a love story

with a salon.

Imagine walking into a space that is both chic and relaxing. There bright colors lining the walls, a carafe filled with chilled lemon water, an offering of beer and hot tea. The floor to ceiling windows let in natural light that filters all the way back to the end of the space, but you can't hear any noise from the street. Colbie Callait, Sara Bareilles and acoustic John Mayer serenades softly in the background, and an old episode of Wonder Woman plays on several TVs. Everything is simple: pure and pristine.

This was my first impression on entering Julep. After leaving my previous employer in Boston, I was kind of skeptical of getting nails and waxing anywhere else. But walking into Julep quelled my fears, and I instantly felt at home. The aesthetics of the salons are very similar, as is the cleanliness aspect. The difference being that Julep has only its own line of nail colors and products available in its salon. Don't worry, though, they have every color you might want -- even metallics. I didn't see any matte polishes, but those were only kind of a fad back when I was working, anyway.

I had an appointment with Vicky. She was cute and quiet, and very apologetic that I had to wait an extra thirty minutes for my appointment. (I know this would be a turn off for some people, but I don't often schedule appointments when I have other places to be, so I don't mind waiting. But I know other people can get all up-in-a-tizzy about it. These nails are only a small portion of my very busy day of shopping!) I decided to go for the Fab for 14 Gel Manicure (similar to OPI's Axxium service) because I'm going to wedding in Boston and I am one of those people who is not at all careful with her hands, so polish very rarely makes it three days still intact, let alone until next Tuesday. Vicky was super thurough my manicure -- a must because I have not had one in *ahem* quite a while -- and made sure that the cuticles and shaping were as close to perfect as possible before starting up on the polish. She even informed me that the color I had originally pick (a mint green very close to Essie's Mint Candy Apple which I love) had been fading on other customers, so she suggested I try a different one. I contemplated going for a shimmery purple, but decided on a nice, Springy periwinkle, instead. After the normal (for me,) comments on how tiny my nailbeds are -- and I really do have the nailbeds of a seven year old -- we were off!

The service takes about 45 minutes but you completely dry at the end of it. Like, dig in your purse, whack your nails on a zipper, shuffle some extra shoes to find your wallet, dry. They use an LED to cure the gel polish as it goes on, and each cycle in the machine only takes 30 seconds (a minute for each land, so you can do your thumb separately and not bump it into anything.) This also means that you can get the quick hand massage after your polish, which I think is excellent, because all the alcohol and stuff dries my already dry skin out even more.

Personally, I think the $48 price tag is totally worth it. Afterwards, I went to Forever 21 and tried on some dresses. It's been three days and they are still totally beautiful. Check plus!