Melissa Samuel is a specialty nail artist behind the model Finesse Your Claws, which she runs from her non-public studio within the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Ms. Samuel, 41, designs bespoke 3-D nail units for a closed consumer roster that has included the singer SZA, the rapper Lil Yachty and the singer Justine Skye. (And there’s a ready listing, so don’t even dream of getting a quick appointment.)
Initially from London, Ms. Samuel moved to New York in 2015 and commenced working at nail salons in Brooklyn and on Manhattan’s Decrease East Facet. When Covid hit and salons shut, she pivoted, designing nails from her condominium.
Finesse Your Claws is a one-woman operation. However Ms. Samuel does have a muse — the influencer Alani Figueroa, additionally identified by her social media deal with, “Wuzg00d” — whom Ms. Samuel credit with serving to her vault to the large leagues.
In 2020, Ms. Figueroa wore one in every of Ms. Samuel’s customized units to a photograph shoot for the style model Moschino. The designer Jeremy Scott, then Moschino’s artistic director, noticed the nails and “requested for 5 extra,” Ms. Samuel stated.
“When the celebrities align, they align,” she stated.
That gave her the boldness, and the funds, to open her personal studio in June of that yr.
