Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.07.2015, Side 34

34 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 10 — 2015DESIGN
Catherine’s shop is adorned with stacks
of Japanese fashion magazines and prints
by Bei Badgirl. Each wall is painted differ-
ently: seafoam green, yellow and white
stripes, and soft pastel blue. It’s an oasis
of colour, much like the woman herself.
With multi-coloured hair down to
her waist and a smattering of vivid new-
school tattoos done by the Canadian Ol-
ivier Julliand, Catherine lives up to name
of her salon. Donning a Black Milk dress
with an ‘Adventure Time’ print, polka-dot
Irregular Choice flats, and Lime Crime’s
“Utopia” velvetine lipstick, she completed
what is a casual look for the artist with a
low side ponytail and perfectly symmetri-
cal winged eyeliner.
Originally from Montreal, Catherine
now lives and works in Reykjavík and has
jump-started a craze of nail art in the city.
The basics
While some might balk at the idea of a
four-hour manicure, these are the norm
for Catherine. Her nails go way beyond the
basic French. Some of the sets she does
are long and pointy, covered in jewels,
while others are intricately painted with
designs ranging from Pokémon to tradi-
tional Icelandic runes.
Catherine started doing nail art while
in beauty school back in Montreal. “I
wanted to do something more creative
than wearing a white uniform all day
and acting super formal with everyone,”
Catherine says, reflecting on her time
working at a spa. Catherine is, even upon
first meeting, anything but formal. She’s
so warm and expressive that it’s impos-
sible not to feel immediately comfort-
able around her. “It was just really not
my thing!” she says with a large burst of
laughter.
Eventually she turned exclusively to
nails and moved to a more eclectic salon.
“Everything was pink and black and kind
of Victorian or Rococo style,” she says of
the more laid-back and art-focused man-
ner of this shop. “People would come for
two to three hours, have coffee, and chat.”
Catherine has curated this same at-
titude in her own studio. As she fixes a
customer’s broken nail, they talk about
everything under the sun. This customer
has gone regularly to Catherine since
2013 and currently has spikes, ram skulls,
and clock gears adorning her fingers.
The girl’s favourite manicure featured
Star Wars characters. “It was fun to make
Jabba so slimy!” Catherine smiles nostal-
gically.
The journey
Catherine moved to Reykjavík three years
ago after a chance encounter at a bar. It’s
a love story worthy of a film: her first night
in Iceland, she decided to go grab a beer
at a bar and watch a football game. A man
asked to borrow a chair from her table,
and then invited her to join his group. He
later offered her the extra bedroom of his
flat to stay in. “I thought like why not? If
it’s creepy, I’ll just leave tomorrow,” she
laughs.
But it wasn’t. The two continued talk-
ing for a year afterwards. Catherine has a
sparkle in her eye as she recounts the tale,
“In typical Icelandic-man-style, he was
not really saying that he was interested,
but at the same time, I’m like, you don’t
waste time talking to a girl that you don’t
care about.” Catherine eventually visited
again and moved in with him, and they got
married.
Reykjavík isn’t a city teeming with nail
salons, like New York or London. A google
search reveals only two, and one of them
is Rainbow Nails. Catherine explains that
there are a few other people who do nails,
but she’s the only one to do nail art. This
doesn’t seem to be due to lack of inter-
est—Catherine recalls that though it took
her maybe three or four months to be-
come really busy, she’s now so popular
that she isn’t taking new clients.
She found success mainly through
word of month. “I was lucky to initially get
people that were quite well-known in Ice-
land, so people would be like ‘Where are
these nails from?’ and friends-of-friends
would then come in,” she says.
Though she’s currently not taking new
clients, she does sometimes make excep-
tions for tourists.
“A few times as soon as they booked
their flights, they booked their appoint-
ment with me!” she explains. “They call in
March, ‘So I’m coming in July!’”
Montreal vs. Reykjavík
After moving here, Catherine immedi-
ately noticed a difference in street style
between Montreal and Reykjavík. Both
places have their fair share of hipsters,
but Catherine says Montreal has a more
prominent alternative scene. “I have tat-
toos and colourful hair,” she notes. “Here
it’s considered different, but in Montreal
it’s just normal.”
She was not used to
being stopped so much
due to her appearance
until she moved here.
Maybe due to the Reyk-
javík's smaller popu-
lation or the relative
accessibility of stores,
Catherine says there are
a much wider variety of
styles in Montreal.
Catherine outlines
her idea of the arche-
typical Icelandic going-
out outfits. For girls:
black platform shoes
(she laughs, “which
I also have”), stock-
ings, a black dress, and
maybe a big fur jacket or
some weird hat. “People here wear a lot
of black—like always!” With her more al-
ternative appearance, it’s easy to see why
she might notice that off the bat.
For men, the change from Canada to
Iceland was more drastic. “Men here, they
all wear a suit and everything.” This was
not the case in Montreal, where the fan-
ciest item of men’s bar clothing might be
a button-up. But Catharine embraces this
Nordic trend. With a knowing grin, she
notes, “I mean, I like it. I find it cute.”
But does different street style trans-
late into different nail trends? Absolutely.
“In Montreal it’s a lot of pink and brighter
colours—a lot of girly things like Hello Kitty
and diamonds and bows,” Catherine ex-
plains.
In Reykjavík, Catherine finds clients
ask for more toned-down manicures. “I
do a lot more neutral colours like black,
nudes, reds with some sort of minimal
graphic design like lines,
stripes, or triangles —just
a small accent.” It’s a little
more fashion-y than al-
ternative.
But she likes hav-
ing a mix of crazier de-
signs and more nuanced
ones. “If I would just do
simple stuff I would get
really bored.”
Catherine finds it
hard to find the exact
words to describe her
own personal style. She’s
inspired by a multitude of
looks. “One day I can be
really goth and then the
next I can be really co-
lourful,” she says. “I have
outfits that I think might
be too crazy for Iceland!”
She’s very friendly, but explains that
she’s often quite shy with strangers.
“It’s weird because I don’t like attention
so much, but I guess I dress like I really
do.” It’s a hard line to tread: she says she
sometimes tries to dress more toned-
down but then laughs as she realizes
with her hair and tattoos, she’ll always be
looked at as eccentric regardless of how
neutral her outfit is. “So I guess I have to
accept it!” she says, raising her eyebrows.
A sparkly pink linoleum floor cluttered with pairs of
worn-in Doc Martens and clunky platform shoes marks
the entrance to Catherine Côté’s home. The only cus-
tom 3D nail artist in Reykjavík, Catherine runs her studio,
Rainbow Nails, out of her downstairs Skeggjagata flat.
Photo
Art Bicnick
Words
Hannah Jane Cohen
Catherine Côté
Brings Her Rainbow
To Iceland
Reykjavík’s only custom
3D nail artist
leads a Technicolor life
The girl’s favourite
manicure featured
Star Wars characters.
“It was fun to make
Jabba so slimy!” Cath-
erine smiles nostalgi-
cally.
PLEASED TO MEAT YOU!