Behind the Scenes: Cover Tech/Cover Model Doug Smith

When we first asked Doug Smith to do the nails for this month’s cover, we knew he would be doing a Custom Blended Manicure on our model. After a brief meeting, we called Doug. It went something like this, “So Doug, how are your hands? We seem to recall you have nice hands and nails. Would it be totally off the wall if we asked you to moonlight as one of the models for the cover shoot?” Luckily, our memories served us correctly and he said he would be happy to pull double duty during the shoot — acting as both nail tech and model.

Doug, who has been doing nails for 22 years, has been licensed in Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, and California. He worked in salons for 10 years before joining Creative Nail Design as an education ambassador. After a few years of traveling the world as an educator, he joined the sales team and quickly moved to the international division. After several years managing accounts in Asia Pacific, he took on the task of handling Eastern and Western Europe. This led to work with many European fashion houses, including Dior, Lacroix, Ungaro, and Givenchy.

Lately, he has been relishing in his new role as director of education for Creative Nail Design. In his new role, he has traveled all over the world, doing Creative Road Shows, training the company’s many educators, and acting as a spokesperson for countless magazines and television shows.

“Working with the world leader of all things fabulous for fingers and toes is a gift many professionals dream about. Passion, commitment, and knowledge are all qualities I’ve learned from my experiences with Creative Nail Design and its many global partners,” says Doug.

For this cover, Doug used Creative’s Custom Blending Kit to make these natural-looking enhancements. Because she has warm tones, Doug used soft white tips and created a custom pink using 3 parts Flawless Pink Powder, 1 part Soft White Powder, 1/4 part Twilight Powder, 1/4 part City of Angels Powder, and a dash of Golden Glass Powder.

The result is a custom set of nail enhancements matched specifically to our model’s skin tone.