People often get confused about what a manicure actually is. Here, we outline what we mean by a Manicure, at Sanctuary in Aberdeen.
A manicure is a beauty treatment, provided all up and down the country, in almost every beautician premesis you can find. It’s a popular staple treatment, and one that never ceases to make people feel good about themselves.
In reality, it’s not just a file and polish, as many people think. It’s a full blown beauty treatment, which involves creams, scrubs and massage of the hands, in addition to an optional file and polish, to leave our hands looking groomed and lovely.
What Does a Manicure Do?
A manicure involving creams, scrubs and massage, like a facial, helps improve the texture and appearance of hands. The treatment has a holistic touch with the massage, and can be a lovely relaxing treatment, which makes you feel good.
What Happens at a Manicure?
For most manicures, they can begin with your therapist turning over your hands, looking for any signs of infection or broken skin, which you would be advised to wait until healed for a manicure. If you are good to go, then, your technician is likely to soak your hands in a little manicure bowl, then use cream and a scrub, before filing nails and applying polish or gel if required.
Types of Manicures?
There are many different types of manicures, which all involve some form of treatment to the hands, and often to the nails.
French
Slightly out of fashion at the moment, the French Manicure uses clear or pale pink polish on the mail with a coating of white at the tip. The nail is fairly square across the top.
Hot Stone
My favourite manicure, involves a hand massage using hot stones.
Luxury
A luxury massage, I would often see as adding a mask to the cleanse, tone and exfoliate regime of a regular manicure. Using hot towels between the different parts of the manicure, is said to help increase the uptake of ingredients into the skin.
Pre-Appointment Care
Before your manicure, try and remove any traces of polish already there. As therapists, we can remove the polish for you, but due to the time it takes, we do give you the choice of being charged for this, or it eats into your manicure pampering time. If you have nail extensions please be prepared for us not to be able to remove those as part of a treatment, as that would require a much longer appointment for a more specialised treatment.
Post-Appointment Care
Resist the temptation to continually put your hands in water. Wear gloves for cleaning and for the use of chemicals to try preserving your manicure. Lastly, please don’t pick the polish off, as it can damage the nail beds beneath.