Dawn’s Olympic Nails

My friend and colleague Dawn now works out of the Times’s Seoul bureau so I don’t get to see her has as much as I used to. Sad for all of us who work at 620. (That’s shorthand for the Times’s headquarters in NY which is at 620 8th Ave.)

Dawn left China after high school to attend St. Joseph’s University in Philly and The Times snapped her up after stints at the Washington Post and Reuters. She now runs our Asian visuals desk.

When we greeted each other in the days before the soggy Opening Ceremony, I immediately noticed her nails, fashioned in the spirit of the Olympic rings. I needed to know more. Here’s a Q&A with Dawn, (official byline: Weiyi Cai).

Moi: Hey Dawn, I love your nails, what was your inspiration?

Dawn: Nails have always been my little creative and style outlet. I remember when I was in high school I was so excited when my mom let me buy my first bottle of nail polish, I got bright yellow. Having bright colors and fun designs make me feel put together and I’d smile looking at them when I have a bad day. And since I moved to Korea, nail art is available at a more reasonable price. It kind of became my thing. I’d change designs every month or so to reflect my mood or the season, so when the Olympics were coming up I knew I wanted some Olympics related design.

Originally I wanted something to do with the rings but I searched a lot online, on instagram, but nothing really jumped out. It is very hard to make perfect circles in such small surfaces, so I started to think about replacing existing designs that I’ve saved with the colors of the rings.

I thought maybe I can just do French tips with each color on each finger, then I thought it was not exciting enough. Then I found a design on Instagram by @bycheznails that I had saved (yes I have an Instagram folders of nail designs). It’s five blocks of colors on each finger and a twist of the classic French tip, it’s subtle yet fits the theme, everything clicked!

Moi: Where did you get them done?

Dawn: At Flor Nail in Itaewon, in Seoul, which is my go-to nail spot. The nail techs there are very patient even if we don’t speak the same language.

Moi: How do they do the intricate designs?

Dawn: Because of the language barrier, I usually show them the design I want, but this time it involved a lot of color changes because I wanted every nail to have different combinations. I did a mockup on my phones drawing app.

She started with thin lines, working one color at a time and she drew the curve at the top with a light color then filled in the blocks one color at a time.

Moi: Have you seen any other Olympic related nail designs?

Dawn: Yeah, Ive seen a French athlete with the rings on one of the fingers, Noah Lyles is famous for painting his nails, not necessarily Olympics themed, but to boost his style and performance; Jordan Chiles had America’s red and blue colors on each hand.

Here are some other nail creations that Dawn has had.