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28 September 2010

Keep your nails looking freshly polished for weeks with this new manicure technique.

There’s nothing quite like freshly polished nails. Over the past few years finger nails have taken priority with bright bold colours competing alongside soft grey and beige on our finger tips. This has no doubt been brought on by the addition of cost effective nail bars throughout the city, where a classic manicure and polish can fit easily into your weekly budget.

I myself am a convert of the weekly manicure. As a habitual nail biter (publishing can be stressful) I’ve always found that polished nails and regular manicures help to curtail my oral tendencies. Without question, however, my manicure will never last an entire week. So it was with intrigue that I recently tried the new OPI Axxium Gel Manicure at Servilles Ponsonby; a procedure that was guaranteed to last a minimum of two weeks without chipping.

Servilles in-house manicurist Jean Luo conveniently offered to manicure my nails while I waited for my hair colour to be applied -  making excellent use of otherwise redundant time. With a small selection of colours available from the traditional OPI range, I was pleased to see two of my favourites: Big Apple Red and Cajun Shrimp.

The process itself it a bit more labour intensive than your traditional manicure. The surface of your nails is filed to create a rough surface with which to bond the coloured gel to. Two to three layers of the gel polish are applied and consequently dried under a UV light. The process itself is not too dissimilar to having gel or acrylic nails applied.

The outcome is stunning. Nails that are vibrant and shiny. And what’s more they do not chip. For someone who has a habit of chipping nail polish off on her teeth – I can assure you that this stuff ain’t budging for no one. So much so that the colour eventually grows out from your cuticle, at which point you can either return for a back-fill of the same colour, or have them soaked off and start again with something new.

Cost: $45