The World’s Most Expensive Manicure

As some of you may know, I paint my nails silver. Why? Everyone always asks, but the real answer is just because I think it’s cool.

When I read this article about platinum nailpolish I was really excited. The polish is called “I do” by Essie.One of my favorite things is excess, so I figured $250/ year to have my nails coated with real platinum was a bargain. I had the Amex concierge call around to try to find me a bottle, and they reported back that the only place to get the polish was at the Wynn in Vegas. Not only that, but you can’t just buy a bottle of it. You need to get their very expensive manicure which includes the bottle. So yesterday I headed over to the Wynn to get it done.

The salon in the Wynn is gorgeous. It’s huge and very well decorated. As they do at many spas, they offered me a drink. I don’t drink, so I got water. It always strikes me as a weird offer, though. I manage to take a few sips, and then my hands are being worked on for a little over an hour, making it impossible to drink the water.

The manicure is absolutely ridiculous. I would have taken notes or something if I knew I was going to report back here about it. I’d say that roughly 7-8 different oils, scrubs, and waxes were applied to my hands during the whole process. My forearms were massaged three times. The detail paid to my cuticles was intense. I can honestly say I don’t even understand WHY cuticles need to be removed, but rest assured that mine are completey gone.

The highlight was the paraffin wax treatment. My manicurist plunged my hands into a vat of hot wax. When I saw the vat and its contents it looked like fondue, and I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to put my hands into it.

When my handes came out, they were dripping with with gooey warm wax and wrapped in plastic. It was particularly pleasant because the wax holds the heat well and kept my hands warm for a while. Removing the wax is easy – it just peels off like a glove. My hands felt really soft after that.

Anyway… after the hour long ritual it finally came time to apply the polish.

Surprise!

It’s not platinum colored. I’ll admit that when I first heard of the polish I thought that it was strange that it was platinum colored, since I’ve never seen anyone with silver nails who hasn’t gotten the idea from me. The color is somewhere between clear and white. A bit… subtle for my tastes.

A big problem I face (yeah… life’s tough) is that I can only find low quality silver nail polish. In fact, the Wynn had hundreds of colors, but no silver. I opted for two coats of a silver glitter, topped with a layer of the platinum polish. It looks pretty cool, but I like the silver look better. I’ll probably try a layer of the platinum over the silver next time.