Black Beauty & Hair Editor Irene Shelley tries a Gelish manicure at Sorbet Muswell Hill
Sorbet Salons is a South African beauty chain was started by founder and CEO Ian Fuhr, whose massage therapist convinced him that the SA market was in desperate need of a branded beauty chain. Thus Sorbet was born in 2005. Now the chain boasts 136 stores in South Africa, and they are taking on the UK market, allowing you to discover the beauty secrets of South Africa in your home city. The UK Sorbet salons can be found in Crouch End and Muswell Hill, and opened in 2015. Offering a range of beauty treatments from waxing and eyebrow grooming to quirky manicures, facials and massages, Sorbet prides itself on accessible beauty, South African style.
I was invited to have a manicure in the Muswell Hill branch. I opted for the Gelish Power Manicure, having never had a Gelish manicure before. Gelish is a soak off gel polish that can last up to three weeks and can be quickly applied and removed from natural nails by buffing and soaking off with acetone wraps.
The actual manicure consists of a base coat, two coats and colour and a top coat which are set by LED lamps after each application . The beauty of this manicure is that it’s instantly dry when leaving the salon.
Where Gelish have an advantage over other gel manicure nail systems is that they have a large range of colours. Even though this was the case, I still struggled to choose a colour that I would have on my nails for three weeks. I’m feeling nude polishes at the moment and love how they go with everything, however, the nudes on offer seemed a bit ‘dead’ against my skin tone, so I opted for Exhale, a cool rose pink that works happily on the neutral spectrum.
My nail tech LJ, explained that the hand treatment would came after the manicure. With regular manicures, it’s common you can soak and prep the hands before you start your manicure, LJ explained that soaking nails in water beforehand, made them porous, so that the product sometimes wouldn’t adhere to the nail or would chip or peel off easily. She emphasised that the nail plate needs to be dry and free of oils, skin and other debris before a Gelish procedure and it was best to do a dry manicure prior to gel polish application.
After softening and treating my cuticles, my nails were buffed and and the base coat was applied. After each coat of polish and topcoat, my nails were set under the LED dryer.
Afterwards LJ used Natural Spa’s Gold & Caviar Sugar Body Scrub, £60 to pamper my hands. The manicure was then finished off with Natural Spa’s Wild Lavender & Jojoba Hand Cream, £15. The result, a great manicure that could last me up to three weeks.
Sorbet Salons are offering Black Beauty & Hair readers 20% off all nail treatments. Print out this coupon (below) from the online article or show a copy of the October/November 2016 issue magazine
Sorbet Muswell Hill
275 Muswell Hill Broadway
London N10 1BY
Tel: 020 8883 506
www.sorbetsalons.co.uk
Prices
Gelish Manicure, £25
Gelish Power Mancure, £35
Soak Off £8
