I used to be a nail salon addict. No matter where I lived (NYC, DC, Austin, Baltimore), I always knew all the nail salons within a 5 mile radius. And since I would get my nails done every single week, they knew me too. Early in 2015, I decided to take a little break. I was also low on time since I had just started a new business and was really beginning to take blogging and photography seriously. Then, The New York Times published a rather disturbing investigative report about the exploitation of Asian immigrants in the nail industry. Suddenly, that cheap manicure didn't feel so inexpensive anymore and I decided to make that break permanent.
"There is no such thing as a cheap luxury," says the reporter Sarah Maslin Nir. "It's an oxymoron. The only way that you can have something decadent for a cheap price is by someone being exploited. Your discount manicure is on the back of the person giving it."
The $12 manicure is the equivalent of supermarket sushi or high-fashion knockoffs at Forever 21. It only feels luxurious until you consider what you've really purchased. Some women have vowed to tip more generously but that doesn't seem likely to be effective since salon managers steal their employees' tips each day, leaving nail techs with an average salary of about $35 per day, though they work up to 12 hours per day, 6 days per week.
"You can be assured, if you go to a place with rock-bottom prices, the chances are the workers' wages are being stolen," said Nicole Hallett, a lecturer at Yale Law School who has worked on wage theft cases in salons. "The costs are borne by the low-wage workers who are doing your nails."
I decided to completely give up on my little weekly indulgence and vowed to either get my nails done at a regulated spa or just do them myself. For a while, I chose to do them myself. It wasn't that bad. I learned that I can save a TON of money by not getting manicures and pedicures every week and that cuticles don't actually need to be cut. Then I discovered Impress Manicure nails. No painting on the glue, no soaking off the polish, no paint chipping, no waiting for your nails to grow that perfect length. I picked up my first set of Impress nails on Amazon.com because I needed something in a hurry and didn't have the time to wait for my nails to grow and honestly, I just didn't feel like painting them anymore because I was getting lazy. I soon became addicted and now they're all I wear (you can scroll through any of my outfit posts since April and I can guarantee I'm wearing Impress nails). I still do my own toenails though because there is no getting around a good pedicure, especially during the summer months.
*Yes, this is a sponsored post but let me tell you something. I rarely do these because most brands are shit and I was already a loyal customer of Impress Manicure before we started collaborating.
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