Block Party: In Conversation with Caitlyn Iskra from Horni Nails

We're in conversation today with Caitlyn Iskra: the artist, designer and founder of Horni, which is more a spiritual experience than a nail studio. Caitlyn has created something truly unique in the heart of Melbourne. First and foremost an artist, her medium just happens to be keratin, more specifically, nails. Horni started from her love of creativity and colour. Hidden away in a studio space in Fitzroy: it’s a place her clients come to escape the world for a moment and leave feeling a bit brighter, a lot more fun and a little bit Horni!

Caitlyn, you're best known for creating incredible tactile nail art (no one else does nails like you do - and we've been to Japan!). But for those who visit Horni, a very personal and customised experience awaits them: anything from tarot readings and chromotherapy to a binge session of Gilmore Girls. You really take customers on a journey, and they leave with more than just a new set of nails, but an intention or manifestation that they carry with them.

Rollie: We’ve recently launched our latest collection, Block Party. You play with colour every day as part of your career, you're always dressed in colour (let's ignore the occasional black look) and you see the meaning behind colour in the everyday. So, what does colour mean to you and how important is it to you?

“Colour is a relationship first and foremost. It’s like the relationship you have with different people, they create and inspire different things in yourself. And I think the one I have with colour is still unfolding. The relationship will change and mould and I'll understand it in different ways. Once you start to notice colour, you'll really see it and interpret it in new ways that feel right with you.

I notice it everywhere, I feel it everywhere. It's kind of like understanding a language that only you know. I think of colour like a connection back to self and interpreting it in the way that feels authentic to you. It can make you feel alive, it can make you feel inspired, it can make you feel excited, it can make you feel comfortable. And that is a language that I'm always going to prioritise trying to understand.”

Rollie: You've mentioned that throughout life's journey, you've always been creative and had creativity flow through everything you do: first painting at school, then hair, makeup and beauty and now designing incredible nails at Horni. What was the defining moment (or moments) when you decided you wanted to bring Horni to life as a career and profession?

“Boredom (or having nothing to do) is honestly the best way to inspire creativity. When you can just sit without stimulation, that's when ideas come through. Lockdown gave me that opportunity. I wasn't working, I had no stimulation, so it became about finding something that gave me a little bit of dopamine and energy. I'd always bitten my nails, which is actually why I started getting them done, so I ordered a little online acrylic kit and sat there for hours a day, meticulously learning: putting something on, taking it off, starting again. It became this incredible hyperfixation during such an unstable time and I could really tune into it and perfect it. It grew organically from there and starting an Instagram gave the world a chance to join in and see it.

As for the confidence to turn it into an actual business, I think confidence is really just trust in yourself without doubt getting in the way. Doubt will always try to come through, so it's about learning to quiet the mind and let that little whisper land, that instinct telling you to try something because it lights you up. At the time there was so much uncertainty in the world and I think you either go down the road of fear or the road of trust. I threw myself into creativity, because creativity is connection to everything, it's how your spirit comes out as a manifestation into something real.”

Rollie: When selecting colours for your clients, chromotherapy (the study of colour and light) plays a huge part in what you do and adds another layer to the experience you offer here at Horni. Can you describe how this knowledge influences the way you interact with clients at Horni?

“Working in makeup really taught me to understand tone and how colours match people. When I looked at someone's face, it was almost automatic: what was going to make their features stand out, what was going to complement their undertone. I could see it straight away, before any doubt crept in, it was just an intuition. The more you focus on that, it's like a muscle, it just keeps strengthening. Now it doesn't matter who I'm looking at, I can tell straight away what's going to look great on them. Then you try it and watch someone come alive, you see them enhanced in that moment and that's the second-hand joy you get from it.”

Rollie: On this note, previously you've mentioned colour has its own language. How did you first discover the language of colour, and how has your interpretation of it evolved over the years?

“I think it goes further back than memory can really express. Just liking colour is enough to understand it in a way - we're drawn to things, drawn to objects and for me colour was simply, ‘wow, this makes me feel really good!’ It's kind of as simple as that.”

Rollie: Let's talk about setting intention for your clients at Horni. Can you talk us through the process for someone who may come in feeling indecisive about their nails? What can someone expect? How do you help people come to life and express themselves through colour?

“When clients come in, it's so much more than just getting their nails done, it's a full experience. I'd say around 87% of my clients arrive saying "I don't know what I want," and I've learned to be really flexible with that, because it's not that they don't know what they want, it's that they don't know how they feel. So it's about creating a safe space for someone to say, "I want to feel this way.” Maybe they've got an event coming up and want to feel confident or creative. It's less "what do you want?" and more "how do we want to feel?"

I'm quite sensitive to energy, so I'm picking up on little bits of information (call it intuition) pretty quickly. A lot of the time I'll just ask people to tell me about their life, because that gives me more to work with than words alone. From there it's amazing what you can create collaboratively. I always give people the space to not decide straight away too, we can get halfway through the session and once they feel comfortable and grounded, start looking at colour together. Every client is different depending on their energy, how they come into the space, and how they want to feel, and I get to identify that with each person.”

Rollie: You've spoken about sitting in stillness (making the unconscious conscious) and receiving rather than forcing an outcome. How does this show up in your everyday life, for example, perhaps a moment you're choosing a colour, whether for yourself or a client? 

"It's definitely a practice, one in which I am still having a relationship with and understanding. But the more I try to understand it, the more complex it gets. And I think it's just about simplifying the connection back to self. And I think we see it a lot with kids. Kids are just so playful and raw and authentic and honest, and they just do straight away what their intuition is guiding them to do. I think learning to be with stillness, without the stimulation, without the noise... there's so much content just constantly coming through.

Something that I'm really sitting in right now is, ‘wow, how much am I consuming that's actually not within my control?’ and ‘how much of it is maybe clouding my own path and my own light that I'm here to bring through?’ So I do feel that being in stillness, even just five minutes, to be able to receive throughout the day, or to ask ‘what can I create in the world today?’ I think we don't ask enough... I think connection back to self and sitting with self is the ultimate thing you can do for yourself.

Rollie: How else does colour show up in your world?

“Every day looks different for me depending on what I need and how I feel. Because Horni means working so closely with people, I really need and enjoy my alone time to recharge. I love sitting at a cafe with a matcha from Dua Bakehouse, going for a walk, being outside, seeing friends who can hold that space and give it back to you, painting, visiting a gallery, shopping, anything that feels fun and feels like you're receiving something back.”

A day in Caitlyn’s life, captured at Horni and then at her favourite café, Dua Bakehouse at Collingwood Yards. Caitlyn is wearing our netted black derby, Remy, and our slim brown sneaker, Sunda.

Horni is located at 63 Johnston St, Fitzroy, by appointment only: www.horninails.com