Nail Spa by Gurpreet Review

Gurpreet Seble contacted me recently and offered a complimentary service in her Nail Spa. She was launching a brand new and her first branch in Mumbai. Initially, I had no alternative than to turn down her offer, since Colaba, where the spa is based too far away from my place in Mumbai. However, then she insisted and even arranged a car to pick me up and drop back at my place. The offer was too exciting for me to decline and I have to share this honour and trust she bestowed on me, with my readers. I set off the next day in the Tata Indigo that she had arranged for my conveyance.

Let me introduce Gurpreet. I knew her from a previous interview I had done. Gurpreet Seble is an International Educator and nail expert from North America. Coming from the IT industry, Gurpreet took up nail art as a hobby, developed it on her own and introduced it in India over a decade ago. Nail Spa has 6 retail locations and 4 academies spread over Delhi, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Pune and now in Mumbai. Pre this time, she had been making trips to Mumbai to train enthusiasts in workshops and has absorbed the best out of them in her Mumbai branch.
When I reached her spa, she decided to give me nail extensions with nail art. Nail extensions! First the acrylic and later the “Gel” system as we know it today is probably the most advanced technology in the nail industry. When Gurpreet launched the first standalone nail spa in India over a decade ago, she brought a range of products from North America. Many products didn’t perform in the Indian weather so Gurpreet had to customize every step.
What is commendable about her is that she launches new technology and products when they are in the pipeline in North America. For example she launched soak off gels 6 yrs ago while other brands in India got them as recently as 2011. Gel Polishes were tested and introduced by Gurpreet 5 yrs ago while most brands released them in 2012 in India.

Let’s talk about the service that was given to me:
1. First my nails were cleaned and I was told to wash and sterilize my fingers thoroughly in the wash room with a sterile solution. Gurpreet is fanatically finicky about cleanliness. She insists on sterilizing all the tools after every use.
2. The second step was preparing my nails for the extensions by buffing them. Artificial nails were then stuck on half of my original nails, shaped and buffed again for further procedure.
3. On the part of my own nails that were showing a pen was used to mark a single line on each of them. This pen was used to balance the ph of my real nails.
4. Then they applied at least 3 coats of clear gel of required thickness, the last one with a powder on my nails so that the gel nail paint that was to be applied later on would stay. Every gel application culminated with my keeping my hands inside a UV light box to dry off. Gurpreet said that this box emitted the same amount of UV light as a TFL bulb.
5. Post that gel nail polish was applied on all the fingers very carefully so that the polish only stayed on the nail. I chose beige nail polish and told Gurpreet to decide every other action. Then they applied glitter on all the other nails of my hand leaving out the nails of my ring fingers. I had requested less glitter, so they used a subtle colour for the same. Even polish and glitter application ended with the UV light box routine.
6. The next step was nail art on the nails of my ring fingers. I suggested flowers and one big and other small flower stickers were applied. Glitter was then applied to these two finger-nails.
7. The next step included washing with sterile solution to remove extra gel. Last but not least cuticle oil was applied to the cuticle and a little massage was done on the two hands with massage oil to moisturize.

My Take: When I insisted that I love earthy colours, Gurpreet immediately understood my tastes and complied with my wishes. I also told her that I did not like too much glitter. Thus the shape that I chose for the nails and the colour was very practical with a subtle hint at being jazzy on my ring finger-nails. When the whole process was over, I realized that the final look was so me! (Pls check out the pic.) 
Price: The entire service that I took costs Rs.2900/- with Rs.2500/- for the extensions and Rs.400/- for the nail art on 2 fingers.