I recently had the chance to chat with my friends at Paintbox about my favorite nail polishes/nail art as well as my jewelry designing at Bobby Pin Jewelry. Check it out on their blog: http://www.paint-box.com/blog-posts/nails-of-new-york-susan-schell Look closely—do you recognize these beautiful hands? Jewelry designer Susan Schell has been hand-modeling for Paintbox for several seasons, but it's what she does when she's not modeling that we're spotlighting here. Susan and business partner Maria de Diego run a custom bridal jewelry line together called BOBBY PIN. Maria founded the line in 2011 and brought Susan on board to help design and produce beautiful, one-of-a-kind heirloom pieces for brides to wear at their weddings. As part of our focus on all things bridal this month (to coincide with the launch of our BRIDAL COLLECTION), we asked Susan if we could visit the Bobby Pin studio and talk to her more about the work she and Maria do creating custom jewelry. Susan wears Moonstruck in Essie Penny Talk. Why do you paint your nails? I like to paint my nails for aesthetic reasons and because I feel like they are less likely to break with polish on. I always have at the very least a clear coat of polish on my nails. As a jewelry designer, I sometimes work with rough materials and tools so having strong nails is really important to me. Having nicely painted nails just makes me feel better when I look down at my hands; it makes me feel more put together. Susan designing a custom piece for the Bobby Pin collection. Do you have a favorite polish or go-to look? I personally love having solid white nails. It just looks really clean and is simple enough to go with anything. Floss Gloss has a great white called "Mrs. Tony Montana." It is perfectly opaque. I really love a good metallic nail, maybe because I work with precious metals. Essie makes a great silver called "No Place Like Chrome" that I like to wear when my nails are longer. Where do you find your inspiration? When I'm designing jewelry I am often inspired by geometric patterns and nature—especially flowers and leaves. These seem to be themes that I reference a lot and turn to for ideas. The thing I love about making custom jewelry and accessories is that I get to be inspired by something completely new with each client. My business partner, Maria de Diego (founder of BOBBY PIN Jewelry), and I work really well together, we seem to come up with even better designs when we bounce ideas off of each other. We both have major obsessions with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements so we find tons of inspiration and ideas from those styles. Pieces from the Bobby Pin collection.
What do you love most about working on custom pieces for brides? At Bobby Pin, Maria and I work with brides to make completely custom jewelry for their wedding day. Everything about your wedding is personalized to you, so we work with our customers to make jewelry, hair pieces, and accessories that are like new heirloom pieces—pieces that our clients can wear time and time again and eventually pass on to their children. I really feel like the details are what make a wedding especially memorable, whether that is a piece of unique custom jewelry or a very special manicure.
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Every now and then while hand modeling I have had to get a lot more than just my nails painted. Having your hands painted is not only a little strange, it is also quite challenging - you can't touch or move anything! While it can be a little difficult to get around on set, the pictures from these kinds of shoots tend to be really cool and completely different from your typical beauty or nails hand shoot. These are a few behind the scenes shots of my hands covered in paint and one in glitter. Glittered up hands have an equally cool effect but the glitter tends to get stuck everywhere so it is even messier.
While I really liked all the shoots that I have been painted on, I have a had a few issues with paint either irritating my skin or staining me. The best paints to use are obviously body friendly ones, acrylic paints look good but feels pretty bad and made my hand turn red even though the clean up was pretty easy. For some reason this week has been extra rough on my hands. I broke two nails and cut myself all in the span of one day. Thankfully my nails were really long so I was able to salvage them and they still look decent. The cut was pretty clean and not too deep so I think it will heal just fine. I used to think it was crazy that hand models would wear gloves all the time but I suppose it actually makes sense when your paycheck depends on you hands looking perfect. I think there is a lot of pressure in parts modeling to truly have flawless "parts," or hands in my case, so the upkeep is kind of intense. I have never really been that into moisturizing but I've started to embrace certain lotions and oils. In particular I think the number one hand care essential product is a good cuticle cream. I never cut my cuticles unless they are crazy dry or I have random hang nail. I'm not certain that this is medically accurate but I think cutting your cuticles can make them grow back more jagged and hardened. Product wise, I like anything Burt's Bees, in particular the Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream and Hand Salve. The cuticle cream is an instant fix for dry cuticles and the hand salve is the most moisturizing thing I own. I like to do a combo of the two products and if I have a shoot the next day I'll put them both on and wear some overnight lotion gloves for extra softness in the morning. For just a good general lotion I really like Trader Joe's Coconut Body Butter or St. Ives Collagen Elastin. These are both great for normal everyday lotion and for hands. Another super important thing that I had to learn the hard way - ALWAYS use a base coat when painting your nails anything highly pigmented...there is nothing worse than waiting for your stained and nasty looking nails to grow out. I like Sally Hansen's Double Duty Base Coat and Top Coat because it is two in one and lasts a long time. Here is a natural nail shot I did with some amazing Ladurée Pastries!
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AuthorSusan Schell is a working hand model in Paris and NYC. Archives
September 2020
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