A Day in the Life of J.Lo’s Manicurist
J.Lo’s perfect nails require some serious upkeep. (Photo: Instagram)
Tom Bachik is a rarity in the beauty industry—one of the only men in the female-dominated celebrity nail scene. The L’Oreal Paris Global Nail Designer is whom Jennifer Lopez, Heidi Klum, and Jennifer Aniston call when they want perfect hands for awards shows, photo shoots, and events. In fact, Bachik recently painted all their digits, plus Julianne Moore’s, for the Academy Awards. Bottom line: he’s a busy guy. We asked the in-demand nail superstar to walk us through an average—albeit extraordinary—day.
4 a.m. I live about two hours outside of LA, so with all the craziness of awards season I’m up early. I try to get a workout in, like a three-mile run if I have later call times, but today I have three jobs all around the city.
4:15 a.m. I leave the house for a photo shoot in Malibu. The call time is 6 a.m..
6 a.m. We’re shooting one of the new L’Oreal Paris spots with Eva Longoria. It was fully shot in black and white, so the nails needed to be elegant and beautifully polished. I went with a full-coverage nude about a shade lighter than her skin tone. You can get the look using L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Collection Exclusive in Eva’s Nude ($6). I work a half-day at the shoot, and then have to head out to the next one in West Hollywood, which takes about an hour. Luckily the Malibu shoot had a nice lunch spread so I was able to grab a bite with the makeup team before hitting the road.
1 p.m. I arrive at the next shoot, which is for Coco Perez, to shoot some video segments on red carpet looks. The videos themselves don’t take too long to shoot, but when you’re creating different nail looks on the model there is a lot of time spent prepping.
Jennifer Lopez’s Golden Globe nail look by Bachik. (Photo: Instagram)
One of the looks was a mixed-metals style using L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail in Charmed I’m Sure ($6) as our base shade with L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Sparkling Soiree Collection in 24-Carat as a topcoat for effect. I then used Swarovski crystals adhered to the underside of the nail, a technique used on J.Lo for the Golden Globes we call “diamonds on the flipside.”
3:30 p.m. I hop back in my VW and stop at a place to chill for a moment and grab another bite, this time a personal pizza and salad. Then, back in the car, I do a phone interview since I have another hour-long drive ahead of me.
5 p.m. I arrive at my client Jennifer Lopez’s home to do her nails before she flies out of LA for a performance in India. For this we wanted to change it up a bit, so we actually did short, strong shaped nails. One thing with personal appointments is they always take longer than you’d think because there are always lots of other things going on—people talking, packing, texting. I don’t end up starting on her nails until around 8 p.m.
We decide to go dark in tone, with a custom-layered Bordeaux that would work with all her performance looks. We wanted it to be rich, deep and with a bit of shimmer—a perfect performance-worthy color. (Use L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail in Because You’re Worth It as the base shade, layered with a coat of Haute Couture Red to create depth and dimension.)
11 p.m. After finishing off Jennifer’s nails with a few drops of L’Oreal Paris Age Perfect Glow Facial Oil ($25) the day is done and it’s time to head home.
1 a.m. I arrive home and go straight to bed. I have another early call time tomorrow for a L’Oreal Paris shoot in LA with Karlie Kloss.
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