Your professional manicure may be giving you ‘old lady’ fingers, but don’t bite your nails in despair just yet. Here’s the single most important beauty product to stash away in your cosmetics purse when you’re heading to the nail salon, plus top tips on getting the best manicure
Warning: Your nail parlour can be a risky repository of all manner of germs and grime – I mean, just think of all the dirt and debris from prior pedicures clogging up the joint. Not to be alarmist or anything, but you can actually die from infections picked up at a salon.
Of course, this needn’t be the final nail in the coffin for your weekly mani and pedi. Click through for a “handy” checklist on salon safety:
No sharing of equipment, please – walk out immediately if you notice your nail technician “recycling” a pumice stone from the auntie across the aisle. Most professional parlours should also be supplied with medical-grade sterilising machines – say “autoclaves” to impress your podiatrist – that are used to disinfect dirty devices. If you’re extra “kiasu”, bring along your own kit and kaboodle.
Newsflash: Your manicure may be promoting premature skin aging and even cancer. This might seem loony at first blush, but think of the time you spend subjecting your fingers to the flare of a UV lamp when setting your gel nails and you’ll realise how quickly you might develop dessicated Donatella-esque hands. Translation: If you’re getting a gelish manicure, always prep “beforehand” (so to speak) by slathering on a high SPF handcream – and this should be best practice for everyone, nail art addict or otherwise.
Stop tormenting your talons! Your salon session shouldn’t resemble a medieval torture trial, so speak up if your nail technician is riding roughshod with your tooties – ask her to lay off if she’s clipping your cuticles too close to the flesh, for instance. Your cuticles serve as a sort of shield against external aggressors, so cutting them means risking all manner of infections. Instead of slashing your cuticles into submission, ask her to skip the scissors and push the cuticles back using nail-specific wooden sticks. Beauty bonus: This will also lend the illusion of leaner, longer fingers!
There’s no shame in being safe, so always scrutinise the stuff your technicians are potentially tainting you with. Even better, do your own shopping and tote along bottles from tried-and-tested brands that bill themselves as being free of beauty baddies like toluene and formaldehyde.
I like scheduling makeup-free days to allow my skin to breathe, and this may be a beauty best practice to adopt for gel and acrylic manicures as well. Giving your nails a break will allow the nail bed to rest and rejuvenate. Can’t bear going bare? Use a pretty pink base coat for a hint of a tint during the lull period.
Bottomline? Being prudent about your polish is a good thing, but by all means go ahead and live a little. Follow these tips and you’ll be in safe hands, so to speak, with a killer set of talons to boot!