Nail power

I remember vividly the day Fiona, one of the beauticians at salon La Rona, appeared with a tray of objects for my nails. They were certainly interesting toe and finger nail paint ons.

Butterflies, stars, moons (full and half), strips of gold and silver. After much deliberation I tried the flowers which were yellow. They went on effortlessly and I loved the look of my beautifully pedicured toes. This was just the beginning. Step 2 was the sparkle.

Layers of grey sparkle from a strange looking thin bottle were added to the design and finally voila! I was now declared according to trendsetter Fiona truly en vogue. This was my initiation into the world of glitzy nail power. Fast forward to the recent fashion collections and nails are now tipped with fur, leopard prints, black lace, and silver spirals. Surely the designers, McQueen, Galliano and Givenchy must have visited a dance hall session for not even Flo Jo’s talons made such a statement, on the track.

Visit any salon anywhere in Jamaica on a Saturday and nail technicians are busy buffing, gluing and painting, adding from cubic zircona to pearls. Kathy, the manager of La Rona, encourages regular manicures and pedicures, as well as treatments which include hot paraffin wax and Sally Hansen nail products. Clippers are used to cut the nail, and nails are filed in one direction only.

Nails are polished with a base (usually a nail strengthener) before nail colour is applied, I seldom (never) use coloured nail polish and swear by Sally Hansen Mega Shine Extended Wear Top Coat. And even though salons love to spray nail dryer on the nails, I swear by a final coat of oil to really seal the polish, and from time-to-time immerse freshly painted nails in a basin of ice-cold water.

You’ll find that the natural look is more economical. Chips are not that obvious and there’s no need to change nail polish to compliment outfits.

And since false nails are here to stay do ensure that your nail technician is first of all a professional. Not all technicians are.

And with Spring fashions upon us we show you the Marie Claire magazine top 10 nail colours:

1 Nars Gimme Shelter.

2 Go for bold with Helena Rubenstein Ritual Colour in Fabulous.

3 Estee Lauder nail polish in Natural Linen offers a whole nude look.

4 Mary Quant Nail Polish in Saucy Raspberry.

5 Liven up a French manicure with subtly shimmering Givenchy.

6 Urban Decay Nail Varnish Strip, gives your nails a hardwearing coat of silver amour

7 At the Spring collections, the future was orange get the look with Chanel le Vernis Nail Colour in Tango.

8 Life is just peachy in delicious iridescent Versace Heat Nail lacquer in V2060.

9 Shine on in Lancome Vernis Instant Magnetic in 393.

10 Clarins Nail Colour in Golden Red is a gloss act.

– Photo and text re nail polish courtesy of Marie Claire, April, 2002)