What It’s Like To Get Your Nails Done By Beyoncé’s Manicurist

Like any sane woman in America, I’d love to be more like Beyoncé. What to do about it? I can’t have her body, her voice, her husband, or nearly as many sequins, but I can have her nails. Yes, I spent an afternoon with her manicurist. And yes, you should be jealous.

Lisa Logan, B’s unofficial nail artist, got her start by a stroke of late Nineties luck, when she became Eve’s go-to manicurist just around the time the performer started topping the charts. When word got out about where Eve was getting her nails done, the crowds began flocking to Logan at the Harlem salon she worked at back then. Eventually, Logan became the East Coast go-to for diva manis: Queen Latifah, Madonna, fashion magazines, designers putting on runway shows, and Beyoncé all wanted to put their hands in Logan’s.

Logan’s currently in the process of opening her own salon on 139th Street in Manhattan, where I met up with her. When I got there, I told her I was in a green or blue nail mood. I may as well have gone into the Container Store and said “I need storage boxes,” as you can see by the number of options she pulled for me. We settled on a Christian Dior color that looks like a Tiffany box (hi, Blair Waldorf!). And then the real fanciness began.

Image by Hillary Reinsberg

Over to the side, though, was right now’s holy grail of nails: “Beyoncé blue.” The world (or at least, Us Weekly) wet their pants over the color when Beyoncé wore it during her first public appearance after giving birth to Blue Ivy.

Now, for the most part, Beyoncé nails are Beyoncé nails, as in, you can’t have them. For example, those custom Minx appliqués of Jay-Z’s face that Logan custom-made for Beyoncé’s fingers? Not for plebeians! But this color — by the brand Nails Inc. and called “Baker Street” — is open to the public. So go find it, get your nails did, feel like Beyoncé, etc.

(And because she came up and you can’t stop wondering silently to yourself, some intel: Logan, who stopped by Beyonce’s last weekend confirms Blue Ivy is “beautiful.” Also, Beyoncé and Jay-Z take turns feeding her, just one more reason he makes a great Minx.)

Image by Hillary Reinsberg

This manicure wasn’t your typical 20-minutes-and-you’re-out situation. Since everyone’s inner diva needs a little teasing out from time to time, we experimented a bit to find what felt most Me.

So! There was glitter. There were stickers. There were chains. Logan would not release me back into the streets with any old design.

Image by Hillary Reinsberg

Minx, for you nail art novices, are essentially strips of… stuff that get melted onto your nails with a special lamp. This can give them the effect of looking like they’ve been dipped in metal or being glitter leopard spotted, for instance. (Logan’s such a Minx pro, she even has her own line.)

Image by Hillary Reinsberg

Once melted, the gold Minx is applied somewhat surgically with special tools. Since you obviously can’t do this to your fingers yourself at home, know that Minx also makes a sticker-like product, sold in stores like Sephora, for home use. Logan used one of those on my ring finger.

Image by Hillary Reinsberg

Then she glued a gold ball chain to my middle fingers. Because if a true diva ever flips someone the bird, she has to make sure they look twice.

Image by Hillary Reinsberg