He left his full-time job at CND after four years to start his own product line. "We'll just say it went south," said Bachik. "I made someone else a lot of money — we'll put it that way — and I walked away broke."
This marked the beginning of what he calls "the most difficult year of his life." He started accepting every job he possibly could to make ends meet. "I was just trying to keep the lights on and put food on the table, but because of that, I was in every magazine with the work I was doing," said Bachik. After four months of hustling, he was offered a job to work the Oscars with Chanel.
This was all happening at the start of Instagram — back when no one really knew what to do with it just yet — but Bachik began utilising the app to showcase his editorial work and tag brands. He continued to use Chanel products for every editorial shoot he did and ended up flooded the brand's tags and mentions with so many pictures of his work that they offered him the first manicurist contract in the brand's history.
The highs didn't stop there. Elle Gerstein, Bachik's longtime industry friend and Jennifer Lopez's then-manicurist based in New York City, alerted him of the singer's upcoming move to Los Angeles. She insisted he be her new nail artist "because Jen was definitely going to need one."
The first time Bachik went over to do Lopez's nails, she only just had the twins who were in the corner of the room in their cradles. That was 13 years ago. By the time Lopez's daughter Emme was 2, he was doing her nails as well.
"She used to crawl over, dig through all my colours, and hold her hands out," he said. "Jen always said, 'I think she thinks you're here to do her nails.'"