I was recently asked where I like to go get manicures here in New York and thought that I'd share a few of my favorite spas/salons in the city. If I'm in a rush or just need a quick and convenient polish before a shoot, I'll pop in pretty much anywhere but I just ask that they don't cut my cuticles. Cuticle oil and pushing back the cuticles will do the trick 99% of the time. I really only ever get my cuticles cut when I'm with a manicurist I completely trust and there is actually something to cut off - I find that people love to cut into cuticles that really don't need to be cut. Anyways, as for my actual recommendations, here are a few of my favorite (and hand model approved!) nail salons: For a basic manicure and an amazing spa pedicure - Polaris (20 E. 22nd St.) Polaris is great for standard manicures; they are really careful and make sure your nails look perfect. They take their time and the end result is always consistently good. They have a solid assortment of colors to choose from and their polishes don't chip off right away. If you want to treat yourself to a great pedicure, I highly recommend their spa pedicure! For a luxurious hand and foot treatment - Jin Soon (56 E. 4th St. and additional locations) I have had the pleasure of working with Jin Soon on various hand shoots, not to mention for her own line of nail polishes, so it was fun for me to check out her salon. I have long been a fan of her polishes - from the packaging to the formula, it truly is great polish! Her salon is equally nice. I love the milk and honey hand and foot treatment. Complimented with your choice of essential oil, the milk and honey treatment is ultra hydrating and relaxing. There is wide selection of designer polishes and Jin Soon's namesake polishes to choose from. As I said, I am a huge fan of Jin Soon's polish, I love the colors and that it last so long! Pro tip: make sure you get the citrus tea, its so delicious! For nail art - Paintbox (17 Crosby St.)
Paintbox is a curated nail art salon in SoHo that does exclusively manicures. I have also had the pleasure of working with the Paintbox team as a hand model so I have personally tried a variety of their nail art looks - I'm partial to anything with negative space but they offer seasonal looks so there is always something new to try! I really appreciate the quality products that they use like the Deborah Lippmann cuticle cream. The paintbox salon itself is just a lovely place to be in, they offer great coffee or prosecco to make your experience even better and the staff are some of the nicest people in New York! It's a great experience and the paintbox mani cam is the perfect way to take a "nailfie" after your manicure!
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Before hand modeling I never really thought about the appearance of my hands but there were a few distinct moments where the way my hands look was suddenly brought to my attention. One such instance:
I went to an art school for college so I spent a lot of my time drawing. I remember in a particular anatomy of drawing course that we were asked to draw our own hands as a home work assignment. It was a deeply thorough assignment as we were instructed to start literally from the inside out. We were asked to start by drawing the many bones of the hand, then on an overlaid pieces of semi transparent paper we moved on to the muscles, and eventually to the outer skin. This class was where I really learned how to draw the human form and of course hands, which are notoriously one of the hardest body parts to draw. I remember this hand homework assignment because my teacher was very good at explaining how to understand the proportions of the body and how to translate that to an accurate drawing - so I thought I did a good job and was very proud of my drawing. Durring the class critique another student began his critique of my piece and ultimately complained that it looked like I made the fingers too long. I protested and held up my hand to the drawing and everyone agreed that it was pretty accurate. The class laughed it off and joked about my long fingers as they moved on to the next piece. This was one of those weird moments where I suddenly felt very conscious of my own hands and not necessarily in a bad way but I was just made very aware of them. Anyways - hands in art are one of my favorite motifs so I've included a few of my favorite hand drawings and paintings in this post. I especially love the Egon Schiele sketch and the poster for "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger." Being a hand model comes with a lot of questions - I've discussed a lot my FAQs in this blog but pretty much everyone who finds out that I hand model has a slew of questions about my job. Mostly, people are curious about how protective or obsessive hand models are about their hands. Over the past year I've written a few articles on the topic for various beauty publications and I just found some of my hand care tips translated into German by Elle Deutschland! For the English version, check out this blog post.
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AuthorSusan Schell is a working hand model in Paris and NYC. Archives
September 2020
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