Lifestyle, Partner Promos, Promo Archives, Spas and Salons, Sponsored Posts

Win an Ultimate Spa Makeover from Heavenly Nails

I have grubby hands. Throughout my life I’ve had stubby nails and neglected hands: from the days hanging around the monkey bars in my grade school playground, to the nights spent getting my fingers stuck together with super glue while making models back when I was studying architecture, to the long afternoons spent in front of a board, teaching and wiping off chalk and whiteboard marker from blackboards and whiteboards. The last time I got a manicure was at my sister’s wedding a good two years ago. I didn’t even like it at the time; I felt like my fingertips were unusually heavy I could barely point (I exaggerate, of course, but as you can see, this really isn’t my cup of tea).

So perhaps I’m not the best person to talk about getting a hand and foot spa, complete with manicure and pedicure, at a nail salon. But when opportunity knocks, we answer, so when Carmi Dungo emailed us to invite us to her new nail salon, Heavenly Nails, I dragged Wria off and prepared my grubby hands (and feet) for some pampering.

Carmi’s philosophy is commendable: she herself loves salons and spas, and she knows how rejuvenating some all-out pampering can be, but she also knows that most salons cater to the leisure set, and can be too intimidating for your typical middle class housewife and hard worker. So she set out to create a spa that would be simple, unintimidating, homey, still luxurious, and most of all—affordable. She wanted to establish quality service that would be reasonably priced to indulge in more often, perhaps after a long day of housekeeping or working at the office.

I don’t know how many tired housewives are heading off to her salon at the end of the day, but I figure nail salon regulars will appreciate her philosophy, since it lets them get their polish fix for lower prices. Prices aren’t dirt cheap, of course, but given the products they use (Orly nail polish and Depilève wax), this is definitely good value. The big surprise is their location: the salon is along CRM Avenue, a strip associated more with upholstery shops and talyers than spas and salons. The shop is in a new building (the sort you see along small highways in the provinces), and after only a month of operating they’ve appropriated the next unit as well for their massage and facial services. The interiors are suited to their target market—the place is nice, clean, and slightly kikay, but not intimidating in the least. Oh, and for the more upmarket visitors, there’s parking in front of the building.

We tried their Deluxe Hand Spa (P200, with manicure) and Deluxe Foot Spa (P350, with pedicure; P450 with additional paraffin). Both services consisted of a series of scrubs: first was a dead sea salt scrub (for the hand spa) or a choice between relaxing lavender, rejuvenating green tea, and refreshing grapefruit-scented zest (for the foot spa), which was washed off with some spritzed water, followed by a whitening papaya scrub that peeled off dead skin cells (though I prefer the impolite term that starts with an L and is mostly associated with grade school boys, hehehe). The scrubs were applied with long kneading strokes, although it wasn’t really an all-out massage (there was no back massage either, which I’ve observed some other places have). The hand spa came with a heat glove treatment, another value added service.

Since I’m not a polish fan, I was just planning to have my nails cleaned, but I got carried away with Carmi’s color wheels—little discs with fingernail-shaped extensions that you can use to check which of the various polishes match your skin. So I decided to have my toenails painted a “very safe” beige color called Dreamboat.

The foot spa also included a paraffin dip that Carmi swears is good for sweaty feet (being a tsinelas girl myself, I can’t say if it was effective on me—my feet had no opportunity to sweat anyway!). After they eased the wax cast off my foot, Diane, who had been working on my hands, started with my pedicure.

Some things I was not comfortable with: the position of the basins they used for washing was a bit awkward, and because the therapists were very careful, their slow motions added a bit to the awkwardness. Perhaps because I’m not used to having someone cut and file my nails for me, I found the whole thing ever so slightly uncomfortable. Diane was steady and gentle, but at one point she drew blood from a cuticle (which she deftly swabbed with alcohol before I even noticed what happened), and one corner of my big toe ended up sensitive to pressure (I’d say it was an ingrown toenail, except that, having cut my toenails square across since childhood, I don’t really have any idea what an ingrown toenail looks like). The cleaning ended with a novelty—a layer of red “foot blush” was applied to the soles of my feet, to make them look ruddy and healthy. It was bloody-looking at first, but after a shower it faded to a more realistic pink.

In the end, I liked the way the polish looked on my feet, though I’m far from becoming a convert, and I’m concerned about my toe. Wria had no complaints, so maybe my experience was a fluke, but all the same they should be more careful, especially while wielding those pointy implements. More defined massage strokes during the treatments would make a big difference in terms of overall experience, so they could step that up as well. But weighing it all up, I’d say Carmi has nailed her vision—the fact that she mans the store herself helps; she’s very chatty and personable, and she knows how to sell her stuff. Most ladies who have their nails done on a regular basis have preferred salons, but this place is cheap enough to try out, so intrepid beauty junkies looking for alternatives can add this to their list and let us know how they find it.

Aside from their basic services (Mani / Pedi (P80, P150 for both), Nail Art (P170 with cleaning), Upper Lip Waxing (P100), Leg Waxing (P300), Hand and Foot Spa (P550)), they also offer Hair and Makeup (P750), Body Massage (P250), and Body Scrub (P300/P350). Next time I’ll try out their massage services; at P250 an hour, this bears looking into, especially while they’re offering 10% off as their opening discount.

And now a promo for Southbound readers: Heavenly Nails is giving away two gift certificates for an Ultimate Spa Makeover. The makeover will include a Deluxe Hand and Foot Spa with Manicure and Pedicure and Foot Paraffin. We’ll have two raffles, one for email entries and another for blog entries.

Here’s how to join: Using the “email this post” link at the top of the page gives you one entry for every friend you email (you can send the post to multiple email addresses; just specify a name for each of the email entries you list). We’ll compile all the entries at the end of the month and randomly select a winner, who will be notified via email. (Please note that you’ll have to use the “email this post” link on the site so we can track the number of entries you have; if you’ve received this as an email and just forward the message, we won’t know you sent it.)

Bloggers can join by posting about this promo on their site. Include a link back to this page and post a comment below giving us a link back to the post on your site. If you have lots of blogs, each post will count as one entry. Again, at the end of the month, we’ll compile all the links and randomly select a winner. We’ll email the winner and post a comment on their blog to let them know they’ve won.

We’d also love to hear feedback from people who’ve tried this salon out… feel free to post your comments and suggestions below!

Heavenly Nails
2^nd Floor Unit E Rudanel I Building
CRM Avenue, Goodyear Park, Almanza Uno, Las Piñas City
796-6435, (0917) 899-1551
Salon hours: 10AM – 10PM, Tuesday – Sunday

« Previous Post: Mary Pauline BF Branch Now Open

Next Post: California Berry – Addict sa ‘yo…gurt! »