00:03Oh my god, these are so long.
00:07My name is Thuy and I am a celebrity manicurist.
00:10I've been doing nails for about 14 years.
00:13I'm from Torrance, California.
00:14My parents worked a lot.
00:16My father passed away when I was young,
00:18and so my mom had to do a lot of the back-breaking work,
00:22and so I started doing nails as a way
00:24to fund my own extracurriculars.
00:28Understanding someone's style and being able to use that
00:31and create nail art on their nails is always a challenge for me,
00:35and I really like that challenge.
00:37I'm Yumi D. I'm a manicurist and nail artist.
00:40I am an editorial manicurist,
00:42which means I work on set doing photo shoots for magazines
00:45and billboards and campaigns.
00:48I decided to save on my money, put myself through nail school,
00:51I got my license, and eight years later, here I am.
00:53So we just found out that the theme is gradient and jungle.
00:58I think it's super fun.
00:59I'm kind of excited.
01:01We have two hours to do this.
01:03Nail gods be with us.
01:04Good luck, zen.
01:08So I'm mixing a little white with the yellow to make a lighter yellow,
01:13and that way I can do my gradient from yellow to yellow.
01:16A lot of different things inspire my nail art.
01:19Seeing anything with like bright colors or color splashes,
01:23something that's super vibrant.
01:25So anything that's like, ooh, that's cool, I think I can put that on a nail.
01:29That's really what inspires my nail art.
01:31I am using a black base just because I like how vibrant the colors will pop up
01:37and give it that boom factor.
01:40Jungle.
01:40So I'm thinking the jungle book, and then I'm thinking monstera leaves
01:44and all of the major big plant leaves.
01:47That's the fun of nail art is that you literally can just throw all of your ideas onto.
01:52You have ten fingers, so you really can't go wrong.
01:55So right now I'm just laying different colors on these leaf patterns that I'm drawing.
02:00I have an immense amount of love for plants, especially indoor plants.
02:05Yeah, my house is literally a jungle.
02:08I'm saving my plant life for when I move.
02:10You're moving?
02:11Yeah, I have a kid now, so.
02:13Okay.
02:13I have three.
02:15Three?
02:15Yeah.
02:16I adopted them.
02:17Oh really?
02:18The fall of 2012, I was en route to go to medical school.
02:22I was supposed to start during the fall, but during summertime my sister passed away.
02:27And I adopted her three children.
02:30So when I became a mom overnight, I didn't really have the bandwidth to go to medical school and be
02:37a mom at the same time.
02:38So I solely focused on my kids for a year.
02:41After a year, I decided to do nails again and kind of just get back into that creative element.
02:48It makes people happy.
02:49And I've had so much unhappiness through my life that I just wanted to focus on that.
02:56Seeing people happy makes me happy.
02:58That's amazing.
03:00Do you have a boy?
03:01I do.
03:02Micah.
03:03Oh, that's such a beautiful name.
03:05How old is Micah?
03:06He'll be two in October.
03:07Oh, he's a baby.
03:09He's a baby.
03:10The toughest thing about being a mom is, of course, just being away from my son.
03:15You know, I know that I'm working and, you know, making money obviously to provide for him.
03:21So even though it's tough, it's great and I love it.
03:24I'm working on my last nail.
03:27What?
03:27No, no, no.
03:28For one hand.
03:29For one hand.
03:30I was going to say, oh my God!
03:33Right now I feel a little bit nervous because I feel like we're crunching down to the wire.
03:39And I still have a lot I feel like I want to do.
03:41So if I tell myself I'm not going to stress out, I'm going to try to not stress out.
03:46You know, manifest.
03:48Oh my God, I love it.
03:50I'm doing a poison dart frog meal.
03:55I'm just going and adding on the details.
03:58I have a lot to do, but I think now that, you know, I have the like...
04:05In my brain, I'm like, okay, you got to go, you got to go, you got to go.
04:07So I think I'm okay on time, but I'm going to go first though.
04:11The little decals will just enhance it on top,
04:15giving it that different dimension.
04:17You know what I'm saying?
04:20So people have been really into these press-on nails
04:23during COVID because, like, if they're doing a Zoom call,
04:27they can just pop it on really fast.
04:29You could probably reuse them, like, a lot of times
04:31if you just care for them properly.
04:34Okay, so I have two more nails to do.
04:36How are you doing over there?
04:38I have three more to do.
04:40Ooh.
04:42Oh, my lord, they're so cold.
04:46Ah, there's a minute left.
04:48Better get them on now.
04:49Get them on now.
04:51I'm working as fast as I can.
04:54Last nail.
04:56Last nail, last nail.
05:00All right, now it's time to see each other's nails.
05:03You go first.
05:05Oh, my God.
05:06That's so cute.
05:09I love it.
05:11Yes, queen.
05:14Thanks.
05:15I loved how they turned out.
05:18What I've learned is that I can go faster and still achieve the same look.
05:23As much as I love this look, I'm very glad that I did this on press-ons
05:27because mom life, I don't know how Cardi B does it.
05:31These are way too long for me, and hers are twice as long.
05:33So I love these, but I honestly cannot wait to take them off.
05:38Okay, let me see yours.
05:38Let me see yours.
05:39Oh, yes, green.
05:42Yes.
05:43Oh, that's so good.
05:46And then...
05:46Okay, let me see, because I want to see this panda.
05:49Look at the panda.
05:50Look at the panda!
05:53My little cameo for my panda.
05:55I love it.
05:56We have to give him a name or her name.
05:58I'm going to name him Gilbert.
06:00He looks like a Gilbert.
06:02Gilbert.
06:02I'm here for it.
06:03I'm here for it.
06:04So dark and some light.
06:07Yes, we kind of did the same thing.
06:08Yeah.
06:08Like color, light.
06:10I'm really happy with it.
06:11I was able to have creative freedom, but it was a little bit hard in that trying to figure
06:16out which one of my 100 ideas I was going to put onto the actual nails.
06:22Mimi did an exceptional job.
06:24I thought her design was very creative.
06:26I love all of the animal prints.
06:28Hers are all so colorful, but they're all tied in so well together, and I'm like amazed.
06:35I think we both won because we both did things differently.
06:39To say who won, I don't know.
06:41Who do you think should win this challenge?
06:44Please leave your comments below.
06:45You knocked it out of the park, girlfriend.
06:47You did an amazing job with your nails.
06:50I don't know.
06:51Hopefully, maybe we'll work on a project together soon.
06:53Yes!
06:54Let's do it!
06:55Bye!
06:56Thank you for watching Refinery29.
06:59Click here to watch more videos and click here to subscribe.
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