Ever lost in Central, looking for a fab little place to have a manipedi, but don’t want to pay extortionate prices, or get a free fungal disease with a dodgy looking local salon?

Well Rainbow Nails might just be the place for you.  Discretely tucked away, high up in a building near H&M you will find Helen Leung and her team at Rainbow Nails.  After ten years in the industry, Helen also is the chief OPI trainer in HK, and regularly runs nail classes in her quaint little shop.

In a strict shoes-off policy, the OPI centric shop is clean, friendly relaxing and very reasonable, not to mention you will have your nails done by one of the best nail technicians in Hong Kong.

Whether you are looking for gel nails, nail art, buffing, french or just a regular manipedi, Rainbow is a fabulous little gem in the middle of the bustling city.

“My nails are always a mess, I never have time to have a manicure”
I decided to try out the O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel nail varnish system, not to be confused with gel nails.  With regular gel nails, you have to have quite a thick layer of gel placed on the nails, generally with extensions, with a reasonable amount of damage to the nails.  This also has to be ‘filled in’ every 3 weeks.  With the new O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel, it is the half-way home between regular nail varnish and gel nails.  It claims not to damage the nails so much as it is a much lighter resin, and essentially a nail varnish, it just coats your nails in a thin layer of coloured gel, so you have shiny beautiful nail polish for three weeks that doesn’t chip!

Rainbow Nails YouTube Channel – OPI Axxuim Removal/Reapplication Demonstration

I personally have very thin nails with short nail beds, and nail varnish just chips off in about twenty minutes.  I am often envious of the beautiful talons I see clawing themselves around town, but I also don’t like the idea of fake nails,  and as I spend a lot of time typing, I can’t handle long nails, so with eighteen colours to choose from, the gel nails seemed to be a fabulous idea. Imagine, beautiful shiny nails, which are stronger than usual, that will stay pristine and chip free for two to three weeks!

The process took about an hour, in which time Leung, expertly applied very thin layers of coloured gel, which were set hard with a UV lamp.  I also had a fabulous manicure, in which Helen used a scary looking electric filer to remove the hard skin.  Much to my initial hesitance, and her reassurance, it was very effective in removing the hard skin without clipping, and possibly cutting my skin.  Helen warned me that if a technician isn’t trained properly to use the electric filer, then they can cause a lot of damage, and that most people don’t know how to use them, so do be cautious when you see them pulled out in less kosher looking salons.

Due to the UV light, my nails were dry as soon as she was finished, so I could go about my day not flapping my hands around like a baby.  “O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel is one of our most popular treatments,’ Helen told me.  “What is so fabulous is that the colour is so shiny and vivid, and lasts for up to three weeks.  You can also paint over it with regular nail varnish if you want to change, and the nail varnish remover  doesn’t remove the gel, just the colour on top”.

I decided to put them to the ultimate test.  I was off to Phuket the next day, and as girls know, nail varnish dies a death on holiday, with sun creams and bug sprays disintegrating them, as quickly as we paint them, they quickly start to get sticky and dull.  But with the OPI Axxium Gel Nail Varnish there was no such problem.  My nails stayed as shiny and perfect as they were when I walked out of Rainbow Nails.  Three weeks later, they still looked amazing, even though they had ‘grown out’ a bit.

The Upkeep
As you cant remove the gel yourself, you have to go back to the salon to get them soaked off, or topped up, whichever you prefer.  In the nature of research I soaked them, which took about half an hour, and also comprised of a mini-manicure and buff to remove the flaked top layer of nail. This is where I personally had a bit of a problem.  As my nails are unusually thin, I did sustain a bit of damage for the procedure.  I found for the next six weeks, my nails were flaky and even more brittle than normal.  However I have had acrylic nails in the past, and the damage was no way as much as before.  Helen advised me to rub nail oil on them, and keep them painted, which I did, but I was left longing to put the O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel  back on.  I had my fix, now I wanted another hit.

Conslusion:
I would 100% recommend Rainbow nails and Helen for all nail treatments.  With regards to the O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel system, even though I had a small issue when they were removed I think it is a fabulous, but addictive product.   I would do it again, especially if I had a holiday to go on, or maybe a wedding to go to, but as I wouldn’t want to keep going back every three weeks, and it did slightly damage my nails, I wouldn’t do it regularly.   Very few people have nails as thin as mine, so I don’t think the damage would be noticeable at all.  However if you do have very thin nails like myself, do consider the constant upkeep or the damage after.  If you seem to find that you are too busy to ever get your nails done, and you are constantly embarrassed of your hands, then I think the O.P.I Axxium Soak Off Gel system might be perfect for you.

How Much?
Rainbow nails regularly have promotions and special offers for returning customers, so do join their mailing list to in informed, but at the time of going to press the cost is:
For two treatments-
Hands: was $1,150 now $1,000
Feet: was $1,550  now $1,400

Where?
Address : Unit 503, 5/F., Canton House,   54-56 Queen’s Road Central,   H.K.
Telephone : (852) 2840 0660
Website : http://www.rainbownails.com.hk/
Email : rainbownails@rainbownails.com.hk