Spa Manicure

A spa appointment usually runs 45 to 60 minutes. After the standard shaping and cuticle tidy, the technician exfoliates the hands and forearms with a sugar or salt scrub, applies a mask, hot towels or a paraffin dip, and finishes with a slow massage before polish. Menus differ a lot between salons — some build the service around a specific product line, others around the massage — so it is worth asking what is actually included.

The result is skin that looks and feels smoother and better conditioned for a few days, plus the same finished nails a classic manicure gives you. In terms of the nails themselves it does nothing the classic tier cannot; the difference is comfort, hydration and the length of the appointment.

The scrub lifts loose surface flakes so lotion spreads more evenly, and warmth — from towels, a heated mitt or paraffin — makes the skin feel softer and the massage more comfortable. Paraffin is simply warm cosmetic wax that the hands are dipped into and then wrapped in; it holds heat and moisture against the skin for a few minutes. None of this changes the nail structurally. Salons vary in whether paraffin uses a single-use liner system, which is a fair thing to ask about.