Give Your Nails The Minx Experience

If you are looking for a new and unexpected way to make a statement, how about an unconventional, eye-popping design for your finger nails? Minx nails are a one-of-a-kind nail art experience that are customized to fit your nails in a way that acrylics can never achieve and are chip-resistant, unlike any polish. Fashionwithfifi.com received a complimentary Minx manicure and learned all about this amazing new trend in the nail industry.

The “Minx experience”, explains TracyLee, nail stylist and trendsetter at Damone Roberts New York, is a heat-activated film that is cut and molded to perfectly fit around the contours of your nail. The film is made of heat-activated polymers, which TracyLee holds under a heat lamp before pressing to each fingernail. “Minx acts like a shrink wrap,” says TracyLee, “And the vinyl-like material won’t chip like a regular polish.”

Perhaps the best part of the whole experience is the designs. Minx nails are only available in bold colors, like metallic gold and silver, or wild designs, like cheetah print, plaid, or black and white skulls. I picked a metallic gold, knowing this would be a great, but very bold, look for the holiday season!

The heat-activated polymers in each Minx design are environmentally friendly, with no harsh chemicals added, so we can all breathe a little easier knowing that our daring beauty risk is completely safe. They can also help increase the health of your nail itself because the process does not include any buffers or primers, like with acrylics. TracyLee shapes, cleans, and dehydrates each nail before applying the film, saying that the protective film actually makes her clients’ nail stronger as they start to grow out.

Since the vinyl-material is heat-activated, it only makes sense that a quick zap of heat is all it takes to fix any edges that might start to curl up post-manicure. TracyLee says that once every other day or so, you will need to use a hair dryer to reactivate the films and press down on the tips of your nails to keep the edges from curling. By doing this, she says, each minx manicure can last anywhere from five days to three weeks.

TracyLee, who has spent the past year specializing in Minx manicures, is no stranger to the nail industry. After receiving her manicuring license in 1989, she opened up her own salon in New Jersey at the age of 22, which she then owned for 13 years. She has always enjoyed experimenting with new techniques and designs, she says, and she is always looking for the next great nail trend.

Working for Damone Roberts New York has brought TracyLee much success in her nail art career. Her clients include celebrities, such as singer Anjulie. She has manicured models for numerous photo shoots, including Lucky Magazine.

Now, after recently meeting with Minx nail executives in Los Angeles, TracyLee says she wants to work with educating people about the nail industry. “So many people have come to accept bad manicures as a normal occurrence,” she says. But there is no reason for shoddy manicures or pedicures and TracyLee wants all people to experience healthy and professional nail treatments.

TracyLee’s clients range in both age and income level. “I get everyone from the high school girl to the CFO,” she says. When her clients first started experimenting with Minx designs, she says the metallic colors were the most popular. Now, she says, many people mix and match designs on their nails, using the crazy combinations to make a unique, personal statement.

To remove the nails, all that is needed, again, is a hair dryer. No harsh nail polish remover or messy polish everywhere, thankfully! Just use the hair dryer to loosen the edges of the minx material and, starting at the cuticle, not the tip, gently peel off each nail. But you can also head back to Damone Roberts New York, located at 574 5^th Ave, where TracyLee gives her Minx clients a complimentary post-minx experience manicure. Now that is a complete service, if you ask me!

TracyLee warned me that I would get stares and comments from complete strangers wondering about my nails—and she was right! As soon as I left the salon and hopped on the subway, one girl couldn’t stop asking me about my nails. When I told her where she could get her own manicure, she excitedly thanked me for sharing my Minx experience.

If you want to try Minx nails for yourself, a manicure from TracyLee at Damone Roberts New York is $55 and a pedicure is $75. Visit Minx Nails to check out the complete line of designs.

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