A New York manicure in London – part 1
This week’s challenge comes from Petunia, who asks us to “Find me a cheap (NY cheap) manicure in central London, please!”
Photo from Flickr -- thanks Bex.Walton
Fair enough – I would love to solve this challenge! The low-cost, high-gloss New York manicure has got to be one of my top 25 favourite things about New York. Finding one in London would be an OolaMoola coup!
New York mani? In a New York minute!
New York City is filled with clean, bright nail salons staffed by highly efficient nail wranglers who deliver a top-quality manicure in under 20 minutes, and for well under $20. What’s more, most of these salons are open from early until late, and are happy to accommodate drop-in clients.
A cheap and cheerful mani is a New York must, but I’ve yet to find anything comparable in London. Granted, we live in a pricey city where beauty services in particular are priced especially high… but really, how hard can it be?
Here’s what I’m looking for
New York manicures generally run at about $10-$15. With today’s exchange rate, that’s somewhere between £6 and £9, but I think we should factor in a cost of living adjustment. With that in mind, I’ve taken a look at the Big Mac Index and I think it’s safe to say I’m looking for a manicure for £10 or less.
I expect the trickiest bit of this challenge won’t be finding a budget-but-brilliant mani for under £10, but finding it in Central London – ideally, within zone 1. To wit, I’ve done a little research and already found a £10 manicure, albeit in zone 2: Sajna Beauty Bar.
Photo from Flickr -- thanks Dplanet
The first contender for the title
Sajna offers a regular manicure for £10 and a French manicure for £13.
The salon is open from 10-8 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It’s closed on Tuesday but open 10-7 on Saturday and 12-6 on Sunday. Sajna Beauty Bar is located at 48a Clapham High Street (no website just yet); 0207 501 0001.
There’s a second contender on this list, but I can take no credit for this one: Herbal World in Wimbledon also does a £10 manicure, as flagged up by StylishMoola in August.
I recognise that while the price may be right (ridiculously right, in fact), the locations (gasp! South of the river!) may not be. So I’ll turn my search to regions slightly more North and East, and of course scour Central London to see what I can find…
All posts on this challenge
- Eyebrow threading for £6
- East London eyebrows
- A New York manicure in London – part 1
Posted in Beauty
Comments (3)
Leave a comment
Did you know you can post comments using your Facebook account?
You can also select comments to appear in your Facebook news stream.
Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking on the button below:
A good area to look in is Shoreditch(EC1)/Dalston(E8)/Old Street (EC1). Lots of vietnamese nail bars, notoriously good and cheap. I can’t recommend the one I use as it’s £16 but I’m sure you can find cheaper round there. You can also follow it by a slap-up - and cheap - Vietnamese dinner round there!
There are quite a few salon training academies in central London that do really cheap beauty treatments. I had a manicure at one near Great Portland St (see link) for less than £10. The only catch is that it’s a student doing it so it might take longer than normal, but the quality was top notch! http://www.lond-est.com/
Couple more spots:
http://www.metropolitanmum.co.uk/2010/03/beauty-on-a-budget-london%E2%80%99s-best-manicures-and-pedicures-too/