My sport of choice is meeting people who take nail art as seriously as I do. Luckily, I found that in Rachel Sun, the artist responsible for every one of Doechii's iconic nail looks. A quick glance at Sun's Instagram, and you'll see what I'm talking about. From this year's Met Gala nails for Doechii to her more recent Cowboy Carter set, it's safe to say Sun and her work are my latest obsession.
Not only that, but she often shares how to re-create some of these looks at home. Spoiler alert: She's a fan of using gadgets you can get Amazon for as low as $10. I was curious about how Sun works and what else she swears by to create her iconic designs. She was kind enough to give me the inside scoop on all the products she considers secret weapons. For details on her favorite looks she's created for Doechii and all her most-used products, keep scrolling.
The Inside Scoop on Doechii's Coolest Nail Looks
Doechii's Spinning Button Nails
This nail look was designed based on a custom button set from Handsomegirly clothing that Doechii wore. Sun created these nails by prepping the nails with two layers of gray polish. She then added spinning nail charms from Amazon on the nails and the buttons on top to give them an interactive 3D effect. "For the buttons, I handpicked them from a small business in Los Angeles [called] Azi in Wonderland that's run by the sweetest and most helpful man," Sun explained. "He had a beautiful collection of vintage buttons, so they are each unique and very beautiful!"
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Doechii's Gilded Gold Nails
Sun also created a set of glittering, gilded gold nails for Doechii during Paris Fashion Week that quickly became a favorite. To start, she made a set of custom over-the-finger nail tips and painted them black. Then, using Function of Vex's Black Void One Step Gel in black, she created the textures on each nail. She then rubbed Function of Vex's Solo Pressed Chrome Powder in Gold Tooth all over each nail to give it its rich color.
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Doechii's Alligator Claws
This alligator claw look was mostly sculpted using polygel. Sun used polygel for the eyelid and socket of the alligator eye and 3D molding gel for the eyeball itself. "[I used] a thicker viscosity gel for the alligator skin texture. (I believe this design was originally created by @nailedbytav on Instagram)," Sun says. "I used Fineprint 3D Art Gel in Bone by Function of Vex for this design so it could hold the negative etched design long enough to complete the design on the entire nail."
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Sun's Favorite Products and Colors
According to Sun, a good topcoat is the key to any great nail look. For any matte look, she loves this one from Function of Vex. "This is my secret to every chrome isolation design on nails," she shares. "Not a single fleck of chrome will adhere to the background of the design, making the design with chrome sharp and clean."
Sun uses polygel for a lot of her work—it's her absolute favorite medium to work with for artificial extensions and for 3D designs. If you want to dabble in polygel, Sun loves brands like Gaoy (which can be found on Amazon) or polygel from Nail Craft Cult.
"This medium is soft enough to easily sculpt designs without having to spend too much time smoothing everything out and blending features together whilst at the same time maintaining its form long enough to retain the desired shape. I always use polygel and forms to shape cat claws." — Sun
Sun told me that nail art powders are a must for any creative look. She says, "I use nail art powders, which are pigments that you can use to create ombré designs, to add shading, and to easily blend color seamlessly together without the use of airbrush or laboriously blending gel polish together. My favorite palettes are from Function of Vex."
Unsurprisingly, all of Function of Vex's extremely cool nail art powder palettes are sold out at the moment, but keep an eye out for a restock if you're into DIY nail art.
As for colors, Sun says that neutral shades like OPI's Put It in Neutral are always a key component when creating a great set of nails. She describes this as the perfect jelly nude shade. It starts every creation off right and provides the perfect base for designs. When she doesn't use a shade like this, she also prefers to mix her own natural-looking shades to create the perfect hue.
Besides Put It in Neutral, Bare My Soul is her other favorite neutral OPI shade to work with. "These two provide the perfect jelly nude base to most of my designs where I do not necessarily want the natural nail to be completely hidden behind a polish while at the same time providing a blank canvas to add other designs on top of," she explains.
For bolder colors, Sun is loving more vibrant colors like cobalt for summer. "This color is so refreshing, electrifying, and energizing," she says. "My favorite cobalt blue shade [is] from OPI named IndiGo Off, which is a clearer jelly shade."
Her other most-used blue is 125 Babe Blue from V Beauty Pure. "[This] is also a jelly shade but will be opaque with a couple of coats," she says.
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