NYMAG's The Cut just published a really funny article about what it is like being a Paintbox handmodel. I know from personal experience :P but found the article to be hilarious. My favorite quote from the article is "...the life of a Paintbox hand model is a life of exquisite, almost unimaginable ennui and luxury." Being full of ennui, I felt inspired to repost the article! Read the full story by Dayna Evans here! "The most essential skill one can have as a Paintbox hand model is knowing how to hold a costly prop — whether a bar of chocolate, a flute of rosé Champagne, or a Brazilian passport — as if it were just about to slip out of one’s hands and come tumbling to the ground. One cannot grip anything too tightly or too gently."
I promise it isn't always as easy as it looks!
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I was recently interviewed by FAB beauty!
We discussed how I got started and what it is really like to be a professional hand model. I don't know how I missed this but back in May I gave Your Nails Magazine some pro tips on hand care and thought I'd share some of them here!
So here is a little excerpt: Cuticles are an integral part of overall nail health; they actually protect the nail bed, the part of your nail where new cells develop and result in nail growth. It is similar to taking care of your hair – you start at the roots! Cuticles are like the roots of your nails so healthy cuticles means healthy nails. I think people tend to get carried away when cutting cuticles. I have had a few nightmarish incidents like being cut too deeply and bleeding at a salon while getting a manicure. Having open wounds on your cuticles is a lot worse than a bit of dried skin and it makes them more susceptible to infection. To me it just seems like something that is better in my own control, so whenever I get a manicure, unless I really trust the manicurist, I prefer to avoid the cuticle cutters. Another very important tip is, something I had to learn the hard way, ALWAYS use a base coat when painting your nails with anything highly pigmented. There is nothing worse than having to wait for stained and nasty looking nails to grow out. I like using Sally Hansen’s Double Duty Base Coat and Top Coat because it is two in one and doesn’t chip. I like to use it as a clear coat of polish or as the base and top coat to protect a colorful polish. A more obvious but equally important thing to keep in mind is protecting your hands from the elements like the weather and water. Wearing gloves in the winter helps to keep hands from cracking and drying out. Sunscreen in the summer not only protects from sunburns but it also helps prevent sunspots. Wearing cleaning gloves when washing dishes helps keep your hand safe from dish soap and water, which can strip your skin of moisture and natural oils. I like to keep lotion next to my sink so I can quickly moisturize after washing my hands. Read more in Your Nails Magazine! 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! 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.
Save the Seinfeld jokes—hand model Susan Schell has heard them before (and yes, admittedly, some of them may have been from us). When Schell reached out to us offering to fill us in on what it's actually like to be a hand model for part of (she also happens to be a writer) her 9-5, our minds admittedly started to wander. To be frank, we've heard some unbelievable anecdotes regarding what it takes to be one—think wearing gloves full-time when you're not shooting. We quizzed Schell on the biggest misconceptions about her trade, her favorite product picks that keep her hands, nails and cuticles in photo-ready shape and the weirdest thing she's done in the name of nail maintenance.
Read more here! Certain themes have become somewhat recurrent in my line of work. For example - melting frozen desserts. For some reason I have held a lot of melting popsicles! I once worked on a shoot dedicated to holding popsicles in front of New York monuments for Vogue.com. The oppressive heat in July made it pretty tricky to keep the popsicles from melting before we got the shot. You can check that shoot out here! However, melting is often the desired effect - a hand covered in melting ice cream looks cool and every body loves a great drip shot. Some times you have to fake it a little bit. I've seen food stylist use hair dryers to melt ice cream faster or they'll even do the drips themselves! While the end result is usually a fun and playful image, the reality of shooting such things is pretty messy and quite challenging. There is a lot involved in such a shoot: you are either dealing with something that is melting too fast or too slow, timing is always an issue for the perfect drip shot, and holding something frozen can really start to hurt after a few minutes. The final images are always exciting at least! Hand care might not be everyone’s most primary concern – but for me it has become a big part of my life. Working as a hand model here in NYC, I’m expected to have flawless hands and nails. Of course perfection is not always attainable, my nails break and my hands dry out just like everyone else.
I have however developed a routine for myself that keeps my hands more consistently prepared for photo shoots. I never know when I am going to be booked for a job so it is important for me to maintain healthy and pretty Read the rest here! |
AuthorSusan Schell is a working hand model in Paris and NYC. Archives
September 2020
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