Banana Nails owner opens a licensed nail tech school in Old Irving Park

Anastasiia Rozdobutko, who owns the Banana Nails salons in Old Irving Park and Edison Park, opened Banana Nail School on North Avondale Avenue early this year, Block Club Chicago reported on September 28, 2026. The school sits next to her salon in Old Irving Park, connects to her nail supply shop and trains students for the Illinois nail technician license.

Most students finish the course in three to four months, Rozdobutko told Block Club. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation includes the school on its list of licensed barber, cosmetology, esthetics, hair braiding and nail technology schools under the name Nailionaire LLC Banana Nail School.

Here are the key facts about Banana Nail School at a glance.

• The school prepares students for the Illinois nail technician exam and for day-to-day salon work.
• The state lists the school as a nail technician school with license number 171.000178.
• Most students complete the program in three to four months, according to Rozdobutko.
• The school’s web page does not post tuition, class times or start dates.
• Rozdobutko also owns two Banana Nails salons and a nail supply shop on the Northwest Side.

Why a salon owner started a school

Rozdobutko told Block Club that when she hires, she tends to meet two kinds of nail techs: skilled ones who don’t have a license, and licensed ones with little hands-on experience. “Finding nail techs that have both is rare,” she said.

She said the Illinois licensing exam focuses more on theory, and schools that teach only to the test often leave graduates unready for changing nail trends. The school’s page on the Banana Nails website makes the same case. Training is built around what salon clients expect, the educators still work with clients, and students get kits stocked with professional products. The page calls the school IDFPR approved and says the program prepares students for the state exam, which they must pass to get a license.

Lacey Majewski, 20, started at the school in May. She told Block Club she likes working with clients to come up with new designs. She has always enjoyed experimenting with her own nails, she said, and the program has given her hands-on practice on other people’s.

From a cleaning job to two salons

Rozdobutko moved to Chicago from Ukraine in 2016. She spoke little English, and her master’s degree in transportation engineering did not transfer, according to Block Club. After a few months with a cleaning company, she took a job at a nail salon in Portage Park.

A few months into that job, a client drove in from Wisconsin after seeing one of her designs online. Rozdobutko told Block Club that was when she realized she was good at the work. Her biography on the Banana Nails site says she started her nail career in Ukraine, got her nail technician license in Chicago in 2016 and has owned Banana Nails since 2019.

Block Club’s 2022 profile of Rozdobutko filled in more of the timeline. She began studying to become a nail technology instructor in 2018, opened Banana Nails in 2019 and received her teaching license in 2021. At the time, the salon was at 4946 W. Irving Park Road in Portage Park. By May 2024, a WGN-TV Daytime Chicago segment listed two locations, one on North Avondale Avenue and a newer one in Edison Park.

Today the business’s website puts Banana Nails Old Irving Park at 3960 N. Avondale Ave. and Banana Nails Edison Park at 6711 N. Northwest Hwy. The school’s page lists more of her work: owning and distributing through the supply store, teaching for a global nail brand, winning and judging nail competitions, sponsoring continuing education and consulting for other salon owners. A bio attached to a March 2024 article she wrote for Cosmetics & Toiletries says she placed in three categories at Nailympia 2023 in Columbus, Ohio, including first place in The Joy of Nails, Division 2.

Plans that date to 2022

The school took a few years to arrive. In November 2022, Rozdobutko told Block Club she had found a storefront about five minutes from her salon and hoped to open the school and a supply shop the following spring. She planned classes in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and English, along with programs for the nail technician license, an instructor license and continuing education hours for working techs. She was already teaching small classes in a vacant space next door with her landlord’s support.

The current school page does not say which languages classes are taught in. The page tells prospective students that imperfect English is not a barrier and that many students start with no nail experience at all. Separately, IDFPR says that starting October 1, 2026, the state nail technician exam will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.

What Illinois requires for a nail tech license

IDFPR’s qualifications for nail technician licensure and its nail technology page spell out the main steps.

• Applicants must complete 350 clock hours of nail technology instruction at a licensed nail technology school or an approved cosmetology school.
• Applicants must pass the state nail technology exam, and IDFPR lists the exam fee at $190.
• Applicants for a first license on or after January 1, 2026, must finish an approved course on abnormal skin growths that covers spotting melanoma.
• Nail technician licenses expire on October 31 of every even-numbered year.
• After the first renewal, licensed techs need 10 hours of continuing education every two years.

Schools answer to their own set of rules. IDFPR’s requirements for nail technician schools say an enrollment agreement must list the total cost of the course, including tuition, books and supplies. The agreement must also tell students they can cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after enrolling, and schools have to give each student a signed monthly report of the hours earned.

Staff are employees, not contractors

Rozdobutko told Block Club that her nail techs live nearby, are all employees of the salon and receive benefits. Many nail salons instead classify techs as independent contractors, Block Club noted. She said she promotes staff regularly, and many of her techs have been with Banana Nails for a long time.

The hiring page on the Banana Nails site says techs keep all of their tips, get paid time off and can move up through the salons, the supply store, the school and events. In 2022, she told Block Club she set prices so employees earn a higher commission that keeps pace with the cost of living, and she described that kind of career ladder as unusual. “Not a lot of nail salons have this in place,” she said. The team page now lists a senior technician named Mya as lead instructor at the school; in 2022, senior nail technician Mya Middleton told Block Club she planned to teach there.

Tours, applications and nail models

The school page does not list tuition. In answer to a question about cost, the page says the program is not the cheapest option. Prospective students can ask for a school tour, a phone call or an enrollment application through a form on the page, or email info@banana-nails.com.

The school is also looking for people willing to serve as nail models so students can practice, Rozdobutko told Block Club, and the Block Club story links to a sign-up form. Separately, the Banana Nails classes page lists shorter paid courses, including a $550 gel overlay class and a $450 advanced pedicure class.

Hours, prices and getting there

These details come from the business’s website, Block Club and the CTA.

• Banana Nails Old Irving Park, at 3960 N. Avondale Ave., is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and the phone number is (708) 669-7479.
• Banana Nails Edison Park, at 6711 N. Northwest Hwy., keeps the same hours, and the phone number is (773) 501-5195.
• The salon price list, in effect since August 1, 2025, charges $85 for an e-file gel polish manicure with a nail tech or $94 with a senior nail tech.
• The closest L stop to the school is the Irving Park Blue Line station at 4131 W. Irving Park Rd., where CTA buses #53, #54A and #80 and the Metra Union Pacific Northwest line also connect.
• School tours and enrollment questions go through the form on the school’s web page or info@banana-nails.com.

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