Source:BodyAndSoul
Celebrity manicurist Jocelyn Petroni is making a very chic case for the naked nail. Sans the environmental damage.
She might be on speed dial to Australia’s biggest celebrity names and be the official manicurist for Chanel Australia, but Jocelyn Petroni does not live in a cashmere-lined bubble, deaf to the ever-loudening call to live more sustainably. The petite brunette is keen to reduce the carbon footprint of her luxury beauty treatments, and is starting with your hands (and feet).
Having pioneered the fashion industry’s favourite ‘Naked Manicure’ – which champions a highly-buffed, polish-free nail bed – Petroni is evolving her offering by catering to the ‘conscious consumer’ with the introduction of the ‘Clean Beauty Manicure and Pedicure’.
She explains, “We have handpicked products and ingredients that help protect your skin and the environment, as well as packaging that is biodegradable.” The treatment goes so far as to include acetate-free Mavala Crystal Nail Polish Remover, so natural you could tip it into an indoor plant, if you felt the urge, safe in the knowledge it would cause no harm.
The treatment is polish-free, and uses ‘pure and natural’ products to revive the damaged, dry and depleted nails she often sees in her salon as a result of regular Shellac or gel polish manicures. Ahem. A natural cuticle remover is applied, before nails are buffed to a brilliant shine and finished with CND Rescu RX keratin liquid – to help strengthen and set.
Personally, I’ve always been a fortnightly manicure kind of girl. Even more so when I discovered the chip-free wonder that was Shellac. However, my impatience combined with my hatred for that feeling when they start to grow out (oh, the horror!) means I rarely remove my Shellac properly, picking at it until my poor nails are bare.
It was time to give my poor talons some breathing space. And I was curious as to what level of salvation was possible using only eco-friendly products.
I’ll admit, I was a little ashamed to waltz in to Petroni’s lush Woolahra sanctum in Sydney’s eastern suburbs with my peeling nails and haggard hands, but the warm and reassuring staff seemed to delight in the challenge that lay before them.
The treatment itself was more like a massage than any manicure I’d ever had; I may have drifted off to sleep briefly as I lay atop a large comfortable bed while my paws were soaked, trimmed, filed, buffed and massaged back to life.
An hour later and I am surprised with the results. My once-shredded nail beds were smooth, alarmingly shiny and shaped to perfection. The pinks of my nails seemed to glow with good health, in a way I haven’t seen since Friends was on free-to-air TV (the first time). There also seemed something a bit more refined – less suburban somehow – about a beautifully buffed, polish-free nail.
In fact, given how good they looked I’ve decided to take an extended break from nail polish altogether, and go ‘nude’ for Summer. For the sake of my nails, and for the environment.
Cost: The Clean Beauty Manicure costs $80 for a 45 minute treatment, and The Clean Beauty Pedicure costs $100 for a 50 minute treatment. Both at Jocelyn Petroni.
Words by Alison Izzo for WHIMN & Body + Soul