This Russian nail salon designs Donald Trump manicures
Nail Sunny is a Moscow-based salon founded by two sisters, Eleonora and Arina Movsisian, five years ago. But in the past few months, the salon has garnered worldwide attention for its pop-culture and politically infused nail art designs — depicting everyone from Donald Trump to the Kardashians. While I was in Moscow for Fashion Week Russia, I had the opportunity to visit Nail Sunny, meet the founders, and try out a manicure for myself.
I spoke to Eleonora about one of the salon’s most divisive designs: Donald Trump. The nail art was originally created in January 2017 to congratulate Trump on his inauguration. The Nail Sunny team gave Yahoo Lifestyle an exclusive inside look at how they intricately hand-paint their Trump design. (See the full creation come to life in the video above.)
“I respect him as a person, and I’m very, very happy that today the U.S. president is him,” Eleonora tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “He’s a man and he is a true businessman, and he knows the way to make your country be successful.”
She gushes about first lady Melania Trump too: “And also we love so much Melania. She looks like a traditional Russian woman. A Russian woman spends a lot of time on beauty, so that’s why we love her so much, like the Kardashians.”
One of Nail Sunny’s biggest viral hits this year was a 3D nail design of Kylie Jenner and daughter Stormi’s first photo together, which received more than 2 million likes. The Movsisian sisters are big fans of the Kardashian family and are Armenian as well. The women often look to the Kardashian family for inspiration, like their twerking Kim Kardashian and pregnant Khloé Kardashian nail designs.
Although Eleonora herself is not the artist on these larger-than-life designs, she is the creative mind behind them. In the case of Kylie Jenner and Stormi, Eleonora sent the idea to her top nail artist, Natalya Baranova, to re-create the image immediately after Jenner posted the photo on Instagram. She directed Baranova to “‘make the hands move. Make it realistic,'” Eleonora tells Yahoo Lifestyle. The design process took one day to prep and another 12 hours to create. “Her skills are out of this world,” says the salon co-owner.
When I asked Eleonora what she loves most about the Kardashians, she says, “Everything! They’re representative of beauty … all over the world. We love them and respect them, and that’s why we always choose the Kardashian family for our 3D [designs].”
With Eleonora’s long wavy hair, contoured makeup, and affinity for luxury fashion, it’s hard to deny the similarities between her and Kim K.
A post shared by Eleonora Movsisian (@eleonoramovs) on Apr 15, 2018 at 9:10am PDT
Есть люди особенные, а есть люди, которые пытаются ими быть ☝
A post shared by Eleonora Movsisian (@eleonoramovs) on Apr 20, 2018 at 11:16am PDT
The Kardashians and Donald Trump designs offer just a glimpse into the salon’s vast design repertoire. The Nail Sunny team has created extreme designs of Lupita Nyong’o in Black Panther, the 2018 Olympic torch, and my favorite, Louis Vuitton x Supreme. It is the latter design that I chose to try out for myself.
The entire process took three hours and cost only $40 for a hand-painted gel manicure. I kept the manicure on for three weeks afterward. To my surprise, my nails looked just as lustrous as they did when I first got them painted. The manicure truly gave me the most “supreme” nails I’ve ever had.
The Nail Sunny story began when Eleonora was at home raising her son, while her sister Arina was working at another beauty salon. They came together to embark on their golden idea. “We realized every single girl in Russia [dreams] about cheap price[s], fast service, [and] good quality in the center of … Moscow.”
Nail Sunny was born. Originally, the sisters opened with just one nail artist, but the salon’s popularity quickly grew.
A post shared by Eleonora Movsisian (@eleonoramovs) on Oct 2, 2017 at 8:49am PDT
Today, there are six Nail Sunny salons located across Russia, and the two sisters have plans to (they hope) open up their first stateside salon in Los Angeles this year.
But until then — unless you plan to visit Russia — you can watch the video above to get an inside look into one of the world’s most talked-about nail salons and how it creates two buzzworthy nail designs: Donald Trump and Louis Vuitton x Supreme.
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