By Gaynor Alder
We are coming down the home straight of the final Fascinators & Fillies, and nothing lets down a show stopping ensemble like chipped polish and cracked heels.
Sally Hansen makes a french manicure sound so easy, even providing the white strips, but no matter how steady your hand, or how hard you try, at best, your nails will still look like a 6 year old painted them. Enamored by the idea of always having the perfect french manicure, I had acrylic nails put on.
What nobody told me was that every 2 weeks I would have to subject myself to an hour of torture to get them refilled. If the boredom wasn’t enough to kill me, the toxic fumes sure were. When I (and my bank balance) couldn’t take it anymore, I had them taken off, and my nails still have post traumatic stress from the ordeal. It took months for my nails to grow back, and even now, nearly 6 months later, they are still brittle and easily break.
If you are doing your own manicure, make sure you give yourself plenty of time and do it the day before. Dark colours, especially, are a commitment and can’t be rushed. I’ve encountered many a disaster when I’ve decided to paint my nails red just before I’ve gone out. I’ve always ended up destroying my nails when I’ve had to reach into my handbag for something I’ve inevitably forgotten (namely my keys). No matter how much acetone I used, trying to get all the nail polish off was harder than picking a Quinella.
Strappy shoes and peep toe heels demand a fabulous pedicure. Call me lazy, but I’m just not a fan of doing my own (I can think of a million things I would rather do than scrub away at my feet with a pumice stone). Why would I, when I can book into Endota Spa and have them scrub my feet, tend to my cuticles and paint my nails for me? You can choose between a perfect polish for 15 minutes, which is a nail file, trim and polish; an express mani or pedi for 30 minutes; or for the full treatment, you can have the deluxe manicure or pedicure for one hour, which includes a mask, exfoliation, massage, nail work and paint. When you book the deluxe pedicure, you can also take home your choice of nail polish for $10.
Perfect Polish ($25), Express Mani or Pedi ($50) and Deluxe Manicure or Pedicure ($77).
Endota Spa use their own range of nail polishes, made without toxic additives – this means, no formaldehyde, toluene and dpb (we like that). There are 43 polishes in the collection, with each colour named after the location of the spa. Melbourne, of course, is black.
You should now be perfectly poised to grace the track with all the glamour of an old Hollywood screen siren.
Giddyup!
To catch up on the Fascinators & Fillies series, choose your topic below:
Week 1: The Face That Stops A Nation
An Introduction to Spring Racing Beauty
