If you have never had your nails done, the not-knowing is the off-putting part. Here is the whole appointment, in order, start to finish.
Venus is on Albion Street, a minute from the Woolshops. Acrylics, BIAB, gel polish, dip powder, Russian manicure, pedicures and nail art, Monday to Saturday.
Ninety minutes, give or take, and less for polish on natural nails. Nothing in it is a surprise, which is rather the point.
Stage one
Bring a photograph if you have one. Everybody does, and it is far more use than a description.
Come with your hands clean and no oil or hand cream on. Cream is the one thing that gets in the way, because gel will not bond through it.
Stage two
Walk in if there is a seat free, or come at your booked time. You sit down opposite the technician at a table with a lamp on it. The first thing that happens is a conversation, not a drill.
Tell them if it is your first time. It changes what gets suggested, usually something shorter and simpler to start with.
Stage three
Almond, coffin, square or round. Natural, medium or long. BIAB, acrylic, gel polish, dip or hybrid.
Then colour, off the rack in front of you rather than off a screen.
This is where honest advice earns its keep. Long coffin acrylics are wonderful. They are also the wrong first set for somebody who works with their hands all day.
Stage four
The unglamorous half hour that decides whether a set lasts three weeks or five days. Cuticles pushed back and tidied, with an e-file if you are having a Russian manicure.
Then the nail plate is buffed, the dust brushed away and the surface dehydrated. Gel sticks to a clean, dry nail and to nothing else.
Stage five
For extensions, tips or forms go on and the shape is sculpted and filed. For BIAB, builder gel goes over your own nail in thin layers, cured between each one.
Either way this is the longest part. It is where the shape you asked for actually appears.
Stage six
Two thin coats rather than one thick one, cured under the lamp between each. Then whatever you asked for on top: French tips, an ombré fade, glitter or hand-painted art.
Art is priced on what it takes to do. Say what you want at the start rather than at this stage, so there is time in the appointment for it.
Stage seven
Top coat, final cure, then cuticle oil worked in around every nail. Gel is dry the moment it leaves the lamp, so there is nothing to smudge in a coat pocket.
Have a proper look before you stand up, in daylight by the window if you can. Anything you are unhappy with is easier to put right now than next week.
Stage eight
Oil the cuticles daily. It is the single thing that keeps a set looking new.
Wear gloves for washing up. And do not use your nails as tools, however satisfying it is to open things with them.
Stage nine
Regrowth shows at the base. An infill fills that gap and rebalances the shape, in less time than the original set took.
Most people settle into a three-weekly rhythm without deciding to.
If you would rather stop, come in and have the set soaked off properly instead.
Twelve things, all done at the table on Albion Street, six days a week.
Sculpted extensions in any shape and length. The most robust option.
Builder gel over your own nails to strengthen them — the usual answer for nails that break.
Cured under the lamp, dry before you leave, good for a fortnight.
Colour set into powder rather than cured. Strong and quick.
Builder gel with a polish finish over it — halfway between BIAB and a full set.
Cuticle work with an e-file, so colour sits closer to the base.
The same care applied to feet, with or without colour.
Faded two-tone sets and classic tips, done freehand.
Hand-painted work, glitter and seasonal designs. Bring the photograph.
The three-weekly top-up that keeps a set going.
Whether the set came from us or from somewhere else.
If you want them long, they get built long and kept that way.
The phone is the quickest route into the diary. Or leave a note on the form and we will come back with a time.
Walk-ins are taken whenever there is a seat free. What a set costs turns on finish, length and art, so say what you want and you will have a figure first.
Give the salon a ring instead on 07123 456789.