Reported by beauty editor
It’s that time of year when we all start thinking about loosing weight, changing our hair colour and taking better care of ourselves and the Blodrybar in the midst of Dubai Motor City is making our beauty resolutions just that little bit easier thanks to the introduction of not only Balmain Hair products and extensions but also Essie Nails.
We’ve been somewhat of an advocate of Essie Nail Polish for quite some time now, favouring this cult brand over any others for our mani – pedis for its sheer staying power and it’s spectrum of available colours and now, we couldn’t be happier that we can have our hair cut,coloured,curled and crimped to within an inch of its life at the same time that we can get our talons freshened up – it’s a one stop beauty shop!
I popped down to the Blodrybar which has become a monthly (sometimes even weekly) stop for me in the lead up to the recent festivities for a bit of a sprucing up.
Whilst I had my dark blonde hair tended to and lightened up with an injection of fresh, frivolous highlights I also treated myself to an Essie manicure to get my nails ready for the new year ahead.
I have found that myself and Essie, the owner and creator of Essie Nails, share two main things in common; 1) we like our nails to be immaculate at all times and 2) we live for colour. It’s true, I love nothing better than experimenting with all the colours of the rainbow on my nails.
Whilst I relaxed and caught up on my celebrity gossip, my hands were given a dry manicure. Now, what is a dry manicure? I hear you ask.
Dry manicures are actually the ‘innovative’ way of the art of the manicure. I’m sure in most cases you’ll have experienced soaking your fingers in a small bowl of water but many nail experts the world over have adopted the ‘no water’ approach which requires virtually no soaking at all and with benefits such as prolonged polish wear, we were sold straight away.
So for the science bit: Nail plates that have NOT been saturated with water hold the polish better. This is because that the nail has a C-curve when it is dry and when it is soaked in water it looses some of this curl. With a water manicure the nail plate is to fully dry when polish is applied and the polish dries before the nail itself does so when the nail returns to its natural curvature, off comes the polish.
Another obvious advantage of this Essie Dry Manicure at the Blodrybar is that people, like myself have limited time these days; demanding jobs, packed schedules and social lives mean that we don’t have the luxury of spending a couple of hours in a nail salon waiting for our fingers to dry. By eliminating the soaking step, a few precious minutes are also shaved off the treatment itself. And of course, if you couple this with the fact you are already in the stylist’s chair then you’re onto a time-saving winner.
Having naturally long and strong nails, my tips were shaped into the perfect oval before being painted a seasonal shade of red. One of my favourite Essie shades of all time is ‘Happy Wife Happy Life’ (ladies, this is so true), part of the Bridal Collection but this time I decided to opt for a funkier shade of red with the ‘Maki Me Happy’ shade part of Essie’s Fall collection. This beautiful, shimmery scarlet is reminiscent of Japan’s fashionable Harajuku movement and is the perfect stylish colour to suit all manner of occasions.
By the time my hair had been brightened up, my fingers were also perfectly polished.
Thanks to the Blodrybar I feel ready to tackle both New Year’s Eve and the New Year in style.
The Insider UAE 