By Jack Tarrant
SAMARA, Russia (Reuters) - "I love to make nails beautiful," says manicurist Natalia, as she applies the finishing touches to a World Cup soccer ball design on her friend's nail in her home in Samara.
Natalia, who chose not to give her real name, certainly does brighten up any room with her smile and character, as well as her football-themed nail painting.
Living close to the Samara Arena, which plays host to six World Cup matches during Russia 2018, Natalia is using the tournament as inspiration.
"It gives you a lot of fun because you get to be creative. You can use different colours, materials, whatever you want so that your soul is fulfilled," she told Reuters on Saturday.
Natalia works mainly as a babysitter but in her spare time she likes to paint beautiful and extravagant designs onto her friends' nails.
For the World Cup, Natalia is basing her designs around soccer balls, goal netting and of course national team flags.
"I find the design for this World Cup really interesting," she said whilst painting Uruguayan and Russian flags in preparation for their encounter on Monday.
"The design of the symbol and logo for this tournament are full of colour and glitter and you can show all the beauty of it on one single nail.
(Reporting by Jack Tarrant; additional reporting by Elena Gyldenkerne; Editing by Christian Radnedge)