expect timely updates on their flower’s drying process and open collaboration to ensure the end product is exactly what they want. Preserved flowers and mementos are a great way to remind and display a meaningful moment in their life.
Bracelets are designed and created by Mylani. Not only can our bracelets be personalized to include names or significant phrases, we are also willing to come up with new and different styles with the customer to guarantee a unique wearable statement piece.
At M.Y.CollectionsCo, we pride ourselves in offering personalized products at an affordable price. Our business model is based on open communication and great customer service. We look forward to working with our future customers and maintaining relationships with our previous customers by designing custom made creations.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We are constantly updating our shop by releasing new custom press-on nails so be on the lookout for new designs! We are also open to collaborating with other MN businesses to push the boundaries of what we can create while also supporting our local community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://MYCollectionsCo.etsy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m.y.collectionsco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/m.y.collectionscompany
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@M.Y.CollectionsCo
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@m.y.collectionsco
