By Thomas A. Parmalee
Jessica Miller still remembers the hands.
She was 11 years old, standing beside the casket of her mother’s close friend, a woman she remembers as vibrant, stylish and full of life. But something felt wrong.
“I remember looking at her hands and thinking, ‘Those aren’t her hands,'” Miller recalled.
The memory never left her.
Decades later, after building a successful career as a licensed nail technician, that childhood moment unexpectedly resurfaced — not as a memory alone, but as the foundation for a business idea.
Today, Miller is the founder of My Forever Nails, a Tampa Bay-based initiative that has designed a press-on nail system designed specifically for funeral professionals. Rather than relying on retail press-on nails or traditional liquid polish, her kits are engineered to help embalmers and funeral directors restore natural-looking fingernails for the deceased quickly, cleanly and reliably.
For Miller, however, the product has never been about cosmetics.
“It’s about giving someone back a part of themselves,” she said. “Hands are something families notice. If they’re not presented well, it can become distracting during what should be a meaningful goodbye.”
A Problem Few People Were Trying to Solve
For 20 years, Miller has worked as a professional nail artist, hearing clients joke about wanting their nails done “one last time.”
The comments sparked her curiosity.
When she began researching postmortem nail care, she discovered there were only a handful of traveling nail technicians who occasionally visited funeral homes at a family’s request. Most funeral homes, however, had no access to a licensed nail professional.
Instead, funeral directors were often left with limited choices.
Some used liquid nail polish. Others experimented with off-the-shelf press-on nails purchased from retail stores.
Neither option, Miller found, was designed for the realities of funeral service.
“The liquid glue is messy, especially when you’re wearing gloves,” she explained. “The adhesive tabs that come with retail press-on nails also aren’t designed for this environment.”
Temperature fluctuations, moisture and changes in the nail bed often caused retail adhesives to crystallize or lose their bond. Even the appearance of commercial press-on nails created challenges.
Many are intentionally translucent to mimic living nails. In funeral service, that transparency can actually work against restoration efforts by allowing bruising, discoloration or trauma beneath the nail bed to remain visible.
“There just wasn’t a product built for funeral professionals,” Miller said. “It was an overlooked need.”
Eighteen Months of Research
Rather than adapting existing products, Miller built one from scratch.
The next year and a half became an intensive research and development process.
She tested a number of different adhesive systems before finding one that met her standards.
Unlike consumer press-on nails that rely largely on body heat to activate the adhesive, My Forever Nails uses a professional-grade pressure-sensitive adhesive designed to create a strong bond after 10 to 15 seconds of firm pressure.
The adhesive maintains its hold despite temperature changes, including refrigeration.
The nails themselves also required extensive redesign.
Miller’s flagship Grace Collection features soft neutral shades intended to recreate a healthy, natural appearance. It offers three options for women: Pale Pink, Velvety Nude and Fusion French — all of which aim to solve a big issue Miller has observed with commercial press-on nails.
“I wanted something that would actually hide discoloration rather than allow it to show through,” she said.
To accomplish that, she developed her own finish that creates what she describes as a soft, jelly-like appearance while providing enough opacity to conceal bruising and other imperfections.
The result is a nail that appears natural without drawing attention to itself.
For funeral professionals working to restore dignity after illness, trauma or prolonged hospitalization, that subtle difference can be significant.
Patients suffering from kidney disease, liver failure, certain cancers and other medical conditions often experience severe nail discoloration or even nail loss before death.
Those changes can become immediately noticeable during an open-casket viewing.
“This gives funeral directors another restoration option,” Miller said. “If the hands are presentable except for the nails, this offers a quick way to complete the presentation.”
Built Around the Funeral Home
Every aspect of the product was designed with funeral directors — not beauty salons — in mind.
Each kit includes a set of pre-sized nails with professional adhesive already applied, along with alcohol wipes, tweezers, a cuticle pusher, replacement adhesive tabs and a nail file.
Application typically takes less than 12 minutes.
Unlike traditional nail preparation, no filing of the natural nail is recommended.
“In cosmetology, we usually rough up the nail before applying products,” Miller explained. “In this case, the adhesive actually performs better on a smooth surface, and we don’t want to unnecessarily disturb delicate tissue.”
If a nail becomes displaced while dressing the deceased, replacement tabs included in the kit allow it to be quickly repositioned.
The adhesive simply reactivates with pressure.
Individual kits currently retail for $35, while the premium French manicure collection is priced at $55, with shipping included. Miller also plans to introduce bulk order options that funeral homes can stock in preparation rooms as a standard restoration supply.
“I wanted this to be something funeral homes could simply keep on the shelf,” she said. “When the need arises, it’s already there.”
Listening Before Launching
Although the website only recently began accepting orders, Miller spent months talking directly with funeral directors through LinkedIn before launching.
Those conversations became an important part of refining the product.
“LinkedIn opened doors,” she said. “Funeral directors were incredibly willing to tell me what challenges they faced.”
Rather than encountering skepticism, she found validation.
“The response has consistently been that this is something the profession has overlooked,” she said.
She also built relationships with local funeral homes willing to evaluate prototypes and provide practical feedback throughout development.
One of those connections began unexpectedly during one of her son’s cross-country meets, where she struck up a conversation with a local funeral home owner. That relationship eventually evolved into ongoing product testing and valuable insight into the daily realities of funeral service.
Keeping Quality First
Although My Forever Nails is still in its early stages, Miller has already built the business with growth in mind.
She has standardized the production process, so trained licensed nail technicians can consistently create identical products while maintaining quality.
As demand increases, she is open to expanding manufacturing but insists the professional standards remain intact.
She is also working to streamline production of the specialized adhesive tabs, including discussions with suppliers connected to 3M’s medical adhesive technologies that could eventually produce the components at larger scale.
Future plans extend well beyond the initial product line.
Additional color collections are already under development, along with what Miller describes as an all-natural nail plate designed specifically for male decedents. (Right now, the only options available are for deceased individuals are female.)
Her long-term vision also includes introducing the product to mortuary science programs so future embalmers learn another restoration technique before entering the profession.
“I’d love to see it become part of mortuary education,” she said.
For Miller, the company represents an unusual intersection of artistry and funeral service.
What began as a nail technician imagining how she wanted her own hands to look someday evolved into something much larger — and into something that could impact families everywhere.
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