My visits to Beauty Inc Nail Parlour at Niumee

Three things I feel very strongly about for personal grooming are hair, nails and skin. When those look right and are on point, somehow anything you wear looks good and you feel great. So of course you can imagine that I have a regular nail appointment booked for a manicure every 3 weeks and a pedicure every 6.

I have been a happy customer of Sue Caruana (and now Justine, Sue’s daughter) for over 15 years without fail, so as you can imagine, an outing in between my working day to their nail salon is always a pleasure. It’s like catching up with friends for coffee, only I get to have my nails done in the most professional and serene environment by ladies who really have experience in this field – and a guaranteed few laughs for free, plus the coffee! How good is that!

I know I don’t very often sing their praises because I focus on my outfits or my hair or my make up but truth be told, my nails always look fantastic every single day thanks to the great job these ladies do. When I’m happy with a service, I will be a repeated customer for whatever it is. Happy I am indeed and I’m sharing these images with you shot at the salon itself a couple of weeks ago.

Top: River Island @ The Point
Skirt:River Island @ The Point
Shoes: River Island @ The Point
Bag:River Island @ The Point
Photography: Carlo Jourdan

Something about Etiquette at the Nail Salon

We live in a world without instructions and rules, kind of. We’re super busy, hyper-connected and we can’t be confined by such things, especially when we need to enjoy a beauty service. Right? Wrong. One thing I would like to say about etiquette, following a post I saw from Sue Caruana on Facebook when she sounded very hurt when a number of customers did not turn up for their appointments and did not cancel in advance. is this….Even though the customer is always right (and, you know, maybe sometimes a little wrong) there are some rules — stated and unstated — to make sure you have your own best experience ever and ensure that you respect the jobs that these people have is that if you are not going to your appointment, please call in advance to give them the chance to replace you with someone who is perhaps desperate to get their set of nails done!

Another thing is about bringing your own food, chatting on your cell phone, and other such things when it comes to beauty treatments. While you are paying for the treatment and should be treated well, there are circumstances when you could be offending others in the salon next to you, by your actions so please think about these things when you visit. Although it is a place where you are meant to relax and enjoy your experience, sometimes it is polite to ask if you can eat your guacamole and avocado wrap or your pizza slice. Come on ladies. I’ ve seen it happen and woman to woman, it’s not nice to see or smell at all. Busy or no busy, hungry or not hungry – let’s respect these ladies and their salons, OK? That’s it! Rant over.

Justine Cassano takes great care of my nails every month and it’s so nice to catch up too!

Gels generally last 3 to 4 weeks

The best part about gel manicures is how long they last. If you have a bunch of events coming up back to back like Christmas lunches, dinner and drinks, interviews, and family vacations, trust me – gels can be the perfect solution because they last about three weeks with zero chipping. Yeah, it’s amazing. But, however long it lasts, you’ll love your nails the entire time! If you have naturally strong nails and you prefer just having colour changes, that is great. However for weaker nails like mine, gel nails are the best thing ever created!

Queries about Nails from Followers

“Hi Grazielle. Love your blog posts. I couldn’t help but notice you always have impeccable nails. After getting a french manicure last week and having it last three days, I am thinking about getting gel nails. I like the look of them in the french manicure. Who does yours and what are your thoughts on them? My friend has the nails glued on top of her nails with fills every two weeks but her have uplifted and a few fell off in the past year so I thought gel was a better way to go. Any thoughts on this? Thanks – Patricia Harvey, UK”

Dear Grazielle, I follow your blog and I love your style. You are an inspiration to many. Keep it up. Wanted to ask you … I’m going with my friend to get my nails done before school starts.Thing is, I’ve never gotten my nails done. Are there dos and don’ts? Also what’s the “classiest” manicure in your opinion? I was thinking of just getting a French tip. Since your nails always look fab, any suggestions? Thank you – Laura Borg, Malta

In answer to these questions, while thanking these ladies for reaching out on my website www.graziellecamilleri.com and my Facebook Page Blog by Grazielle , I think my blog post itself and my comments about gel nails are pretty obvious in the sense that I recommend them highly. With regards to the classiest manicure colour, that is soooo personal. I love a French manicure because it is clean looking, I also obsess about a classic dark red colour in the Christmas season and I am a huge fan of nude colours this year. The lovely thing about nail colours is the endless hundreds of options and you can change them every time you have your nails done. including some fancy nail art.