Saturday, September 27, 2014

Nail Art As Accessory

My beautiful French manicure with pearls

I love the look of beautifully manicured nails and I think it's very important that men and women keep their fingernails and toenails looking clean and well maintained, both for aesthetic and hygienic reasons.  I personally get a pedicure once a month and wish I had time for a weekly manicure, but I'm so busy I usually just file my nails myself and polish them if I have a big event.  I will sometimes even polish my nails while I'm getting my hair blown out to save time. So, when the nail salon where I have been getting my pedicures, W Nails, (which is the sister salon of where I get my hair done, Salon Wave) offered to give me a gel manicure with nail art I was thrilled! I had never had a gel manicure before and never had any nail art before and I was excited to try something new.

Nail art has become extremely popular the last few years and with all the painted designs, glitter, pearls, and jewels nails have become accessories just like rings or bracelets.  Some of the nail art I've seen is really amazing and intricate, and if I were in my teens or 20's I would probably have a different design on my nails every week, but because I go out to formal events and go to meetings and meet with clients I wanted something fun, yet classic that would be work appropriate.  I've always loved the look of French manicures so I decided a customized twist on that classic style would be amazing.  And, since I love Chanel, I thought giving my nails a Chanel look with pearls would be perfect.

W Nails has a lot of samples to look at and their designs are so pretty.  They also have a lot of embellishments and jewels and sparkles, all of which I loved, because I love anything that sparkles and glitters.  After looking at every sample at the salon and speaking with Maki, one of the owners, and Harumi, my nail artist, we decided that a line of pearls right below the white tips would look good.  I chose small white pearls.

The pearls used on my manicure

Harumi then prepared my nails for the gel manicure.  If you've never had a gel manicure, it's a little different than a regular manicure because the nails have to be prepared for the special gel polish that is longer lasting than regular polish.  

Harumi hard at work

After preparing my nails Harumi gave me a classic French manicure...

Classic French before adding the pearls

Then the fun part of adding the pearls.  I don't know how she got them to line up so perfectly!

The pearls are on!

Perfection!

I absolutely love the way my manicure turned out.  I think it looks very classy and it's fun, but also appropriate for my lifestyle.  So far it's holding up well and hasn't chipped and no pearls have fallen off.  That's a miracle because I'm always cleaning up after pets and have my hands and nails touching harsh chemicals all the time.  My regular manicures usually start chipping after a day or two, but I'm told the gel manicures should last a few weeks.   If that happens, I think I could get used to these gel manicures!  I am definitely going to do this again and I may try some jewels next time.

Here are a few of the many creative sample styles W Nails has on display:

Colorful butterflies

I love the animal print

I also love this big flower.

A selection of my favorites.  I think the pumpkin is adorable 
for Halloween and I'm tempted to try the jewels, 
because it's nail jewelry!

Adorable animals

W Nails is located at 1059 2nd Avenue between 55th & 56th Streets in Manhattan.  Their phone number is 212-355-3030.  In addition to gel manicures they also do regular manicures and pedicures and spa mani/pedis.  I highly recommend W Nails because, as is the Japanese tradition, the salon is very clean and there is a lot of attention to detail.  Each client gets a brand new disposable plastic insert that lines the foot tubs at the pedicure stations and if you're a germaphobe, like I am, you will totally appreciate that.  






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