Pampering at Hula Nails

I had my first hen do ever last weekend, which is a kind of a big deal, right? It was pretty awesome too – before indulging in some delightful afternoon tea and dancing the night away, we started the day off with some nail pampering at an adorable beauty salon called Hula Nails, located in Old Street.

I never get professional manicures or pedicures – I once had a really bad experience and have kept it DIY ever since, so it was great to use a hen do as an excuse to give the pros a second chance. I fell in love with Hula Nails straight away – the retro Hawaii decoration is so charming and, without being small, the place felt really cosy and welcoming. The beauty girls unsurprisingly looked adorable with their 40’s/50’s hair dos and cheeky outfits that had a touch of Agent Provocateur.

As you can see, there was a carefully selected choice of colours, not the least bit overwhelming – and yet I still had trouble choosing which shade to go for! I probably should have stepped out of my comfort zone but I ended up sticking to what I know best and went for a classic shade of red aptly named Single and Ready to Limbo!

A retro nail salon would be nothing without a flamingo, obviously…

I could easily have spent all day long looking at the vast amount of sexy & cute pin-up images on the walls!

I would definitely recommend Hula Nails – a total Instagram-worthy gem, it really is worth going just for the ridiculously photogenic place in itself. As for the actual manicure? I probably made my manicurist’s job a little easier, as I’d finally managed to grow my nails pretty long (like how they used to be before working in retail, sniff sniff). As they’re naturally quite square, they were shaped in that way, and that’s definitely what I’m most happy about. My nails have probably never looked so nicely shaped! I had them done on Saturday so it’s probably a little early to discuss the colour and staying power (plus colour does tend to last on my nails for some bizarre reason), all I’ll say is that so far they still look pretty perfect and I doubt they’ll look completely ruined within the next few days. Suffice to say, my faith in professional manicures has been restored.