Tom Bachik's Favorite Celeb Nails of Awards SeasonYou might know celebrity nail artist Tom Bachik as "RedCarpetMan," as he goes by on Twitter. But you might better recognize his work, as seen on celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Zooey Deschanel and Anne Hathaway on, where else, the red carpet.

Now that awards season has, for the most part, wrapped up, MODERN asked Bachik to talk about a few of his favorite designs he has created this year--Zooey's filmstrip nails at the Golden Globes, Anne's paper butterfly nails at the SAG Awards and two of Jennifer's red carpet nail designs from 2013.

How did you come up with each of these designs?

I always work closely with the celebrity to collaborate ideas and incorporate a bit of their personality in each look which keeps is uniquely theirs.

Zooey: Likes fun, playful art but fairly literal in nature. She mentioned cameras or the likes might be fun. So for the Golden Globes I brought ideas of cameras with floating filmstrips, and she loved them. Then we chose a base color to match her dress and put it all together.

Tom Bachik's Favorite Celeb Nails of Awards SeasonAnne: Usually keeps it simple with an accent nail or two, some glitter and maybe a couple crystals. For the SAG awards, her dress was a bit rocker chic, and nails were very important to her. She needed something special. As we were brainstorming she asked if I had anything that had to do with nature. Then her makeup artist said she had eyelashes with butterflies on them. I painted her nails white to stay young and mod then cut off a couple of the butterflies but left parts of the lashes so it looked like paint running down from the butterflies off the nails. It was a team collaboration that was perfect for the night!

 

 

Jennifer: Wore an ornately embellished nude gown and changing into a little black number for the evening out of the Golden Globes. Nails needed to work with both looks. We choose a full nude color to keep it chic and sophisticated. On ring fingers I applied jacquard print overlays custom made for me by Minx, then added hoops and studs for a 3D effect.

For the Grammys, Jens look felt very Cleopatra so nails needed to be fit for a queen. We created long almond shaped nails in white. Then layered nails in chunky gold glitter. To create even more dimension I place chunks of gold leafing down the center of nails and on ring and middle fingers applied 24k whoops, chains, and beads completing the look.

Did you face any challenges or last-minute issues with the manicures?

Ha! It's always last-minute. Rarely do you know in advance what you might do. Many times the dress isn't even chosen until the night before or the day of. Once the glam team is all together we normally look at the top couple possibilities and try to anticipate the overall look we want. Once the celeb is there and the final dress is chosen we take direction but all collaborate to determine looks and what each of us needs to do (hair, makeup and nails). So we bring everything, as anything is possible.

What kinds of manicure trends do you see coming up in 2013 for celebrities and red carpets?

Texture and dimension is big in fashion right now and will take more prominence in color, and I believe nail art is here to stay, at least for a while. Nail art is a great way to complete your look while making it uniquely yours. I do see nail art scaling back to just a couple of featured nails to show a little personality but not fight for attention.

What's up next for you?

I love product development, and as long as I've been doing nails have had the opportunities to be involved closely in most major new product developments with manufacturers from acrylic to gels to Minx to gel polish and the next generation of products coming soon. As the Global Nail Artist for L'Oreal Paris I've been working on new colors, trends and technologies. There are a couple social media and TV opportunities in the works that can be a lot of fun, and of course I have an amazing group of ladies that keep me very busy with all they do.

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