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In traditional Korean culture, mothers and daughters dye their nails with the petals of the bong-soon-hwa flower — an old-school generational ritual that simulated the look of nail polish on bare nails. When creating her new summer shades, the legendary Jin Soon Choi — Steven Meisel’s and Marc Jacob’s manicurist of choice — was inspired by this memory.
Her newest polish, Crush, is a glossy orange-red that mimics the color of bong-soon-hwa. The tinted finish is a marvel of contradictions: glossy and somewhat opaque, yet sheer, so that it looks almost like plexiglass on the nails. It’s also strong — five days later, and I have yet to see a chip.
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