Manicure has over the years become part of everyday fashion from ordinary to trendy women. From catwalk models to office ladies, it is hard to find women with blank nails these days.
Naturally, the profession of nail artist, or manicurist - unfamiliar though it might sound to some - is receiving increased attention in the fashion industry.
Choi Jin-soon is one of the most popular nail artists in New York City. Her work is often featured in major fashion magazines and accompanies the catwalk collections of world-famous designers including Oscar De La Renta and Vera Wang.
The nail artist also operates three branches of Jin Soon Natural Hand & Foot Spa in New York, which has numerous A-list celebrities which includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna and Lindsay Lohan.
Being a manicurist was not Choi's dream job. She started working on nails as a way to get by.
"In the beginning of my life in New York, I didn't have many choices with jobs so I just followed in other Korean's footsteps and worked at Korean-owned nail salons," she said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Herald. Choi used to work in the Korean fashion industry before moving to New York about 20 years ago.
Although she valued the experience that she got from such salons, Choi said she became frustrated with the idea of working in the same spot without any new challenges.Choi started trying out fresh things, she said. She became a freelance manicurist, stopping off at clients' homes on her bike while expanding into nail art, an area she had never explored before.
"I had never learned how to do nail art, but I tried and practiced at home non-stop, and I discovered that I loved being creative," Choi said.
"The fascination of nail art is that there is no limit on the design even though a nail bed is a very small pallette - it can be very artsy and fashionable at the same time," she added.
Choi's hard work began to pay off around the late '90s - she was offered an opportunity to create looks for the New York Times Magazine when it featured its first-ever nail spread. Through the project, she was crowned a "nail guru" by the magazine and elevated as a nail artist, not just a manicurist.
With her career on a stable track, Choi decided to pursue her dream of opening a salon. She spotted a small venue in the East Village and opened her first-ever salon, Jin Soon Natural Hand & Foot Spa, in 1999.
The salon was how she met her husband, John Coughlan, an architect whom she hired at the time to design the spa. Intrigued by each other's creativity, the two established an up-scale nail salon that provides top-quality service in a serene oriental-style environment.
Choi's unique salon began receiving attention from media and celebrities, securing a lot of trendy regulars. By 2005, Choi and her husband opened two additional shops in the West Village and the Upper East Village.
Choi credited the exotic atmosphere, like the furniture and services, plus her remaining true to her roots as a hands-on manicurist who personally trains all her staff as reasons for her salons' popularity.
Choi's latest project is one with cosmetics brand M.A.C. She collaborated in creating the brand's Fall/Winter nail lacquer collection, which was released at the end of last month.
The collection includes six rich and bold shades, including dark green and purple, which have already received wild response from Korean designer Doo.Ri's F/W collection runway. The shades, according to Choi, are fashion-forward and edgy, being suitable for fashion shows but at the same time not too much for ordinary wear.
The nail artist picked "Beyond Jealous," the blackened blue green, as her favorite shade among the six, speculating that green will be the "it color" for the upcoming season.
Choi said she focused on not only the colors but also the texture and quality of the polishes.
"I wanted to make strong and shiny polishes that can give sufficient texture and color to the nail with just one coat. The demand for such products among working women and runway back stage (crews) have been very high," she said.
Despite the long distance disadvantage, Choi expressed her desire to open a branch of her spa in Korea.
"I also would love to work with a Korean cosmetic company to develop products for hands and feet," she said.
To find out more about Choi and her New York spas, check out www.jinsoon.com
credits to Koh Young-aah of the The Korea Herald
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