White Noise
Liza Smith
Grooming Couture
TEXT BY JENNIFER MOULAISON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GENOVEVA ARTEAGA-RYNN / VIN+OMI
The spirit of couture extended all the way down to the fingertips at recent Fashion Week events, where exceptional displays
of intricate nail art were rampant, confirming our suspicions
that this trend is indeed experiencing a resurgence. While using
impossibly intricate nail art to punctuate the designs sent down
the runways is decidedly not a fresh concept, it has gained new
relevance of late, showcasing modern advancements in technique and materials. These novelties are affording talented
artists, such as award-winning salon owner Liza Smith, the ability express themselves more completely than ever before. With
a professional background that includes international competition wins, a role as Education Ambassador for the global brand
CND, and participation in Fashion Week since the early ‘00’s,
Liza is the perfect person with whom to discuss nail art’s evolving role in couture, as well as her own groundbreaking endeavors
in the industry.
Why choose nails, rather than the more common beauty
pursuits of hair and makeup?
My first love was make-up and hairdressing, (I was practicing on
my friends and family from the age of 12!) I have always been
fascinated by the human body but my creative side drew me to
Nails and hair. By the time I was traveling in the nail competition circuit, I was fully enthralled with the science behind the
creativity and continued to develop my skills. It was these skills
that have flown me all over the world to look after the hands and
feet of the famous!
How did you build such a successful relationship with label Vin + Omi, and what drove your
collaborations creatively?
After building up a great team to work with me at Fashion Week
three years ago, I was put in touch with Vin + Omi and we
clicked straight away.
Each show we experimented liberally. In our second season
we applied vintage candy directly to tips to look as though the
models had stuck their hands in the sweetie jar. Another season
with CND onboard as a sponsor and we were asked to make a
dress out of nail tips. My team hand-painted over 17,000 tips in
7 different colors that were then hand applied to the material of
the dress. This season CND sponsored in a bigger way than ever
before and funded a project that saw six of us design and produce the biggest and baddest nail styles I have ever produced!
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This show was called Colourotic, and was based around over
thirty shades of CND Vinylux polish range. We were asked to
design no holds barred nail styles based around surrealism and/
or extreme shapes.
Designers like Vin and Omi are a dream to work with because
they treasure creativity across all of the elements of their show.
Tell us about Bodylines.
What began with only myself and a trainee on the payroll has
since expanded to cover three thousand square feet on three
floors and has shifted from a beauty and hair salon offering
nails, to a Nail salon offering hair and beauty. Because we
have the CND Kent Academy on the same premises as the
Bodylines salon, our staff is repeatedly put through the classes
for nails and waxing. We also send them to regular training with
Dermalogica, HD Brows, and Neauveu lashes. After all of my
travels and networking with different salons around the world,
I have a very clear vision of my brand and its offerings of many
inter-connecting treatments to the highest level, with amazing,
science-backed knowledge.
With such great strides in innovation, products and
techniques, which ones are you implementing in
your services?
I only use products from the brand CND. They are one of only a
few brands in the industry that research and develop their own
products and their science-based knowledge that is passed onto
us as educators allows me total faith in offering the very best to
my clients. My signature looks are using custom blended acrylic
colored powders to completely change the look of the natural
nails but leaving them looking totally natural. I also developed a
technique around 18 years ago called 2-step. This involves using
opaque acryl X