Part-time hand model earns $10,000 a year working just 5 extra hours per week

Washington balances her time between her role as the chief of staff to the chief marketing officer at Hubspot, a CRM platform software development company, and working as a hand model and nail polish influencer. 

Most days, you can find Washington using her lunch break, after work hours, and even early mornings trying to catch the best light to showcase her latest nail creations, which she shares to her more than 2,000 followers on her Instagram account @polishedby.chloe. And while shes always been a fan of nail polish, she turned this hobby into a money-making side hustle during that pandemic. 

These days, when shes not testing out the newest colors and sharing the results with her followers, shes leading virtual demonstrations for one of the industrys top polish brands. Washington took some time after applying her latest coat of polish to talk to Fortune about how this social media side career took off. 

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

How did you get into hand modeling and creating nail polish content? 

I am an only child. I love girly stuff. I probably shouldve had a nail polish budget before the pandemic because if I went to the store and there was a new color, I was grabbing it and putting it in my cart.

I always heard that I have nice hands. I dont know if its a Southern thing, but people would say I had piano fingers growing up. And with my nail beds, there is a lot of real estate. So to be able to actually do something cool with that, and generate income has been fantastic.

During the pandemic, especially when we were on lockdown, I was just painting my nails a lot. I wanted to try new designs and post to social media. But my friends didnt care about this on my regular Instagram. Normally I talk about random things: family pictures, boyfriend pictures, Georgia football. Those are my topics. So I made a new Instagram, just to see. I thought maybe I might be able to get 10 followers, but it would be something for me to dokind of like my mani memory book.

But you didnt just stop at 10 followers, right? 

It picked up fast! I was not really expecting anything to come from it. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was an influx of nail Instagram pages. I think everyone was bored at home and wanting to have a creative outlet. 

Friendships have formed from this. Its just the strangest, weirdest, most beautiful thing. The nail community, if you will, was everyone at home painting their nails and talking on Zoom when you couldnt go to happy hour or go to brunch. Ive made some really wonderful and beautiful friendships with people Ive never met in-person that Ive talked to all the time.

Honestly, I still feel weird saying hand model. Sometimes Ill just say I create content. Same thing. I model my hands, and I create the content and take photos of it.

When did it transform into a paid gig? 

I had my page up for maybe a month, and Olive & June reached out. Theyre my main nail polish client. 

They wanted to get some user-generated content, and so they looked at who was tagging them. And that eventually led them to me. They reached out and asked if they could pay me to take some photos if they sent me their polish. They wanted to send a list of polishes to paint and take pictures of on my hand. And I was like, I sure can. Youre sending me free polish and youre paying meall right. 

I also work for Dana Rebecca Designs, a fine jewelry company. But I reached out to her versus her reaching out to me. I said that I loved their things and that I saw there was a call for models for a photoshoot in Chicagoand I wanted to know how I could work with them. And it went from there. 

How much do you earn? 

Influencers can makeat least in the nail industry among people I know$1,000 to $2,000 to almost $100,000 a year. Thats not PR, but doing user-generated content for brands. 

Ive made at least $10,000 a year for the past two years that Ive been doing it. And thats being able to do it part time. Im not really grinding like a lot of other people are. I would say I spend anywhere between five to 15 hours a week on this. 

Im not only a hand model, I teach Mani 101 on Zoom calls each month for Olive & June as well. The class is an hour, and then I probably spend an hour prepping, especially when sometimes Im teaching a new technique. Ive got to first teach myself and then Ill teach other people.

Im compensated for teaching the class. Additionally Im an ambassador for Olive & June, so Im compensated that way, too. Thats another passive way of income.

With the jewelry companies, I structure pay by the number of manicures and number of photos I post, but theyre flat fees. 

This is my play money. This is my oh-I-want-that-handbag money, or its money I can use to invest aside from the income from my full-time job.

You mentioned this was a life-long hobby, but what type of job did you actually want to do when you were younger? 

I wanted to work for OPI and name the nail polish. I have a degree in fashion merchandising. That is what I wanted to do, and it came full circle. 

But I graduated in the Great Recession and in 2007 and 2008, it was a rough time. So I went the IT route. I have project management experience, now leading marketing, strategic operations, and planning. Ive always been a techie and into that type of stuff, too. But now I get to also do that creative side, what I have a degree in, and have it really come full circle. 

Have you managed to get OPI as a client or do any work with them? 

They started following me on Instagram. They only dont follow many people, so seeing that, of course I did a dance and yelled. My boyfriend asked what was wrong and I was like, no everything is right! So I have not expanded to OPI yet, but ORLY just sent me a PR box so Im excited to be able to talk to different brands.

How long does it usually take you to paint your nails at this pointwhat have you learned with practice?

The importance of skincare and cuticle care. No matter how good the nail polish is, if the foundation is not right, the picture is not going to be greatespecially since I dont edit them. So its about not clipping my cuticles, moisturizing throughout the day, and drinking enough water. 

That is something I never thought of in relation to taking pictures of your hands. If youre dehydrated, your veins are all popping out of your skin and it doesnt look good. You dont want to post that on the internet.

Ive definitely gotten faster and more precise. Talking about tips and tricks Ive learned: Set a timer. Its like paint on a wall, you need that first coat to dry completely. So I set a timer between coats. 

First youve got to put nail polish remover on first to clear the surface. Then if Im doing a base coat or ridge filler, I set a five-minute timer. I make sure to always have a barrier on because I dont like to stain my nails in case I have to paint a light color later.

First coat, five minutes. Second coat, seven minutes. Top coat 10 minutes. If theyre sticking a little bit, you need to give it a while longer. Or you can stick your hand in the freezer for a minute if youre in a big hurry. Different brands also have dry drops that can help. Icy cold water helps too.

Where do you want this to go from here? 

I would like to continue to work with brands, whether it be different nail polish brands, thats fine. I also enjoy the public speaking part of it. I did a lot of Instagram lives during the pandemic, for people to ask questions. 

I try to do a few things really well and be an expert in that and not try to chase the market. Haley Bieber broke the internet a few months ago with her donut nails. Thats interesting to me, but I dont do super intricate nail designs. I dont want people to feel like because there are all these influencers online that do their own nails, I have to do this, or I have to chase this.

Theres nothing wrong with going to the nail salon. I love a pedicure. I dont let anybody touch my nails, but I love pedicures.

I dont want to do this full time because this has been a fun hobby pretty much all of my life. I want it to still be a fun hobbyand also be able to network, to meet people, and of course make money through it in that way.

I really want to be able to actually help people, make people feel beautiful and feel competent in what theyre doing.