The smell of various nail polishes, acetone, glues, and disinfectants fills the room, but that did not keep Dina Menschikov from smiling and humming along with the song that played on the  T.V. in the corner. The little bell on the door ringed when a customer walked in and she’s immediately recognized by Ms. Menschikov, who’s seated behind a manicure table at the opposite end of the salon.

“Alina!” Ms. Menschikov greeted, as she added a thin layer of top coat to her current client’s nails. After sending the client to the drying station, she jerked her head in a “you’re next” motion. The two conversed in their native tongue, Russian.

Her hair was tied up in a semi-neat bun, a pair of eyeglasses resting atop her highlighted dark amber hair. Her mauve lipstick, fierce, penciled-in eyebrows, and thick mascara stole the attention away from her barefaced Asian coworkers.

Ms. Menschikov, a 38 year-old from Moscow, Russia, works at her cousins’ nail salon in Brighton Beach, where she is a nail technician and professional nail artist who specializes in 3D nail art. Aside from cutting and cleaning nails, she creates elaborate designs on her clients’ ten mini canvases. Or maybe just on two, depending on the client’s mood.

“Everything I do is freehand. No templates,” she said. From pop-up flowers and butterflies to 2D zebra stripes and abstract wispy lines, Ms. Menschikov can create nearly anything upon her clients’ requests. “Someone wanted me to paint Ariel, you know, from Little Mermaid? It was very hard to draw the face,” she recalled. “But I got a really nice tip.”

She began learning basic manicure techniques from her aunt, who owns a beauty salon in Moscow, where she grew up with her extended family. Her mother passed away when she was a child and her father left to marry another woman.

“I remember doing my two little cousins’ nails all the time for fun, and one day, my aunt told me I had a very steady hand, so I should go take nail classes,” said Ms. Menschikov, as she gently filed Alina’s nails from an ovular shape into a more rectangular shape. In Russia, she worked in a massage parlor. “But I was always very artistic, so I thought maybe doing nails was a good idea.”

About ten years ago, Ms. Menshchikov came to America with her four cousins, two of whom own Paris Nails, the salon Ms. Menshchikov presently works in. She spent her first two years in America waxing and trimming eyebrows for a living, until she obtained a license for nail grooming.

Brighton Beach is dotted with various nail salons, spas, and beauty clinics, so Ms. Menschikov tries her best to keep her clients from getting their nails done elsewhere. In fact, some of her most loyal clients come back every week, like Alina.

Alina commented, “I like her style,” while Ms. Menschikov brushed moistened acrylic power to Alina’s ring fingernail, gently tapping and molding the powder into a 3D flower. “I have never seen someone take their time like Dina.”

“I like to be very very precise. I’m a perfectionist,” Ms. Menschikov replied, putting on her glasses to aid her slight farsightedness. “Maybe that’s why I’m single,” she joked.

“Sometimes the customers get mad because I missed a spot and they want a discount,” she continued, a hint of anger in her voice. “These things take a lot of time and just one mistake makes it cheap for them. That’s not fair.”

Nevertheless, she resumed her humming after gluing three different-colored beads in the middle of each flower.

The finished product.