The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
More than a manicure
Kunga Choekyi of KC’s Nails uses nail polish holder invention as positive force for good
OLD SAYBROOK » Kunga Choekyi, along with her daughter Yangchen, have a unique way of packing for their trip to a Tibetan village in southern India each winter. They put everything they need in their carryon bags. Into their oversized suitcases they cram children’s clothes, toys, books, and medical equipment.
KC, as she’s known, does it with the same sense of mission that is inspiring her to use sales profits from her nail polish holder invention, the Polish Posy, to help organizations aiding Tibetan refugee children as well as local charities.
“Compassion,” said the diminutive owner of KC’s Nails in Old Saybrook, gesturing at a painting of White Tara that hangs on the wall of the cozy Boston Post Road shop that she founded in 2004. The Buddha goddess, she said, “offers healing to those who are hurt or wounded.”
A Tibetan Buddhist, KC was born in a cave in the Himalayan mountains of Ladakh in India in 1963. As she tells it, her parents fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959, following their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, to India.
“The Dalai Lama wanted all the Tibetan people to stay together,” she said. Eventually KC and her family, including three older brothers, settled in a Tibetan refugee village in Karnataka, a state in southwestern India.
In 1985, KC married Jampa Tsondue, a traditional artist. (The painting of White Tara on the wall of her shop is his.) Seven years later, her husband’s name was chosen in an emigration lottery. “He got very lucky,” she said. As she tells it, he moved to America in 1992, landing in Milford, where he worked as a dishwasher at Saybrook Fish House. By then, they had three children. “Karnataka to Connecticut!” KC proclaimed.
In 1996, KC and their children joined him. The family settled in Old Saybrook, where there’s a large Tibetan population. KC was soon working at Say-
brook Point Inn. “The third month I was a fulltime nail technician,” she said.
That was only natural. She had experience. She was trained to do nails in a salon in Darjeeeling, where, along with her children, she lived with her husband’s family once he emigrated. It was an interest that had started many years before.
“When I was a young girl, I always cut my mom’s and dad’s fingernails,” she said; her parents were farmers. “I noticed if they were dirty or too long, or if they were bothered by an ingrown nail, and I just enjoyed making them feel good, better.”
That might explain why she was constantly overbooked at Saybrook Point Spa. Indeed, when, eight years later, she decided to open her own business and gave notice, her boss said she would prefer that the highly sought-after technician stay until her last day. “She didn’t want to cancel two weeks of clients,” KC said with a smile.
On the Sunday before Labor Day 2004, she opened KC’s Nails. Almost 13 years later, it’s thriving. Part of it, according to KC, is that the business is set back from the main road. “It’s private,” she said, as classical music filtered through the mellow shop. “But also I like to have my own space. I like to talk, I like to help. And sometimes just listening is enough to help someone.”
Said longtime customer Joyce Edgar-Gagnon: “KC is a positive force, a kind soul. And she’s a perfectionist. She does absolutely beautiful work.”
The quest for perfection led her to seek a way to prevent nail polish bottles from tipping over and spilling, as sometimes occurred. “I said there must be something on the market,” she said. “But there was nothing.”
For a few years she tinkered. One day the husband of a client came in. Richard Schlueter, an engineer, helped her design the current nail polish holder and find a U.S. manufacturer.
They named it the Polish Posy. In the design of a lotus flower, with little nubs that firmly grasp different bottle shapes and sizes, it’s the “world’s first multiple nail polish holder that is non-slip and tilts bottles security to keep polish spills at bay,” according to polishposy.com.
With Tenzin’s help, KC launched a Kickstarter campaign on May 2 to help fund her product launch and utility patent. The proceeds will go toward introducing the product into the market. The plan is for profits from sales to go to the Tibetan Children’s Village, the Karuna Home for the Disabled, and a small senior center, as well as local charities.
“The seniors have done so much in their lives, but they don’t have anyone to help them or even to talk to them,” she said. “They’re forgotten and that’s not right.”
It’s the same with the kids. “They have dreams but they don’t have the support, they can’t help themselves,” said KC, who has sponsored a student and hopes to increase that number. “We have to do something to give them more chances.”
That’s why she and her daughter pack books and clothes into their suitcases, as well as foldable commodes, canes, and walkers from Charlie’s Closet, the clearinghouse of used medical equipment in Guilford.
“I have been blessed in my life,” she said, glancing at the painting of White Tara. “I want to do more.” KC’s Nails is located at 823 Boston Road Rd. #2 Old Saybrook, 860-3951253. Information on Polish Posy, www.polishposy. com, Kickstarter campaign, www.kickstarter.com/ projects/89142590/polish-posya-revolutionary-nail-polishholder, Tibetan Children’s Villages, www.tcv.org.in, and Karuna Home for the Disabled, karunahome.org.